During the formalities, I realised that nothing physically marked the site of this fabled shop.

I mentioned to those assembled to celebrate Jenny's book that Canberra should have a "blue plaque" scheme, modelled on London's of course. The idea gained immediate approbation.

We should mark sites around our city, on buildings, public and private, that commemorate events, people and places; only our "blue plaques" should be Eucalyptus green. Our city is younger and less richly storied than London but it is up to us to remember our history, from the Dreamtime to today.

I call upon Canberra's historical community to take up this idea. Could representatives of the Canberra and District Historical Society, the ACT Heritage Library, Territory Records, the Canberra Museum and Gallery and historians like Jenny work to implement a modest but important scheme like this?

Who'll take on the idea?

Your columnist Zoe Wundenberg believes inmates in NSW prisons should stop working there ("Prison is rarely about time served", December 10). She has the right to her opinion, even if others might not agree with her, but no right to grossly misrepresent what actually happens in prisons.

She is wrong to say prison work doesn't develop skills and enhance self-perception. Tell that to all the inmates who've left prison and got jobs because of the habits and skills and qualifications they learned inside.

She is stigmatising prisoners by massively overstating the prevalence of illiteracy and she's wrong to say we don't address other issues. Inmates receive education and do programs to help with problems such as addiction and violence. This has been occurring for decades and it's surprising Ms Wundenberg feels qualified to write about a system of which she knows so little.

Recently the NSW government allocated an additional $330 million towards reducing reoffending, through measures including the above and post-release support with accommodation, employment, and mental health. In 2019/20 alone more than 300,000 hours of education were delivered to inmates in NSW.

This support doesn't always work, of course. It requires constant effort, which is why the Premier has given Corrective Services NSW a priority of reducing reoffending by 5 per cent by 2023. But to suggest we're not even trying to help inmates improve their lives is an insult to our 10,000 staff.

The world and politicians have been conned into shutting down everything due to coronavirus. The Spanish flu killed 50 million out of a world population of 1.9 billion - 2.6 per cent of the population. The current "pandemic" has killed 1.5 million of a world population of 7.8 billion - 0.19 per cent. The Spanish flu was 137 times worse than today's "pandemic".

It could have been handled better by just taking precautions for the elderly (me) and those with underlying health conditions. The main issue with COVID, is not the deaths, but the longer-lasting health effects for some people who get the virus.

John Smith correctly noted that wind generation was low from June 4-11 of this year, and that batteries would be unlikely to fill this shortfall (Letters, December 11). It is true that batteries are not currently suited for long-term storage needs.

They are more suited to shifting solar generation to the late afternoon demand peaks, as well as providing valuable grid ancillary services. On the other hand, Australia has over 7 gigawatts of existing hydro generation assets that are better suited to the task. During a day or week of poor wind and solar resource, much of our hydro can generate at medium to high levels for extended periods.

Conversely, on a day with good renewable generation, our hydro assets can save the stored water for another day. Hydro could have easily covered the wind generation shortfall during those days of June.

In the "What you said" column in Saturday's The Canberra Times (p33) one of the writers suggested that Waltzing Matilda would be a better national anthem. A national anthem is meant to represent a nation's pride, however, Waltzing Matilda is completely unsuitable as it's about a thief ("... he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag") who commits suicide (" ... sprang into the billabong 'You'll never catch me alive' said he").

Whilst I like I Am Australian, if it were to be accepted as our national anthem it would need to have two lines in the fourth verse removed, "I'm Ned Kelly on the run", as Kelly was both a thief and a murderer, and "I'm the one who waltzed Matilda", for the reasons mentioned above.

The article "Snub to national museum sends Holden's heritage to the regions" and the accompanying photograph of the still-futuristic Torana GTR-X concept car (December 13, p8-9) remind me of my late uncle John of Mannum, on the Murray, South Australia.

Uncle John was, like ACT Legislative Assembly Minister Mick Gentleman, the proud owner of a pristine 1948-vintage Holden 48-215, the first of a line that stretched to October 20, 2017. When his driving days were over, Uncle John donated his beloved Holden to the Birdwood National Motor Museum.

Birdwood is a small, picturesque town, 44km east of Adelaide in the heart of the Adelaide Hills. It would not be high on the average tourist's bucket list. Perhaps the Birdwood Museum could be persuaded to display cars from its collection from time to time in Canberra's National Museum.

