Albanese, caught between a rock or at least coal and a very hard place, has rolled the dice and not only put Labor firmly back on the coal train, but even better, it seems he now wants to drive it.

Those trying to make fun of Morrison and his particular coal stunt will now surely be at least honour bound to add a footnote on Labor, even if only in small print. Unless, of course, coal mined under Labor is non-polluting and as a bonus smells like roses.

What a circus. So many questions. For starters, has Albanese run any of this past say, Labor's famous left wing? If not then expect real "trouble at mill" and if it has then the silence from that quarter is beyond deafening and puts the credibility of quite a few of Labor's "high flyers" well and truly on the line.

In order to calm the "true believers" Albanese constantly talks about the election cycle in football terms and correctly points out that it's barely quarter time.

The trouble there is if you end up ten goals down at three quarter time and kicking into the wind, then the only thing left is to pray for one of Morrison's miracles and good luck with that.

So it's now up to "Albo from marketing" to explain how it's possible, after years of tearing strips off the LNP and Morrison on coal, emissions targets and climate change, to, as Stuart points out, "declare himself on a unity ticket with Dutton".

As Stuart says, "voters tend to see through politicians who believe in nothing other than getting elected".

I was fascinated to see recently, both on Craig Kelley's Facebook page and here (Fred Bennett AM, Letters 21 January), references to Dorothea Mackellar's 100-year-old, yet 100 percent accurate, prediction of recent weather patterns.

I am not sure though if this total abandonment of science in favour of the advice of poets is in keeping with the government's current Arts policy.

The day after The Canberra Times' editorial "Climate change impossible to deny" (January 21) there was a letter from Fred Bennett asserting this paper "needs to ... abandon the idea that bushfires are unnatural events for which human race is responsible".

It is obvious Mr. Bennett specifically wants this paper to stop referring to the influence of human-induced climate change on the recent unprecedented fires, the lengthened fire season and greater number of days of extreme fire danger.

I would prefer that this newspaper continues its practice of reporting facts established by relevant experts.

If a minister can "legitimately" spend millions on election pork barrelling why can't her government fund the ABC adequately?

It is unlikely that the national broadcaster will even be compensated for the extra costs incurred through it's extremely comprehensive and highly professional national, state and local coverage of all aspects of the bushfire emergency.

There has been virtually no mention of the ABC in the praise the Prime Minister has been constantly lavishing, albeit deservedly, on the fire services. Yet, in all my long experience, this too has been the ABC's finest hour.

It's expert and essential role throughout the disaster should be properly acknowledged by our leaders, including being covered for the resultant and unexpected costs.

Congratulations for printing Nick Hopkins's moving letter to the Prime Minister following the destruction of his house in Eurobodalla Shire during the recent disastrous bushfires. It wasn't only national political intransigence that played a role in Nick's tragedy, there were numerous contributory local governance issues as well.

Despite widespread community support and a series of eloquent speakers, Eurobodalla Council refused to pass a motion to declare a climate emergency on August 13, 2019, instead passing a motion noting that the weather is "variable and changing".

Eurobodalla Council's prolonged efforts to water down zoning and subdivision restrictions on large tracts of extremely hazardous bushfire prone lands against the express objections of the Rural Fire Service were rewarded on October 11, 2019, when NSW Planning Minister, Rob Stokes, signed off the Eurobodalla Rural Lands Local Environment Plan.

Large areas of these rezoned bushfire prone lands were ravaged by the recent fires. In the midst of this disaster period, when interviewed on national radio the Eurobodalla Mayor, Liz Innes, proclaimed "no-one can go against the Rural Fire Service advice".

This was completely at odds with her Council's conduct over the previous four years regarding hazardous land rezonings.

Inspection of the Eurobodalla Council's current strategic disaster planning documents discloses a litany of outdated materials, many well beyond their statutory renewal periods or only "cosmetically" updated.

Eurobodalla Shire Council's refusal to countenance a climate emergency, its flawed planning decisions and the woeful state of its strategic emergency planning documents cannot be ignored when assessing this disaster.

A carbon budget undertaken in 2015 by international scientists tells us that of approximately 11.2 Gigatonnes of carbon produced every year by humans through carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning and land clearing, approximately 6.2 GT/y winds up in our atmosphere.

