In regard to the tender, they confirm absolutely what we had told government; that a capital spend of upward of $3.5 billion was not viable in creating an operating project that would be at no net cost to government. Indeed, in our debrief, we were told that we had the best business case, at a projected spend of under $2 billion.

But we were unsuccessful. Why? Well because apparently, and I quote, "you didn't think of it first!" To say we were "gobsmacked" is an understatement. Had government understood the realities better, Canberrans - always the most enthusiastic for HSR despite not having the wherewithal to pay for it - could have had a travel time under two hours for 15 years.

In regard to the study, the taxpayer evidently received excellent value for money as our fees were less than one tenth of the cited $20 million budget. That study, which was the first ever to assess the project from the perspective of the national interest, remains as reference on the government website. Promoters of HSR could do worse than to dust it off and read it.

Fortunately, government now seems to have a better understanding of realities and is targeting a project more along the lines of what we had proposed

Once again sport appears to be exempt from common sense when it comes to helping fight COVID-19.

First it was rugby league, then that other ball game, you know the one where everyone runs around like headless chooks, AFL, that's it.

Now we have crowds at the cricket, albeit reduced for the SCG. You must only be able to catch COVID-19 at weddings, funerals or church services it seems.

Squint while you watch and you might just be able to pretend we aren't in the middle of a global pandemic.

The other night I noted a news item on television advising that due to the CPI increase many government charges, such as the cost of PBS scripts, were going up.

Fair enough I thought. Prices do go up. But then along comes my PSS superannuation CPI advice based on the period from March to September 2020.

I quote from that letter: "As the CPI has not increased, your pension will stay the same too. The CPI takes into account a range of goods and services, including food, transport, housing and healthcare..."

Now I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer (unless I am being compared to the average politician), but either the CPI went up and pensions such as mine should also rise or the CPI did not go up and thus neither my pension nor any government charges should have increased.

Did Treasurer Josh Frydenberg flunk his maths exam or is he telling porkies to the great unwashed? (That's a rhetorical question. He is a politician).

The developers of The Griffin apartments on Constitution Avenue have progressively restricted access to Commonwealth Park via the Parkes Way pedestrian underpass.

Now they have a huge sign advertising what they purport to be "lakefront living" despite their development being over 200 metres from the lake and separated from it by a major arterial road and the breadth of Commonwealth Park.

I hope their adherence to construction standards is better than that to standards of truth in advertising.

Egg producer Adam Lilleyman was quoted as saying, "Our goal was to produce ethical food and we thought the best way was to let the chickens be chickens and have as much space as they like". ("Farmers rewrite book on chickens", January 4, page 6).

To me, that's a fairly narrow view of what constitutes ethical treatment of chickens. Sure, it's fine to give them some room to roam for their short year or so on the farm but where do they go once their egg laying productivity drops off? Is it the same way as their millions of other Australian "sisters" each year? Rounded up, crammed into crates and trucked off to slaughter to be replaced by younger hens.

And where are the ethics when breeding hens? Half of the eggs hatched turn out to be male. These millions of day old male chicks are reportedly shredded alive, gassed and likely used for animal feed.

Is all that killing really ethical? Is breeding and using millions of sentient animals for unnecessary food ethical?

I support the national anthem as amended because it refers to all of us no matter what our background.

There is no need to make special reference to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, descendants of British colonists or migrants from many other countries.

The opening line of the second verse "Beneath our radiant southern cross" is a strong link with the national flag. Can we now just drop the Union Jack from the flag and retain the Federation Star and the stars of the Southern Cross?

Maybe we can then all stand united singing the anthem under the flag.

Re the recent amendment to the national anthem. There is a simple but profound way in which a change could be inclusive, historically honest, and remain the loved clarion call for the nation to affirm its fairness and freedom at every stage of its story.

The latest amendment, without inclusive Aboriginal input, changes "young", meaning the youthfulness of the nation, to "one", implying oneness.

First Nations people have repeatedly said they are "invisible in their own country." Once again they are absorbed into anonymity within an ostensibly inclusive collective descriptive.

