Yet we have decisions which impact our daily lives made by a Legislative Assembly which appear - with the exception of a small handful of members (on both sides) - to be lacking skills in public policy-making and at times common sense.

The latest effort about reframing the use and possession of drugs is a good example, sponsored by a person with thus-far limited life experience and yet to explain the pros and cons of the proposal.

Half the people of this city either work in the ACT or federal public service with many having had some exposure to policy-making. They must be shaking their heads in disbelief.

The opposition also has a role to play in all of this for the ACT government is only as good as the opposition allows it to be.

Maybe we need more checks and balances in our political system.

The contact tracers in NSW working on the current outbreak of COVID-19 in Sydney's northern beaches district have done a very good job.

In the Canberra Times on December 18, areas/places identified as at-risk locations include ones in Peakhurst, Penrith, Kirribilli and Artarmon.

Those suburbs are nowhere near the northern beaches, although possibly you could visit Kirribilli and Artarmon on your way to the beaches.

Similarly, the train routes identified would not take a passenger to the northern beaches district.

The places identified as likely hot spots show how rapidly this virus can spread.

I am writing to express my disappointment in the comments made by the President of the ACT Law Society ("Legal 'alarm' after lawyers arrested", December 18, p2) about the charges my business partners are facing.

Whilst the comments were accurate, they were, in my view, incomplete.

Absent from those comments was the reminder that my colleagues have, like anyone accused of criminal offences, the benefit of the presumption of innocence.

I was also disappointed that there was no expression of support for members of a professional organisation by its president.

Certainly other Canberra solicitors accused of serious criminal charges have received such public support from the Law Society.

Your story "New drug may treat the untreatable" (December 18, p14) is tucked away on the bottom of a page in between pages of ads and a story about a rapist.

This story is major news! It should have been on page one at least as this is one of the most important breakthroughs in medicine in ages and has huge implications for health around the world. It is also relevant that it comes at a time where the ANU is slashing the science budgets.

Apart from its effects on the victims, the treatment of sepsis takes up an enormous amount of hospital staff's time and resources that could be freed to work on other areas.

If, as asserted by John Hewson, "renewables are cheaper", why does he want the government to impose a tax on coal and gas-fired generators to make them more expensive ("Another ridiculous and indefensible decision", December 18, p47)?

The national electricity market ensures that electricity generated by the lowest cost generators is dispatched first. If renewables are genuinely cheaper, investors should be rushing to construct solar and wind farms without any government regulation to penalise their competitors.

How can we believe Prime Minister Scott Morrison is truly sincere in wanting a "mature" meeting with China's President Xi Jinping after having had no contact with him for the past 18 months ("Morrison pushes for 'mature' China meeting", December 17)?

During all this time, Morrison simply followed in the footsteps of US President Donald Trump, who also has had no contact with the Chinese leader.

This has sent a message to China that Morrison's only agenda is to side with the US in a strategic rivalry between two nuclear-armed superpowers that could chart the future course of human civilisation.

We not only know they are both seriously preparing for war, but we also know that it took the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end Japan's imperialistic expansionism in World War II.

If Morrison had any maturity, he should pick up the phone and speak to his Chinese counterpart. For how much more would it take to end hostilities in a Sino-American conflict?

While Cristina Talacko and Matt Edwards are right to highlight Australia's rapid take up of renewables compared to the rest of the world, they are wrong to suggest that Mathias Cormann has any interest or capability in that field ("Australians should back Cormann for the OECD top job", December 17).

In an unprecedented week, two prominent Australians, Bob Carr and John Hewson, have written publicly opposing a Cormann appointment. The OECD will know that as recently as February 2020, Cormann described net-zero 2050 target as "extremist and irresponsible."

Cormann has strong opposition from nine other contenders. I suspect that celebrating with Cuban cigars is unlikely.

What will 2021 bring? Science tells us that without a huge change in the way we live, and deal with the environment, it will be more of the same - catastrophe, misery, crisis and death.

