Photographer captured history

Mr Ditthavong photographed Mr Doolan looking into the distance, possibly wondering whether reconciliation will ever be a reality, with just a few gum trees for company.

The space between him and the trees added to the impact. Well done.

Your editorial of August 23 was right about the strategic importance of the Middle East to Australia but wrong about the conclusion.

Our commitment will most certainly get us into big trouble. The sole reason for us being there is because President Trump wants to pick a fight with Iran, while supporting the most conservative Islamic State in the world and the most egregious Human Rights violator in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, in its sectarian war against the more liberal Shia populations in states near it.

We should be making it clear to the USA that we will no longer support them in grudge wars that they have started.

While it is true that Iran is a theocratic state, it has never been as inimical to human rights as the Saudis.

The main reason the USA hates Iran is that they threw out the US puppet, the Shah, and then seized the US embassy because the USA was still interfering.

What a contradictory mess the Heart Foundation's "new advice" is ("Full-fat dairy gets tick of approval", August 22, p12). Firstly, healthy Aussies can consume full-fat milk, cheese and yoghurt as this will neither "increase nor decrease your risk for heart disease or stroke". Followed by the warning that, "for people who suffer high cholesterol or heart disease, we recommend unflavoured reduced-fat milk, yogurt and cheese and eating less than seven eggs per week".

This is followed by: "Eating more plant-based foods like vegetables, fruits and whole grains, and healthy proteins like fish and seafood with smaller amounts of animal-based foods...is key to good heart health".

So full-fat dairy does not raise your risk for heart disease while you are healthy, damages you once you are sick, and doesn't rate a specific mention in a plant-focused, heart-healthy diet.

Some clearer, two-decade-old advice from the American Journal of Cardiology (1999): "Coronary artery disease is essentially non-existent in cultures whose nutrition assures cholesterol levels 150 mg/dl ( 3.9mmol/l). Patients with advanced coronary artery disease may abolish disease progression through a plant-based diet and cholesterol-lowering medication to achieve and maintain a total cholesterol 150 mg/dl".

The ACT Assembly committee report into the city's heraldry stated "the 91 year old crest is widely viewed as "anachronistic" and "unreflective" of the modern-day ACT". If so, the crest is ideal: the ACT is anachronistic and unreflective of modern-day Australia.

The ACT was set up to facilitate the building of a national capital. Its work was completed decades ago. Its only purpose these days is to make ACT politicians and very senior bureaucrats seem more important than they are, and to reward them with higher salaries than they deserve.

Canberra is a regional city in NSW. Many NSW citizens residing in the region work in the ACT, shop in the ACT, are schooled in the ACT, and use the airport and health services located in the ACT. Most ACT citizens regularly cross into NSW, particularly for leisure, and use the NSW main roads when they do. Almost all goods consumed in the ACT are transported here via NSW.

Having all the region's people continually subject to two sets of laws is ridiculous. The ACT's duplication of state legislation is wasteful, confusing, and extremely expensive. The Assembly should be replaced by a City Council able to concentrate on local matters.

Finally, isn't it ironic that the city set up to help govern all Australians is itself governed by a system not used by any other city in Australia? What hypocrisy! How un-Australian!

Scrap both the ACT crest and the ACT itself.

At last someone has noticed the plight of the deaf and hearing impaired. ("How the deaf community is being short-changed", August 22, p6).

Kyle Miers' experience of Captiview is correct, it's useless. I tried this device some years ago. You either saw the movie, or read it. The old Tuggeranong theatre provided headphones with dual volume controls, good for those with different levels of hearing loss.

When I inquired at a theatre on one occasion, I was told they didn't run subtitled movies often because it annoyed the other theatre goers. What a shame.

Deafness is a curse. If you ask people to repeat something, they are usually annoyed by this. I was once asked if I was deaf or stupid.

Whilst there is ample attention to the needs of the blind with braille, dogs and sticks, ramps and gutters that help those in wheelchairs, never will you see anything to help the hearing impaired.

It appears from the article that the National Press Club also found it difficult to address the issue because of the need for interpreters and cameramen. I'm sure it wouldn't have been difficult had they been blind or in wheelchairs.

From the article it appears, as I have known for years, that not a lot is happening. It's time to bring services up to scratch for those who are deaf or hearing impaired.

