When ACT Policing admitted unlawful access to metadata ("Police accessed metadata more than 3000 times", canberratimes.com.au, July 27) the Minister for Home Affairs reportedly deferred responsibility to the ACT government: "The ACT police... operate under the ACT government... so that's an issue for the ACT government".

This duplicity by the Federal government should not be tolerated. I see no point in the ACT chief minister and the Federal Attorney General trying to resolve this.

It would require amendments to the ACT act of self government by the Commonwealth.

There are also the entrenched views of the AFP, ACT policing and the Australian Federal Police Association to consider.

I cannot see ACT Policing ever accepting that they be responsible to, and accountable, to the citizens of the ACT or an ACT Integrity Commission.

My letter ("Police scrutiny", Letters, October 30, 2017) referred to ACT Policing's unwillingness to submit itself to the scrutiny of any proposed ACT anti-corruption commission. I suggested the ACT government either contract another police force or, alternatively, re-establish our own police force so that it would be subject to our scrutiny.

Given the present hiatus with oversight, and the likely difficulty in subjecting another contracted policing arrangement to our scrutiny, it is essential the ACT government re-establish a police force that would be subject to the scrutiny of our own ACT Integrity Commission.

I have read of the Federal Government's intention to drug test dole recipients. Fair enough, why should anyone not working have any sort of fun?

However, with Newstart payments at only $40 a day, this seems to me to be very unlikely to be cost effective when it comes to the expense of administration versus the benefits clawed back from in breach paupers.

Might it not be better to drug test the CEOs and all $100,000-plus employees of companies receiving multimillion-dollar federal government corporate welfare in the form of infrastructure and public-private contract payments? Got to be more money there than out of the pockets of the $40 a day crowd?

Lately, I've been finding it difficult to sing the second verse of the dirge that passes for our national anthem. The words stick in my throat, so I've taken the liberty of rewriting the lyrics. By doing this I might be committing some form of lese majeste or crime under some act or regulation of some sort. If this is the case, you know where I live. Anyway, here's my revised version.

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross

We'll harden hearts and minds

To make this Commonwealth of ours

Among the World's least kind

For those who've come across the seas

We've got bad news for you

We'll ship you off to Manus

Or we'll dump you on Nauru

Ignore your pain and here's the sting

There's more Dutton can do

The poetry's not that great and the lyrics may be a little bit historically inaccurate, but the thought's there.

If like me, you love the glorious views from various parts of Canberra across rural land to the Brindabellas, you will be appalled at the recent desecration of the area in the Molonglo Valley bordered by John Gordon Drive/Coppins Crossing Road and William Hovell Drive.

A huge area, hundreds of hectares and more to come, has been cleared for housing development for the new suburb of Whitlam.

Every skerrick of foliage has been removed, only a handful of trees remain and the dust and bare soil wait for the first decent wind to be scoured and blown over central Canberra.

The uninterrupted views are now gone and will soon be replaced by McMansions, concrete and no doubt multi level developments.

This used to be a classic Canberra vista, likely enjoyed daily by thousands as they do their daily commute to and from Belconnen. I would drive out of my way to enjoy it. It was the quintessential interface of urban and bush (and mountains), surely the essence of our beautiful city.

The ACT Government and its insane obsession with development, regardless of adverse consequences, is quickly destroying pristine areas that once gone can't be replaced.

Sadly in many areas, it's now too late for the bush capital.

Development should not be allowed below (west) of William Hovell Drive. What can we do?

I wholeheartedly agree with Friday's editorial on press freedom and the intimidation of whistleblowers ("More than media freedom under threat", September 6, p16). The public expects the news media to be free to investigate matters of national importance and to report their findings without interference: anything less is government-initiated censorship.

If the motive for interference is political, such as the early June police raids on News Corp and ABC journalists, and now Wednesday's raid on the Canberra home of Cameron Gill, we're on a path to totalitarianism.

Government secrecy has been increasing since the election of the Howard government, and has now increased to almost paranoid levels under the Morrison regime. The Morrison government has seemingly strengthened its resolve to enforce secrecy since its re-election, which was probably taken as encouragement from the electorate: all three police raids have occurred since May 18.

The trend to secrecy and intimidation threatens to take Australia down the Chinese path, which we Australians often criticise for being repressive, secretive, and intolerant of views that don't fit the Xi Jinping mould. We must take all possible steps to prevent that happening.

Apart from US efforts to degrade ISIS, the Trump Administration has overseen one of the lowest levels of US military activity in decades ('Smooched' into a military coalition, pg. 18, Aug. 30). Trump is just not that interested in war.

Before the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, Citizen Trump was decidedly non-committal, and within months of its outbreak vehemently opposed.

In June 2019, after Iran downed a US drone, Trump aborted an imminent retaliatory air strike because it risked 150 Iranian deaths. He tweeted: "I am in no hurry, our Military is...ready to go, by far the best in the world. Sanctions are biting".

And that's the key, Trump knows because "sanctions are biting" and the US enjoys military supremacy, Iran is on the back foot.

Trump has repeatedly said renegotiating a "terrible" nuclear deal is his goal and has no need for a reckless dash to war.

In this context, Australia's contribution to the US-led effort to protect international shipping in the Persian Gulf is modest and prudent.

Contrary to John Hewson's claim it shows our commitment to freedom of navigation here and anywhere else it is threatened.

I am disappointed to learn the ACT Government is considering allowing the use of E-scooters in the Territory. I have seen them a lot in European cities and they are a dangerous scourge.

They are fast and silent. Once in use in the ACT I predict there will be an increased number of injured pedestrians and scooter riders plus perhaps a rising rate of obesity for those too lazy to walk. For Shane Rattenbury to say they are a "sustainable form of travel" is silly. What about good old fashioned walking? Walking through Civic will be as it is in Europe, a less relaxing experience as one will have to be on the lookout for these dangerous missiles.

Walking around Canberra's lakes ( healthy and sustainable) one will not only have to keep alert to the speeding bicycles but also to another form of motorised distraction.

The bumper stickers No Dams and Solar Not Nuclear (Letters, September 2) were protests: the former over fear of loss, the latter over fear of destruction. Both became subsumed within a new puritanism that now embraces the PC world of social politics and the many "noble" causes.

While there are germs of truth in all of the causes, they are swept up uncritically by social media, the MSM, celebrities and now the corporate and sporting worlds.

Never mind the poor analysis, few facts and many unverified claims; who can be the most pure?

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