You note the decision of the Labor-Greens government to freeze rates for the coming year and comment: "This move has the advantage of effectively cancelling out the Liberals' longstanding pledge to freeze rates for the whole of its first term in office".

I note that the cost to the budget, and hence benefit to ratepayers, if residential and commercial rates are frozen for one year at the 2019-20 level, would be in the order of $50 million. The cost to the budget, and hence benefit to ratepayers, if they were frozen for four years would be in the order of $200 million.

While I do not support either proposal, I question your assessment that the ALP-Greens decision to forgo rates at a level four times less than proposed by the Liberal Party cancels out the Liberal pledge.

In my experience the hip pocket nerve is far more sensitive than your analysis suggests.

Is the for-profit model of university education now jeopardising our health and safety ("Canberra unis to fly in overseas students", canberratimes.com.au, June 17)? Can the University of Canberra vice-chancellor Professor Paddy Nixon guarantee a trial procedure for bringing international students to UC and ANU will not transmit infections to the community?

Even if the trial releases no infections, what then? Can Canberra cope at scale? How will the approximately 10,000 overseas students enrolled at ANU and UC be quarantined for two weeks (or more, depending on holiday flights home) each year if this drags on in Canberra's hopefully otherwise vacant less than 7000 hotel rooms?

How many students, unable to cover these new expenses and arrangements, will drop out? How commercially viable is a so shrunken for-profit uni sector?

Whatever the losses from any COVID-19 induced collapse of the overseas student business model, Australia's third biggest export revenue earner, they'll pale into insignificance compared to the losses from the three degrees plus of global warming we'll likely reach if aviation emissions, including those from the overseas student industry, are resuscitated.

In a letter that made some good points about the difference between police use of firearms in Australia and the US, Alex Mattea (Letters, June 19) found space to complain about Australian police still shooting deranged people "brandishing no more than a knife".

Next time there's an incident, I suggest the police call in Alex to demonstrate just how easy it is to disarm a knife-wielding deranged person without having to resort to using firearms.

COVID-19 is a wake up call for our local government, just as it is for the rest of it.

We can no longer afford what we want; it is what we need that really matters.

We need the magnificent SPIRE which was promised to us before the last ACT election four years ago, and which probably requires a rethink after the current pandemic.

We need to give more thought to the plight of the homeless. We need to have a transport system which also cares for schools. We need to complete the arterial road system by building the bridge over Coppins Crossing. We need to clean up and preserve our natural environment.

There can be no case for further extension of light rail. There are more pressing needs, Mr Barr.

It is time, particularly given the impact of COVID-19 on the ACT budget, for the Barr government to review its spending priorities with a view to ensuring the most cost effective ways to deliver its services.

A sensible government could easily achieve significant savings by dropping the Civic to Woden tramway proposal and adopting 21st century technology by building a much cheaper, less disruptive, trackless fixed transport way.

All the benefits from the past technology of trams on tracks can be achieved without tracks at a far reduced cost. Funds saved could be used to prop up the COVID-19 losses or to provide more social housing. How about announcing this in an election year?

I go further Mokhles K Sidden (Letters, June 16) and Bob McDonald (Letters, June 18.

I will know that Australia is ready to become a Republic when we have one trades education and registration system so any Western Australian plumber can fix a tap in Tasmania and a sparky from Queensland can legally attend to your wiring in Canberra.

What about just one set of year 12 exams for our kids? The list goes on and on. These are substantial achievements the republican movement must have in place; not just promises or commitments, before they retest the waters.

I can see it now, Australian passport, driver's licence, trade papers and the ute's rego plates logo - the Republic of Australia!

As the world debates and grapples with the scourge of historical slavery, primarily on racial grounds, let us also reflect on the scourge of modern slavery, primarily of young women and girls.

This often occurs in situations where coercion, threats or deception are used to seriously exploit victims and undermine or deprive them of their freedom, including in a sexual and commercial context.

And yes, even in Australia, necessitating the Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act 2018.