The rest of our emissions are absorbed by the ocean or taken up by the land. In other words, in order to stop atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations from rising further than what they are now, we need to reduce our emissions by 6.2 GT/y or by about 55 per cent of current emissions.

Australia's current target of a 26 to 28 per cent reduction by 2030, even if achieved by the world, is woefully inadequate as it would only slow the accumulation rate of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and would fall well short of reversing it.

It's well past time for our government to pull the finger out, promptly implement some big reduction targets, and show a good example to inspire the rest of the world to do the same.

Michael Lane (Letters, January 17) said he is "appalled at the letter from Martha Kinsman (Letters, January 16) opposing control burns.

Michael should consider that letter headings (in this case "Hazard burns opposed") are often the choice of editorial staff and not that of the letter writer.

As a former Executive Officer in the Commonwealth Department of the Environment assisting in the management of the bushcare program I had access to a number of very detailed studies on burning practices which, in summary, concluded that such burning needs to be in patches only (fragmentation burning) and undertaken only at suitable times of the year when a "cool burn" can be achieved and the burn area and size strictly controlled.

The trouble with controlled burning is that it can be very difficult to control.

The other finding was such controlled burning has substantial and unacceptable biodiversity impacts if it is repeated in the same area any more frequently than 12 to 15 years apart, especially in old growth forests.

Martha Kinsman's letter is, in my opinion, spot on. A close reading shows she is not opposing controlled burning completely, but (correctly) advocating "the need for a more nuanced approach" with sensible burning programs informed by fire authorities, property owners and environmental scientists working sensibly and collaboratively.

Why is the Sydney Building in Civic in such a bad state of neglect while the Melbourne Building is kept in perfect condition?

The Sydney Building has peeling paint on outside walls, about four different shades of cream on one wall and many empty shops.

How has the ACT government allowed this to happen?

These two buildings are beautiful, old heritage buildings.

We see the same sort of neglect at the garden at the bottom of City Hill.

And let's not to mention more dead cypresses on City Hill and the dead 100-metre hedge along the edge of City Hill on the Commonwealth Bridge side. All of these are fire hazards.

There must tens of thousands of dead trees in the ACT that the ACT government is failing to remove.

Hague Park springs to mind.

Climate change is Gaia's way of telling us humanity has outworn it's welcome.

The Barr government missed its target for prescribed burns by 25 per cent in the past financial year, and in 2016/17 only seven per cent of burns were completed. It is claimed the targets could not be achieved due to unfavourable weather conditions. Really?

Most Britons and 100 percent of Americans married to Harry no longer want their lives to be governed by institutionalised anachronisms. Following Brexit and Mexit it's time for Ozexit. Aren't we mature enough to select a workable system of government not dependent on the imprimatur of a foreign monarch?

Many cars in Canberra were damaged by hail on Monday. Those deemed to be written off because of panel and glass damage may still be functional if glass can be replaced at reasonable cost. Would the insurance companies consider donating them to those who lost theirs' in fires?

Fire devastated tourist destinations on the south coast are likely to suffer some of the impact of Canberra's hail storm. Some of the Canberrans who were planning to spend some time and money down there will now have to redirect their resources to rectifying damage to their own homes.

Two examples of Morrison backing the wrong horse appeared on the same page of The Canberra Times ("Climate change tensions plague leader" and "Scott Morrison stands by Bridget McKenzie over sport grant controversy", January 21, p9). In both cases he is denying what to any fair-minded person is the bleeding obvious.

When backbencher Craig Kelly made his outrageous comments on British television Morrison said everyone had a right to their opinion. This right obviously does not extend to NSW minister for the environment, Matthew Kean.

In the words of Greta Thunberg: "How dare you!" I appeal to PM, governments, media and all of us ,to cease speaking of and accepting the present climate events as "the new normal" and try to plan long term to ameliorate the future climate changes.

"The reason I wear it (the Australian flag pin) is because it reminds me every single day whose side I'm on. I'm on the side of the Australian people". So said ScoMo in August, 2018. It seems protecting ministers in trouble gets into the way of this ideal.

Mr Trump is so dumb. He does not understand why the Democrats are going after him. He does not know that he is a genius and everyone is just too jealous of him. Oh yeah ...

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