All the Liberal spokesperson, Ms Candice Burch, said to an audience of less than 200 during the Conservation Council on-line forum on September 15 was that some people had mentioned to her that Belconnen-Civic would be a better option than Woden-Civic.

The government must be touchy on this issue to have come out so quickly to attack with false claims about what the Liberal spokesperson actually said.

Who in their right minds would spend $3 billion on a tram that would take twice as long to do the 12 km as even old buses, let alone a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), and cater for less than two per cent of Canberrans at the expense of the rest?

Based on published population and dwelling statistics for 2020, it will cost the average ratepayer $8,250 for Stage 1 and an additional $15,500 for Stage 2, a total of $23,700, paid for over 20 years, for both stages.

Is this Greens-controlled government having a lend of Canberra taxpayers or not? All figures cited here are verifiable and I invite the government or supporters to prove otherwise.

The other day I read the Liberals would not proceed with the tram from City to Woden. Hopes rose that egregious expenditure on this outmoded, uneconomic project might no longer proceed.

But no. Only a few days later ("Liberals backflip on light rail", September 18, p8) I read: "He (Coe) now claims that the (Liberal) party is now committed to Woden as stage two of light rail."

And, in another article: "Alistair Coe's plan to use population growth to pay for the Liberals' revenue-draining policies has reignited debate ...".

Here we go again with the Ponzi scheme (namely population growth) his federal counterparts subscribe to. Coe could pay for his policies by scrapping stage two of the tram and getting smarter with modern transport options. We need clearer thinking from the Liberals.

For more reasons than I have space for here I can't vote for a self-satisfied Labor government that's been in power far too long. I am dismayed I can't bring myself to vote for either major party. What a sad dilemma.

Has anybody asked the people of Woden whether they would prefer to travel to Civic on a bus that takes 15 minutes, or a tram that takes 30? Has anybody asked them whether they prefer standing in a tram which has limited seating capacity, rather than sitting in a bus?

Has anybody asked them, and every other Canberra ratepayer, whether they mind paying a multi-billion-dollar price tag for a tram, rather than adopting a rapid bus service running on a dedicated road that emergency vehicles could also use, built for a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time, and with a minimum disruption to businesses?

The answer, of course, is no. It is any surprise, then, that the Barr government refuses to release its business case for this outrageously extravagant vanity project?

The Canberra Liberals, having spent years telling us how bad light rail is, have promised to extend the system to Woden, or Belconnen, or wherever they think votes could be garnered. I'm dismayed any party would "commit" to a project before a study. That study should then be published so we could all see what our government has in mind. There is ample evidence to suggest a trackless tram would come out of an analysis streets ahead of any light rail for Canberra. I now have no one to vote for this coming election. I'll bet I'm not alone.

Sue Dyer (Letters, September 18) has raised concerns over the Gungahlin to Civic tram needing an express service to match that proposed by the Greens to make the Woden to Civic route practical.

Seems the planners are ignoring the hub and spoke nature of our major interchanges and, with the tram, are confusing mass transit with mass rapid transit.

Bring back non-stop bus services between all the interchanges (including Gungahlin) rather than these milk runs inappropriately called Rs.

Admitting the Greens cannot be trusted to deliver an effective light rail system for Canberra, ("Greens pitch 'impossible' light rail plan", canberratimes.com.au, September 15) Transport Minister Chris Steel acknowledges what many people have tried to tell the Labor party for more than eight years.

Instead of the $1 billion Gungahlin to Civic light rail fiasco, required by the Greens for Labor's political support, a dedicated busway would have been far more effective and far less costly. This was made clear by all independent studies.

Despite that, and still without a comprehensive business case, the government, still shackled by the Greens, insists light rail will be extended to Woden. As Steel effectively acknowledges, this will give commuters between the two centres longer travel times than the present effective express bus service.

In 2013, a senior transport official said, "Give us $1 billion, and we will give Canberra a gold-plated bus service".

Instead, the government opted for its tram, further fragmenting the already haphazard bus service, and benefiting relatively few public transport users.

At the election in October people who depend on public transport might remind Minister Steel he presides over Canberra's worst suburban weekend bus service for at least 50 years. With apologies to Tim Freedman, so the tram runs on time.

Professor Gary Martin (Letters, September 17) distinguishes between childhood bullying on the one hand and adult unpleasantness, unkindness or forcefulness on the other. But isn't the former simply a consequence and imitation of the latter; especially of adult unpleasantness, unkindness, or forcefulness towards children?

As W. H. Auden expressed it, apparently referring to Hitler's treatment by his father:

I and the public know

What all schoolchildren learn,

Those to whom evil is done

Do evil in return.

The ACT election is to be "a referendum on the cost of living" versus "jobs, health and education" say the Liberal and Labor leaders.

What a joke.

This agenda allows them, yet again, to make shallow promises that will be forgotten within weeks.

Hopefully few of us will fall for this attempt to distract from the primary political problem at the moment which is the community's distrust of politics as it become increasingly corrupted by money.

We must stop the destruction of Australian democracy and only vote, locally and federally, for candidates whose two top priorities are to establish ICACs and to ban political donations except by registered voters, and with a maximum of, say, $1000 per voter per electoral cycle. All other issues are secondary.

Politics must attract candidates wanting to work on behalf of all the community, not those looking for loose money.

The posthumous award of the Victoria Cross to Teddy Sheean was well deserved. It is sad it took so long.

However the worst aspect is that it cost the Australian taxpayer $92,000 to pay a panel appointed by the PM to make the decision to grant the award when another panel last year had already recommended it.

I am sure there would have been military and civilian experts who would have done it voluntarily, pleased to be able to help determine the already known fact that Teddy deserved his recognition.

It will be a great day for his hometown of Latrobe in Tasmania when the medal is finally presented to his family.

Here is the quintessential difference between the federal government and Daniel Andrews government.

On the one hand we have a Prime Minister who co-opts the opposition and the premiers into a national cabinet, in order to make decisions of national interest.

On the other hand we have Daniel Andrews, who suspends parliament and deprives the opposition, and the people they represent, of the right to express their views.

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