The United Nations and Walk Free Foundation estimate there are approximately 40 million victims of modern slavery around the world. The Australian government estimated there were 1567 modern slavery victims in Australia between 2015 and 2017.

Whenever, wherever, and regardless of race, gender or context, slavery must be acknowledged, denounced and eliminated.

Mark Hartmann should do some research before promoting his mandatory death in custody idea (Letters, June 17). Of all Indigenous deaths in custody between 2008 and 2020, 81 per cent were from medical conditions, suicide, road accidents, drugs or alcohol abuse, or undetermined. In almost all cases police had no direct impact in the death.

How would you feel Mark, if you were imprisoned just because you happened to be near an Indigenous person when they died?

It's laughable reading Ian Pilsner and Roger Dace (Letters, June 19) criticise the ABC because It's "a waste of money". That's not what the vast majority of Australians think with over 70 per cent considering the ABC to be our most trusted and reliable news media, and the one they turn to in times of emergency.

The biggest laugh of all is when Ian Pilsner and others assume people like Paul Barry are paid massive sums and surrounded by hordes of researchers.

Even back in my time with the broadcaster this assumption was risible. Today the constant cuts resulting from ideological bastardy mean that essential services have been cut to the bone.

Can you imagine any commercial media supporting critical self-examination as Media Watch does? It would be a laugh - if the ABC's plight were not so serious.

If, as the former national security adviser John Bolton says, Trump is not fit for office and lacks "the competence" to be president what does that say about American democracy?

It says if you are a man with a lot of money and who is good at appealing to entrenched racism and jingoism then you can become the holder of the highest office in America. What a perverse kind of democracy!

I went to the Kingston Railway Station last Wednesday to meet a train from Sydney. I am disabled but am able to drive. Imagine my horror when I saw a big Murray's bus parked right across the entrance to the disability parking bay. I suggest Murray's find another place to park.

COVID-19 has shown we cannot live in isolation. We have to co-operate with the rest of the world. After beating COVID-19 governments should turn their attention to global warming and lifting the standard of living in poor countries.

Eileen Boldew (Letters, June 17) claim that Chris Lilley is "brilliant" is funnier than anything Lilley has ever done. She claims he is an "observer of Australian life". I wish he would stick to observation and avoid making his humourless alleged comedies. I have had emergency root canals that were funnier.

Come the new financial year motoring manufactures start rolling out their new vehicles. Should I begin referring to the Corona virus second wave as COVID-20 or keep using last year's COVID-19 model reference?

America's claims to "exceptionalism", presently reinforced by Trump's unilateralism, attempts to dissociate it from its egregious blood-soaked track record of global criminality. These include war crimes in Afghanistan, torture in Abu Ghraib, and the assault on Fallujah. All indictable crimes, all disavowed.

Gone with the Wind, is gone. This will be followed by Driving Miss Daisy and then Fried Green Tomatoes. Don't dare mention To Sir with Love. But can someone hazard a guess at why nearly everyone in Shawshank Prison was white.

Students faced with a question they don't like in an exam should provide a different answer unrelated to the question. This approach seems to work for politicians.

Has Gay von Ess (Letters, June 13) stayed in a remote Aboriginal community for three days as she advocates our politicians do. I have, and would expect if most people did the same they would come back wide eyed and horrified at what goes on, and would become activists for change within those communities before anything else.

Despite being an active centrist I have never been offered membership by the Labor or Liberal parties. I have been offered membership by smaller political entities such as PHON, PUP, ACP, SA, NDA and the Greens. Is this branch stacking?

I have a vote. I have to vote. I need to vote. I love to vote. I'd love to vote for someone who is not a drongo. How do I do that?

One new norm has dawned, for a short time at least. The government now acknowledges the unemployed are people, like "friends, family members, workmates and neighbours". That is what they have always been Treasurer.

Email: letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au. Send from the message field, not as an attachment. Fax: 6280 2282. Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Canberra Times, PO Box 7155, Canberra Mail Centre, ACT 2610.

Keep your letter to 250 or fewer words. References to The Canberra Times reports should include date and page number. Letters may be edited. Provide phone number and full home address (suburb only published).