Our native plants and animals, birds and insects have taken an incredible hammering. Siltation threatens the Upper Cotter water catchment. The sphagnum bogs that act as sponges in collecting and storing precious water have been burnt.

The editorial could have gone further by holding the federal government to account for the fact that it has repeatedly ignored the scientific evidence for climate change, as well as warnings from the relevant authorities about the looming bushfire threats before the summer of 2019/2020.

It has also failed to take immediate action on climate change. This is exposing us to a very grim future intertwined with pandemics that will be unpredictable.

Is it possible to protect our natural environment from more frequent and intensive fires in the future? We can demand funding for restoration programs in Namadgi but these will count for little if climate change isn't addressed immediately, both in Australia and internationally.

My Collins Dictionary defines hard-right as "a party who have the most extreme political beliefs". When Don Sephton (Letters, July 13) labels the Liberals in the ACT as a party of the hard-right, one has to wonder which of their policies and beliefs he is referring to.

Would it be their proposal to plant a million trees and provide an increased number of open spaces for people to enjoy with their families? Or maybe it's their belief that making more land available will bring prices down and give first home buyers a chance to get a foot on the property ladder? Or how about their proposal to freeze rates at current levels to give relief to homeowners who have endured a 134 per cent rise since Labor's so-called reform began?

Or maybe it's their hard-right policy to field the most diverse and representative list of candidates of any party, many of whom were born overseas, for the coming October election?

As Jon Stanhope, former (and most successful) ACT Labor chief minister once remarked: "The working poor, pensioners or people in lower-income have been abandoned by the Labor Party, ignored by the unions and are invisible to the Greens. Ironically, they now have nowhere left to turn but to Alistair Coe and the Liberals - and who could blame them".

I would argue it is pure luck the ACT has not seen a resurgence of COVID-19 and therefore disagree with the John Painter (Letters, July 13).

It is essential businesses in the ACT remain open and that we continue to get back to as close to normal as we possibly can. However, this is dependent on the cooperation of the public and business to abide by the rules and ensure social distancing and proper practices are followed, and on the ACT government to make sure these rules are followed.

Unfortunately there are just too many areas where this is not happening. A visit to Manuka on any recent Saturday or Sunday morning would have provided clear examples of social distancing being ignored.

It is in all our interests for the Chief Minister to get the police on to the job of enforcing the rules. The time has passed for just issuing warnings. We all know the rules by now. On-the-spot fines are justified. It would be interesting to hear how many fines have been issued for noncompliance in the area I mentioned.

I, for one, do not want the enjoyment of visiting places in Canberra to be ruined by the selfish few, slack business owners, and a lack of action by the ACT government.

In the 1950s and 1960s we routinely talked about "sugar diabetes", which was rather rare at the time. Now, thanks to those who purvey fine sugar to society, diabetes is an epidemic and sugar is not in its title.

Dr James Muecke, Australian of the Year and eye surgeon, in a fine article about type-2 diabetes ('Advice we've been fed is wrong', July 13, p.18), pointed out that the first three months of the COVID-19 crisis killed about 100 Australians, whereas type-2 diabetes killed about 5000 people. His last hope in turning this situation around is to get the government to take effective action.

The need to reduce sugar consumption is blindingly clear. There is far too much sugar in a vast array of foods, and many powerful companies profit greatly from the inclusion of a sugar hit in their products.

Re: your recent editorial "Hong Kong campaigners deserve aid" (July 11, p. 48). You wrote: "almost 1.5 billion Chinese are more affluent, better educated, well-travelled, and politically aware than at any time in the Middle Kingdom's history". You could have added "and more so than most of mankind today - especially those in Africa, Southern Asia, South America, and the Middle East".

Why is this so? Because of extraordinarily good government over the past 30 years. Indeed, China's government over the past 30 years has perhaps done more good, for more people, than any other government in the history of mankind.

The editorial asked: "How can Hong Kong be considered to be a sovereign jurisdiction when its own laws can be ridden over roughshod by the mainland authorities at any time?". That is about as ridiculous as writing: ''How can Canberra be considered to be a sovereign jurisdiction when its own laws on Australian management can be ridden over roughshod by the Australian government?".

