Following her return the only advice we received, via the media, was that it was life as normal unless she had been in contact with a confirmed case or travelled to Wuhan City.

For days we went to the movies, a doctor's surgery, an Australia Day Award breakfast and shopping malls. I also met with our local Federal MP who is also a member of Cabinet.

There was such complacency surrounding the disease that when most schools returned on January 28 her school was singled out by the Federal Education Minister for choosing to impose a 14-day exclusion policy on students who had been in China.

Then, just four days after the Federal Education Minister wanted students like my daughter returning to school, the Australian borders were shut to all foreign travellers from China.

I am sorry, but this is way too late. Thousands and thousands of people have entered to country since this outbreak started. How many, like my daughter have been told to go about life just as normal?

The way I see it shutting the borders now is too little too late.

The recent political declaration that more gas will be made available in NSW is welcome. Perhaps we are slowly finding our way out of the decades of policy neglect on the east coast.

Gas is a vital transition fuel for electrical generation, general industry use and homes. More supply and a lower price are essential, and one hopes that the latter will follow the former.

As a geologist with relevant knowledge, I believe that the very large Narrabri coal seam gas project should get environmental approval. The vocal opposition is not based in science.

Firstly, the sandy Pilliga Scrub is certainly not prime agricultural land. Secondly, the coal seams that will provide the gas are already fractured and need no artificial fracking.

Finally, the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) aquifers are safely separated from the coal seams below, with exhaustive CSIRO research suggesting very little leakage.

I am a strong believer in global warming and its existential danger for a country like Australia. Far more funding should be provided for alternative energy research and development, to cover both generation and storage, and to accelerate its large scale use. In the meantime, gas is far cleaner and a more flexible energy source than coal, and merits widespread development here.

Paul Wayper questions whether Dick Smith is anti-immigration (Letters, January 28). Dick is neither anti-immigration or anti-migrant. He simply calls for much lower immigration. Currently net overseas migration is 283,300 or 62.5 per cent of our annual growth of 381,600. If you want to stabilise population, you have to reduce immigration.

You also need to keep fertility below replacement until the number of births equal the number of deaths, or natural increase is zero. Unfortunately, once fertility falls below replacement (Australia's is 1.8 births per woman), it may take decades before zero natural increase is achieved.

Wayper rejects most population "control" measures including limiting family size. It suggests he is not serious about the need to stabilise population numbers. While nobody likes coercive policies that intrude on human rights those who breed excessively intrude on the rights of others to clean water and clean air.

There must be incentives and disincentives in place to discourage large families.

Re: Karen Hardy's article "It's just not cricket: I don't like tennis" (canberratimes.com.au, January 26).

Gee, Karen was apparently feeling particularly vitriolic when she wrote this piece. And what ignorance she displays about the game of tennis. She does not have to like the sport but she should have learnt a bit about it before writing.

I come from generations of tennis playing Australians and am one of thousands who play in Canberra and value this activity for its inclusivity, its health and social benefits.

Karen should give it a go one day.

Jim Derrick (Letters, January 28) is probably right that my Kaleen glasshouse was spared the extreme conditions experienced elsewhere in Canberra during the recent hailstorm.

Thanks to his heads-up I've researched and found that even under the worst circumstances (say, cricket-ball-sized hailstones and sideways strong winds) there are measures available to reduce the chances of glasshouse breakages.

These include placing, at 30 cm above the safety glass, tautly suspended chicken wire supporting a strong grade of hail-proof shade cloth.

You pitch this at a steep angle to deflect hail and also do the sides.

How nice to see Stan Marks again defending the sacred rights of motorists (Letters, January 30).

Having campaigned tirelessly against light rail he must be pleased at the thought of the cars it displaced in Civic being replaced by cars pouring in along Cotter Road.

Since they will be travelling along a soon-to-be-abandoned bus lane the opportunity for bumper-to-bumper traffic in our fair city will be greatly increased. Despite the nefarious plots of the bicycling, car pooling, bus riding lesser breeds of commuter our transformation into a smoggy, Los Angeles-like hell will come one step closer. Our shining, glorious, smelly, car lovers Montsalvat.