Our human species could almost certainly manage the nine threats that are bearing down on us: (global overheating, global poisoning, weapons of mass destruction, resource depletion, pandemics, ecosystem destruction, food insecurity, overpopulation and uncontrolled technologies), if we were not also complicit in a 10th threat, the mass delusion that none of these things are really happening, or that we can afford to wait and see what happens.

The only way humans will survive, is if we can agree to embark on transformative change in our culture. Australia could be showing the way.

After a 50-year break, I have decided to send my Christmas present list to Santa again. Why Santa? Well he listens to good people and tries to get them what they want or need. I have lost faith in political leaders in so many countries and there are still a number of people that are ignoring the medical advice they get so I had to look a bit wider.

I tried Zooming Santa but there is quite a long list of one-on-one meeting requests and I am down for some time in 2031.

I tried emailing him, but my Gmail wasn't working. The phone call approach seems a bit out of date now and I am sure Santa has modernised his approach.

I hope Santa or one of the elves reads the "Letters to the editor" section.

All I want are the standard things: world peace; a vaccine for COVID that everyone can get; and to be able to visit family and friends any time and safely.

On a personal level I would like my football team to win this year and especially not get beaten by a late goal minutes before the end of the game.

Thanks Santa!

It is staggering to find out that only 1 per cent of Australia's total jobs are employed in the fossil fuel industry ("Fossil fuels could be wound back without massive layoffs: report", December 16). Judging from the way politicians harp on about the mining industry and their jobs, one cannot help but imagine a significantly larger percentage of the Australian population being employed in the sector.

Surely assisting and supporting 11 mining communities to transition away from fossil-fuel jobs is very achievable.

It is way past time that these communities get an honest answer about their job prospects and are supported as they transition from the dying fossil fuel industry to economically flourishing sectors.

Like clockwork, the irony of climate change denial by a country most vulnerable to its vicissitudes returns. One time fire, next time flood. As our leaders incredibly thumb their noses at science and the rest of the world in relation to climate change, yet another event thumps the living daylights out of us. Our wildlife decimated, our Barrier Reef dying and now Byron Bay Beach gone.

Still, a handful of jobs in Queensland and the Hunter are safe, so we should all sleep well at night.

While I agree with the sentiments of John Panneman's letter (December 18), as a life member of the Society of Pedants, I wish he would use "we Europeans" rather than "us Europeans" as the pronoun for the subject of the sentence. While this usage is, regrettably, fairly common in the verbal expressions of poorly educated young people, it should be avoided in print.

Australia may complain about the trade barriers being put in place by China but Australia has long ignored WTO decisions with regard to New Zealand apples to protect its own outdated industry by proclaiming spurious concerns about fireblight. Nothing but an unsightly non-tariff trade barrier.

The Woden, Weston Creek and Molongolo Valley Dec 2020 edition of Our CBR urged Canberrans to shop locally at participating businesses to gain discounts.

Yet the business featured on the front cover, according to the chooseCBR website, is not participating in the voucher scheme. What a joke!

How refreshing to read of two students with a balanced approach to life and study achieving outstanding year 12 academic results (Canberra Times, December 18).

Jamie Boyd's performance this year in Canberra Repertory's Byron Bay Memoirs was one of the standout theatrical performances of the year.

Nada Vidyattama's commitment to others is also exemplary. What inspiring role models.

Steve Evans (and occasional colleagues) deserves the title of "the entertainer" for his expressively written column "The Explainer". Well done, top class journalism!

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it. Those are my principles, and if you don't like them ... well, I have others.

With a surname like "Thorpe", it occurs to me that Senator Lidia Thorpe would not be here in her present form unless Captains Cook, Phillip etc. had come here. Her Indigenous side must criticise her European ancestors.

I will only blame ScoMo not state premiers if we have a spike in COVID-19 infections in any state. He has been rushing to open the borders all along.

Mr Morrison, sorry to see your repeated assessment of NSW COVID control as world class has fallen a bit flat. International air crew from all parts of the COVID-ravaged earth allowed to pick their own quarantine hotel willy nilly!

"Gold standard" NSW!

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).