Hong Kong is a Chinese city, and the national laws of China should always take precedence over local Hong Kong laws.

The editorial further declared: ''This alarming situation (the Chinese government deciding seven million Hong Kongers should be governed by the same national laws as the other 1.5 billion Chinese) has managed to shock the world". That decision wouldn't shock any sensible person. Australia's offer to give a safe haven to Chinese citizens who wish to break Chinese law is clearly meddling in another country's affairs.

The decision to extend the visas of Hong Kong citizens as a consequence of the recent actions by China seems reasonable, but it's not fair to others.

What about those who are already effectively "imprisoned" in refugee camps? Many of these face death in the countries they have fled.

Given some of the refugees who have sought asylum in Australia have been confined for six years or more wouldn't it be best to resolve their matters before before taking on a new set of people?

As a PhD graduate, Fiona Reynolds ("Does journalism really need its own degree", Forum, July 12, p13) should know better than to repeat the simplistic and effete claim by journalists that public relations is spin.

Journalists need to have something to bash public relations with because they cannot accept the embarrassing (to them) fact that research shows around 75 per cent of what they write comes from PR sources.

Public relations involves far more than dealing with journalists, or promoting the political views of politicians. It is always the simplistic view of media advisers, for example, that only the nightly news, talkback commentators, and the morning papers matter. They forget they need to talk directly to the people they want to influence, and they do not know how to do it.

PR deals with strategic questions, relationship building, managing issues as well as day-to-day promotional activity and, yes, issuing press releases. If the journalists-turned-media advisers, and those still working in the media, ever wonder why political spin doctoring so often fails, they might discover their lack of knowledge about what really works is the cause.

Journalism's problems are journalism's to solve. Just stop blaming others for your woes through your luxury of having a bully pulpit that allows you to, yes, spin at will.

In this climate of Black Lives Matter the fevered attack on association with past slavery is rather pointless. Slavery was common in the Greek and Roman Empires, practiced by the invading Germanic tribes including the Anglo-Saxons in Britain, the Irish (St Patrick was a slave), Scots and Picts, and as well as Viking Scandinavians in coastal and riverine Europe. Elsewhere it was culturally acceptable. Almost everyone living today has a genetic connection with slavery.

To quote L.P. Hartley: "The past is foreign country; they do things differently there."

Bluebell Thunder does not have quite the same impact as the Viking Clap (Letters, July 14).

Further to Paul Fitzwarryne's call to find a more politically correct name for the Canberra Raiders (Letters July 9), I feel the Brumbies should be renamed the Sphagnum Moss Bogs.

Re: the person who wrote in (Letters, July 14) to say "give ScoMo a break". You have got to be kidding. If Morrison wants to be PM he has to give up all sorts of things, including family time. The job is 24/7, not just when the kids don't need you.

As ScoMos go, ScoMo went. As ScoMos go he went again.

Tables in restaurants are generally placed well apart but the chairs and customers are much closer together, even side by side. So much for "social distancing". Will the health advisors please comment and give us their advice and recommendations?

So Andrew Barr is saving Kingston from Geocon. What about saving Fyshwick from 1.4 million tonnes per annum of waste to be trucked into that suburb for sorting, transferring and processing? This includes waste not generated in Fyshwick or even in the ACT.

The ACT Greens/Labor government has lost its way, turning Fyshwick into an interstate dumping ground of hazardous and contaminated waste with the prospect of the largest Processed Engineered Fuel (PEF) factory in Australia and a waste train to Woodlawn.

If no news is good news, the best prospect of positiveness relating to the pandemic would seem to be an absence of reporting.

Britain's defeat of China in 1842, following the First Opium War, permitted Britain to continue to supply opium into China. Also, China lost Hong Kong and other ports to the "foreign devils". Do Hong Kongers know their mother country has returned from a time of shame to remove the "foreign devils" who once shamed them?

I think Daniel Andrews is doing a marvelous job during this very difficult time that Victoria is going through. I would kindly remind him he has been wearing the same North Face jumper for a while now though.

I see comments blaming the Victorian Premier for the outbreak that started in the isolation hotels. The blame should be rammed home to the contractors who did not do their job. If staff were not adequately trained the company should not be paid.

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