Paul Keating spoke in his Redfern Speech about "...doing away with the bizarre conceit that this continent had no owners prior to settlement of Europeans".

He then asked non-Aboriginal Australians to imagine "...ourselves dispossessed of land we had lived in for 50,000 years... [and] imagine if ours was the oldest culture in the world and we were told it was worthless".

Aboriginal civilisation is internationally acknowledged as the oldest surviving civilisation on the planet.

To do justice to this antiquity necessitated the removal of the historically pejorative "young". But this also demands its replacement by its adjectival antithesis, "old", positively acknowledging that antiquity.

Even this change would need to be the call of the Aboriginal community. Its leaders could be asked to consider an Australian anthem that incorporates this most ancient of civilisations and which could be grafted on that heritage.

If the Aboriginal community agrees to this change what an honour it would be for all Australians to proudly sing: "Australians all let us rejoice. For we are old and free. In history's page let every stage Advance Australia fair".

After my 36 years in a sister service, I find the proposition that senior army officers were unaware of the actions of their subordinates, in respect of alleged war crimes, to be inconceivable. It goes way beyond the realms of my understanding of what constitutes a competent chain of command, accountability, and ethics.

I believe there are only three possibilities in respect of failure - incompetence, turning a blind eye, or a combination of both.

The Defence Minister should be asking questions, and doing so without delay, from the top down. The Sergeant Shultz defence that "I know nothing" doesn't cut any ice with me. I am reminded of the words of St Thomas Aquinas: "Ignorantia affectata," which translated from the Latin means "a wilful ignorance."

Inaction on sheeting home responsibility for command, and throwing a few troops under the bus, will constitute a whitewash.

The Minister also needs to consider the effects on those of us who thought we served in an honourable ADF. I can only describe my personal feeling as one of "hollowness". I feel betrayed; not by the troops but by those who should have exercised their command responsibilities and, prima facie, didn't.

During the COVID-19 cross-border outbreak I've taken a keen interest in the press conferences starring the NSW Premier and, more recently, her intriguing National Party deputy, young Johnny Barilaro. All I can say is "come back soon Gladys".

Page three of The Canberra Times on January 2 gave me another "ouch moment" when I read the phrase "moments of anxiousness". Whatever happened to "anxiety"? And, while we're about it, another lost noun is "humility", now replaced by "humbleness". Oh, please, let's not invent a new word when there's already a perfectly good one.

The Victorian government is turning residents away at the border and concerned citizens away from testing stations. How long before they simply deport the entire population from the state? (And continue to claim they are doing a great job)?

So, Anthony Albanese has labelled the PM "a fake" ("Albanese in fight mode labels PM a fake", canberratimes.com.au, January 4). He is is heading for the shock of his life when a majority of phantom "fake" voters will be voting for the Coalition and its "fake" leader Scott Morrison at the next election.

Any leader who calls a fellow leader a "fake" has just signed his own death warrant ("Albanese in fight mode labels PM a fake", canberratimes.com.au, January 4).

It's time for one more trip on the ferry across the Mersey ("Gerry Marsden, Pacemakers frontman dies", canberratimes.com.au, January 4)

The Victorian Health Minister, linking the Melbourne COVID-19 cluster to NSW, claimed the "genomic proof is in the pudding". No it isn't. The proof of the pudding, as the adage correctly states, "is in the eating". Can we please start 2021 by getting these old and wise sayings right and thus restore their meanings to what was intended.

Labor wants the COVID-19 vaccine rolled out before March if given approval in January. It feels better when we notice that Labor gets anything very right!

The apparent Y2K bug which that Ann Smith (Letters, January 4) thought had infected her digital watch was in fact not a bug but a feature. Unlike many people, it appears to have known (correctly) that years divisible by 400 are leap years in the Gregorian calendar.

How many months has the ACT government had to figure out a strategy and identify the resources needed to address such a scenario? ("Police call in border help", canberratimes.com.au, January 5)

"Do the bigger states care about the ACT?" asks Dan Jervis-Bardy, (The Canberra Times, January 5, p4). Of course they don't, they never do, but we could have the last laugh this time ... if only anyone could find something funny about COVID-19.

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