I'm with John Panneman in his condemnation of Canberra drivers doing stupid things (Letters 13 December). Every day I see something utterly cretinous. A couple of examples from recent days. Cotter Rd and Streeton Drive intersection, lights go red everyone stops except the driver of the shiny BMW who darted into the bus lane to run the red. The day before being tailgated 2m distant all the way downhill on the Cotter Rd by a truckie who seemed to think this was my doing, if the pleasantries we exchanged at the lights is an indication.

I could go on and describe at least one event per day. I rang the police after the time when a young fellow followed me around a corner going sideways then carved everyone up on the Cotter Rd (what is it about the Cotter Rd?) and the helpful officer asked me if I had it on dashcam. I replied that I didn't have one, but I've sure got one now.

It was interesting to see the juxtaposition of Jack Waterford and Crispin Hull's articles (Forum, December 12). Mr Waterford cannot restrain himself in criticising the government for its policies and actions on all matters political, economic and health related. Mr Hull on the other hand, notes that "the things that have made life so much less precarious ... are mostly creations of government".

As examples, he mentions previous initiatives such as the PBS, the ABC, the NDIS. Currently and COVID related, we have had JobSeeker, JobKeeper, JobMaker and other economic stimulus packages. Otherwise, industrial relations, public health, IT/technology, human/social services, foreign intervention, climate policy to name a few. It is very easy to criticise and be negative and in some cases, criticism is certainly warranted. But we have managed and survived this challenging year remarkably well and will continue to do so. Compared to the rest of the world, where else would you rather be?

As China's beligerence continues unabated, maybe it's time for Australia to use its "ace card", iron ore. Randomly delaying ore shipments for indefinite periods would be a good way of showing our resolve not to cave in to their bullying tactics. As there is no short term substitute for our high grade iron ore to fuel the intensive Chinese production, and that China does not appear to have a "plan B", it will have to cut back on steel production, and that will hurt. The Chinese attempt to develop its own production of ore from African mines has so far failed to materialise.

In the interim period Australia should look at new markets in the developing countries of Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Over a period of many years I've vacillated between supporting and abolishing Australia's states and territories. I vacillate no more.

Australia's success in dealing with COVID-19 is almost entirely down to states and territories studiously ignoring the Prime Minister's Trumpesque demands for the opening of borders and weakening of restrictions. Had we taken his advice we'd be looking even more like the US than we already do.

Communism does not include or encourage private enterprise. Our COVID response, particularly in Victoria, has decimated private enterprise. Any connection?

Val Spencer, Eli Waters, Qld

Morrison's policy-free on environment, climate and everything else government, is marketing the political adage "if you can't convince 'em, confuse 'em, and if you can't convince 'em scare 'em", by establishing four new environmental hubs, none connected to a common axle ("Enviro science funding shake-up", December 5, p5).

Quel horreur! If it wasn't for the creaking railstock the XPT Sydney to Canberra would be pleasant, even without WiFi and USB connection!

Time magazine has named President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris its "Person of the Year." Wow! Not for actually doing anything but for supposedly "sharing a vision of healing". Next we'll have the Climate Ambition Summit gabfest nominated for a Nobel Science award!

Rather than dreaming up personal cracks about Senator Lidia Thorpe, Bill Deane (Letters 14 December), might think instead about what he could do to help repair the serious concerns she raised about long-term Indigenous/white relations.

Looking inwards might be a good starting point, because it's attitudes like Bill Deane's that are a large part of the problem.

Prior to 1788, Bill Deane (Letters, December 14), Aboriginal people had a good living, but much of that was destroyed after Europeans arrived.

When the war against the coronavirus pandemic is over there should be a Nuremberg-style trial to prosecute national leaders like Brazil's Bolsonaro and America's Trump for their deliberate failure to protect their citizens from the life threatening risk posed by the pandemic.

They must be held accountable for the thousands of deaths which could have been prevented had they acted as responsible leaders.

Is there anybody out there, apart from a few politicians, Brendan Nelson and Matt Anderson, who actually supports the outrageous waste of $500 million of public money on the AWM "upgrade"?

And don't get me started on the submarine project!

There is no argument from me! We are not winning the war on drugs. However, any move that could be seen to not discourage people to use drugs such as ice, is madness. Such a destructive substance should not be part of the social construct of our society. And to the backbencher who has raised this after an election where it wasn't mentioned, I just hope you're in my electorate.

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