I welcome Andrew Leigh saying that, "we urgently need the world to move more rapidly to cut emissions", ('The time for denial and distraction is over. It's time for climate action', January 30, p. 20).

The Prime Minister doesn't want to talk about strong emission reduction targets, and will use any diversion to avoid the topic.

It's time, as Dr Bjorn Stumberg said, for Australia to start World War Zero against climate change. It will take a war time-like effort to bring the world back to a safe climate.

Instead we are planning to spend around $100 billion on an unnecessary, and almost certainly "obsolescent on delivery", submarine program, as reported by Nicholas Stuart, ('Australia's submarine ambitions revealed', January 29. p. 21). That money should be spent on climate national security.

Let's convince those Liberal members who are in marginal seats, and who may have been helped by the corrupt use of the sports grants, to become independents and vote for a strong transition plan to a climate safe economy based on renewables and security for all.

The egregiously abusive, behaviour of the government for personal benefit; the inroads into our nation's civil liberties by all members of Parliament, and the manipulation by politicians of the public sector for personal self-interest, all collectively demand the establishment of a national Independent Commission Against Corruption.

The number of people suffering in poverty and homelessness in this nation; the greed of the Minerals Industry Council, and the destruction of our landscapes and river systems by wanton greed, ignorance and political collusion are all screaming at us that we are in the latter stages of losing control of our land, liberty and democracy.

We must demand an ICAC now.

Dr Tony Weir (Letters, January 30) is absolutely correct with his suggestion that the Prime Minister blame the ACT Green/Labor Government for this most recent bushfire.

Yes, it was ignited by an ADF helicopter. However, it was not the helicopter, nor climate change, nor even the Prime Minister that caused the helicopter to be engulfed in an inferno within 12 seconds, leading to a catastrophic bushfire.

The real cause was excessive fuel load. Had there been no fuel available the hottest light in the world would not have started a fire. As previously reported in The Canberra Times this current Green/Labor government has failed to manage the forests.

Climate change and the Prime Minister might be convenient scapegoats. But the real problem is the ACT government's ineptitude or unwillingness to mitigate the level of risk in our forests.

How neat. Nothing to do with rorting. Just another miracle ("Minister bites the bullet", February 3).

Sacking Bridget McKenzie and claiming problem solved is like the police catching a drug dealer and claiming they've solved the drug problem. I don't buy it.

My prediction (Letters, February 3) that the sports rorts inquiry would follow the Yes Minister script to the letter was spot on. The government got exactly what it wanted: the Minister was ousted, satisfying public expectations; but only on a technicality so the government can claim everything else was above board. QED.

Yes Minister! Senator McKenzie cleared of pork barrelling. Utterly inconceivable. Scotty's lost it.

Calling the sports rort a failure by the minister on technical grounds makes one's head spin. With a little more spin on the letter "C" we get the anagram unethical.

According to Simon Birmingham Bridget McKenzie was an outstanding minister and it's regrettable she is minister no more. All is not lost. She could be appointed as an ambassador, just like that former Treasurer who was made US ambassador.

Surely Bridget McKenzie won't go scot free? How about charging her with misappropriation of public monies? Imagine the consequences if it were the Head of Department who carried out this rort.

It is sad Bridget Mackenzie believes she has done nothing wrong. It is also harder to believe our Prime Minister had nothing to do with determining to whom and where the grants were distributed. They are both burning up any last integrity the Coalition may have possessed. Shame, shame, shame!

The Prime Minister tells us ministers should be able to override the decisions of public servants because those ministers know their electorate". Curious that only Liberal ministers have been selected as knowing their electorates. Labor, Greens and Independent MPs all care for their electorates but a Liberal minister decided that they weren't worthy.

How good is coronavirus? It is capable of distinguishing between Australian passport holders and those who don't possess one.

Given Canberra suburbs are in the line of fire from an inferno triggered by the ADF's failure to rectify a recognised technical problem the military's destructive power with intent must be awesome.

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