Nobody wants to cater to our needs. You could say we are "unheard of".

Scott Morrison is wrong about GetUp. He is very effectively showing how out of touch he is and the depth of his immersion in his own version of the Canberra bubble.

The government is supposed to run the country according to the will of the people. Unfortunately for us the current government is beholden to commercial and other lobby groups while the views of most Australians have no means of being conveyed to government at all.

GetUp's purpose, and the reason I am a member, is to provide an effective lobby group for ordinary citizens. GetUp is not left- or right-aligned but reflects the views of its members.

GetUp is the only effective way for citizens to be heard by this government. Morrison would be better occupied by meeting with GetUp to discuss the issues they highlight, and learning from them what people actually want. He promised to govern for all of us but continues to demonstrate the opposite.

An important breakthrough in the NSW Parliament showing concern for the damage being done to the catchments of the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers by feral horses occurred last week. Helen Dalton, Shooter Fishers and Farmers, Member for Murray spoke in favour a tabling a 12,000 plus signature petition calling on the Coalition to repeal the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act.

The government's response, led by John Barilaro, Nationals leader and Member for Monaro, was to call a division to not allow the petition even to be tabled. Most of the signatures were from people in the electorate of Monaro. It seems Barilaro isn't even interested in listening to his own constituents.

The destruction of Brazil's Amazon rainforest has increased enormously in pace since Jair Bolsonaro was elected in October last year. Until recently, when the huge scale of the fires in the Amazon became clear even from space ("Brazil defiant amid Amazon wildfire fears", August 24, p 24), most of the destruction was due to clearing land for cattle grazing and crop growing.

As French President Emmanuel Macron points out, the Amazon rainforest produces, or used to produce, about 20 per cent of Earth's oxygen. It also, until Bolsonaro intervened, absorbed about 25 per cent of the carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere each year, mainly due to our use of fossil fuels.

Mr Bolsonaro accuses non-governmental groups (code for "greenies") of setting the Amazon fires. To accuse "green" groups of effectively encouraging global warming defies all logic.

Senator Gallagher is right to query the $180,000 spend to rename the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources the Department of Agriculture ("$180k name change bill", August 27, p1).

Why not use up the existing the stock of stationery and update it when appropriate?

Instead of spreading water on oceans to "stop" hurricanes ("Nuking hurricanes is not a good idea", August 28, p11), ANU Professor Paul Francis could get his students to reflect on the facts of more extreme events and relationships with climate change and why politicians fail to act on mitigating carbon emissions.

The Viking clap is a great idea. It enables those in the grandstands who are not barracking for the Raiders to identify each other. On Sunday evening these few, "these happy few", sat stoically with arms firmly folded for the duration of the Viking clap.

Re Peter Fenton's letter on the interstate bus terminal (Letters, August 27). Having this in the city does make access by car difficult. But proposing it move even further north only advantages those north of Civic. Moving it nearer the geographic centre at Woden would be much more sensible.

You'd think NSW ICAC's investigation into Chinese donations to Labor would spur the Morrison government into beefing up its proposed federal anti-corruption body. But wait, wouldn't that mean it might also want to investigate similar large donations to the Liberals?

"Granny, Do all fairy tales begin with, "Once upon a time?"."

"No darling, there is a whole series of fairy tales that begin with, "If elected, I promise"."

No doubt England's test cricket win will give the UK a faint boost as it moves towards Brexit. That will quickly fade as reality kicks in and the party dies.

All words but no say makes Barnaby a dull boy.

It's curious how Liberal governments are concerned with preserving Hong Kong and mainland Chinese dissidents' right to free speech while Australians must accept ever more draconian legislation designed to bring about the exact opposite.

Yes, Toni Hassan ("Jones needs to be pulled off the radio", August 28, p20). But, in modern football terminology, he also needs a lifetime ban. We need a list of his advertisers so we can boycott them.

I agree Jones should be taken off the air. It's not just the undertones of violence, his misogyny and occasional racism. It's the hectoring tone and values totally antithetical to the ones I grew up with.

I was waiting for Andrew Geraghty ("A hospital complaint", Letters, August 28) to finish with that oldie but goodie "and I have paid tax all my life".

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