As we pause to remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I think of October 1962 and the Cuban Missile Crisis when we were actually poised on the brink of a nuclear war. London went awfully quiet as everyone was inside, glued to the BBC, waiting to see what Khrushchev and Kennedy would inflict upon us. Our teachers assured us "we won't feel a thing at this ground zero" and said our school's two formidable 1940's air raid shelters were useless.

It was not "sheer luck" that allowed my father to trot around bright and chirpy. He knew that World War III was unlikely because (this time) all the politicians, generals, financiers and aristocracy would also die.

Nuclear war is the ultimate form of "we are all in this together". I despair that Trump, Putin, Xi Jinping, and a host of other politicians have forgotten this and may consider warfare an abstract political strategy.

As a volunteer in a cancer research study being run from Sydney, I was encouraged to apply for subsidised travel and accommodation expenses. The Cancer Council has responded that because I live in the ACT I am not eligible. What an anomaly. Well, it did take some years before Sydney allowed ACT residents to use the OPAL card. Perhaps this restriction can also be (quickly) revisited and updated.

Reading what former ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has to say about the shortcomings of the present ACT government indicates to me he should return to politics - as the leader of the Liberal Party.

I'm sure that there are countless others beside Michaela Campbell (Letters, August 2) who have been brought to tears by Ian Warden's columns.

Roger Terry (Letters, August 6) is barking up the wrong tree. It is up to the individual states and territories to decide on the methods used to minimise the community transmission of the virus, not the federal government. As it would now appear the NSW government was misled by the operators of the Ruby Princess, a special commission of inquiry has been set up. The commission must report by August 14.

Despite NSW having a greater population than that of Victoria, they have had, to date, far less new cases and deaths, primarily due to a highly efficient tracing protocol. The Victorian government put private security contractors in charge of hotel quarantine. They failed to effectively carry out their duties, resulting in many new cases of the virus in the community. In NSW police and ADF personnel were heavily involved alongside private security. There were far fewer outbreaks. Given this why would I have cause to call for the resignations of Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton and Gladys Berejiklian?

I am intrigued by recent suggestions, by Jeff Kennett and others, that Dan Andrews, should resign or stand down. What would this achieve? And, more importantly, who would take his place? Yes, the Victorian government has made mistakes, but so have the other states and the federal government on occasion as well. Mr Andrews, as he stated repeatedly on Thursday, has done the right thing by commissioning an inquiry into the hotel quarantine affair and then distancing himself, and his government, from it.

The decision to suspend the inquiry was not made by the Andrews government but by the person leading it - and this was done on safety grounds.

The people of Queensland voted for a premier who recently told us to visit her state, not Tasmania, because Queensland has beautiful beaches. My interest in beaches has been small compared to my interest in people, culture and the countryside. Our travel agent has just refunded the money for our cancelled Queensland holiday. That money will now go to Tasmania.

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