So, Martin Parkinson has dismissed as "nonsense" calls for a cut in the nation's migrant intake. It is Parkinson who is talking nonsense.

He is quoted as saying: "we are going to have, for the first year for 75 years, almost no population growth".

Over recent years Australia's exceptionally high population growth has been due almost entirely to current immigration and past immigration, with each having a similar effect.

The latter is due to the birth in Australia of grandchildren of people who were not born Australians. This increase is not ''natural'' because the grandparents die outside Australia and so their deaths are not offset against the births.

Current migration might decrease this year, but the births of children with grandparents abroad will not. Indeed, those births will continue for about two generations, at roughly 200,000 per year.

The consequence is that Australia's population will this year grow at a higher rate than that of almost all comparable countries, and continue to do so for many years.

Why is it that almost all other countries have lower immigration rates than Australia? Do their governments have "nonsense" policies, or is it Parkinson who talks nonsense about immigration?

Perhaps those governments better understand the costs of immigration including congestion, pollution, resource depletion, immediate need for infrastructure, and higher education costs for children with foreign-speaking backgrounds.

Australia should plan for zero net immigration until its population growth falls below zero.

I fully support Jenny Goldie's call for the control of brumby numbers in Kosciuszko National Park: the NSW government should swallow its pride and follow Victoria's lead (Letters, May 18).

The Federal Court did not accept that brumbies have "heritage value", and rightly so. If introduced brumbies are deemed to be of heritage value and worthy of preservation, why should other introduced species, such as rabbits and even cane toads, not be afforded similar protection?

Many Australians, especially those on the land, would agree.

Re Anthony Wynack's letter (Letters, May 19) concerning an uncontrolled dog attack on a family of swans adjacent to the shared path around Lake Tuggeranong.

I walked that same path a little earlier that morning and also admired the swans and their baby cygnets. But in admiring them I noted that there were now only three cygnets. Just four days earlier there were four, so small that, in my estimation, they were only a day or two old.

I thought how sad that these swans had already lost a quarter of their family after only a few days.

On reading Anthony's letter I couldn't help but wonder if this same uncontrolled dog had been responsible for the premature death.

Hopefully the owner of this uncontrolled dog will also have read Anthony's letter and will do better next time.

So John Milne thinks Julie Bishop did an outstanding job (Letters, May 19).

As a Foreign Affairs Minister she needs to be assessed against three things: our relationships with other countries; our international standing; and our assistance through our aid program to the world's needy.

In all three, Ms Bishop was a failure. When she was the minister, countries in the Pacific, Asia and on the Asian sub-continent (our region) were ignored and our relationships with them diminished. Rather, she focused on Europe and the USA.

Our aid program was cut by $11 billion dollars to place Australia in the category of one of the the world's worst.

She may have been elegant but she was far from a good Foreign Affairs Minister.

Recent opinion polls have the two major political groupings virtually where they were at the May 2019 election.

It would be illuminating to see the reaction of some sections of the media, and indeed public opinion, if a Labor government had acted similarly to the Coalition government in relation to COVID-19.

I can just about hear the gnashing of teeth and cries of "socialism" concerning the job retention and economic stimulus packages.

And that's not to mention the fear and scaremongering about the Orwellian imposition of the COVIDSafe App on the gullible public.

Re: "No to Vaccine Nationalism" (canberratimes.com.au, May 19).

Jane Halton spoke of giving priority to the most vulnerable people if supplies of vaccine are limited.

My mind immediately went to the older age group, who have been the most affected. I am one of those.

On reflection, priority should go to those who are exposed to people who are already infected: doctors and nurses and their staff; ambulance workers; the police; pharmacists and their staff; and others in front of the public.

I would personally feel much safer if, when I met those people, I knew they had been vaccinated.

My father was a much-loved head of a division of the CSIRO.

I remember him listening to me as I complained about my first job.

I resented the fact that my boss appeared to have taken up an idea of mine without acknowledging its source.

Dad explained sternly to me that it was important to recognise such a moment as one of genuine success.

You should just stand back in the shadows, he explained, and feel glad.

A good idea, he went on to say, is surely much more important than your own ego.

I wish he had taught some ministers in our government the same lesson.

I have not heard China explain why they wish to pay more for Australian barley as it appears we are selling it too cheaply to them? Isn't that what "dumping" means?

I can see no mention of China growing amounts of barley so why would China support higher prices to itself?

Are they being altruistic? Should we ask more for our iron ore, gas, and so on?

The Commonwealth government's decision to purchase dark coloured BMWs is contrary to a previous recommendation a Senate Expert Committee on Road Safety to replace all of the Commonwealth's black cars with white cars because light coloured cars have fewer crashes than dark cars.

White cars have 12 per cent fewer crashes than black cars, irrespective of the time of day.

The decision to purchase dark coloured cars reflects very poorly on the Federal government's commitment to reducing road trauma.

Ron Levy (The real challenge, Letters, May 18) has it right when he says people working in shops should wear masks.

That should be a no-brainer when they are talking to so many people. The government didn't advise use of them at the beginning of the onset of COVID-19, largely because there was a shortage of protective equipment for health workers.

I believe we now have enough protective equipment. I think it would be advisable for most people to wear masks when they are in busy areas, such as shopping centres and public transport.

Many other countries require masks to be worn. We should do the same providing education is given on their proper fitting and use.

Like many others, my husband and I are taking daily walks around our local neighbourhood to exercise.

We frequently encounter overhanging gardens that make the footpaths impassable to two people at a time.

It's depressing to see how inconsiderate people are in relation to their abuse of public land and their complete disregard for pedestrian access and safety.

The widespread, and selfish, practice of people paving the nature strip so they can park their cars is a further example of the general slackness in the enforcement of public land management regulations in the ACT.

Private interests are prevailing over public rights yet again.

Could someone please remind me which bully Australia has to be wary of? Is it China or the USA?

It was the "Great Public Service Cultural Revolution". It is "Better to go Lib than to be expert". Back to you Great Helmsman (Chairman "Sco" Mo).

William McLennan's breathless misrepresentation of history cannot go unchallenged (Letters, May 25). The recent bushfires, while traumatic , were neither the largest in area nor with the greatest loss of life in Australian history. They weren't "unprecedented" either.

The pyramids were built to unbelievable degrees of mathematical accuracy using crude tools. Yet, despite access to super-computers, Treasury and the ATO rationalise away a gigantic $60 billlion "error". A reversion to the abacus and human cognition seems warranted.

I do not understand why people are so fussed about a small miscalculation of only $60 billion dollars by the Morrison Government. The good thing is we will repay the debt more quickly than we thought. Scott Morrison believes in miracles. Sometimes he gets them.

Scott Morrison called the Coalition's one seat majority win at the 2019 federal election a miracle. That miracle is fully testing his capacity as a Prime Minister and the LNP's ability to govern during a national crisis. He may be wishing he had lost.

I had some good news the other day. I made a mistake in my tax return and I got a $5 billion refund from the ATO. Easy as.

The end game with Chinese attacks on our exports is that our depressed economy will offer them bargain buy ups on the Australian market. Do we harden up and restrict foreign investment?

Yes, Anthony Albanese, you are right. A $60 billion accounting error is a doozy. But under the Liberals it is an under spend. Under Labor it is always an overspend. The plus or minus sign makes a big difference.

$60 billion down the back of the sofa requires a very big sofa, one big enough to match our politicians' egos in fact.

It must be very heart-warming for the family of Teddy Sheean to see the public support for him to be awarded a posthumous VC. Hopefully Prime Minister Morrison and Defence Minister Reynolds will change their decision, a decision that went against the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal recommendation.

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