With an FOI request it has been dragged into admitting that more than one-third of all ACT residential properties didn't get a rates freeze, but an increase.

The detail blocked in the FOI is as revealing as what was shown. The government effectively said it doesn't know how much rates revenue it is collecting. For a government to take such an extraordinary step we can assume there must be something substantial to hide. It seems likely total rate revenue increased; more of a rates cooling than a freeze.

Having been caught out making misleading statements, Mr Barr's office repeats another, that properties had increases in rates "... because their land value increased significantly ...". While there may be some properties with huge land value increases, it is likely most properties saw an increase because the settings of the tax system were increased.

The government also blocked the table in the FOI request that would have quantified how many.

While misleading statements are bad enough, it is the false statement that Mr Barr presented to every ratepayer in the context of the election that "the usual annual increase was not applied to 2020-21 residential general rates bills" that is most serious.

One should not forget that the new President of the USA, Joe Biden, has been a supportive party to decisions and policies that have caused countless tragedies for millions of people throughout the world.

The best example is his enthusiastic support for the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the reasons for which were a blatant lie, and which lead to the deaths and wounding of thousands of soldiers from many countries, the killing of an estimated one million Iraqis and the total destabilisation of the Middle East, continuing still today.

One should not think that anything will change in the USA or that Australia's role as a US puppet will vary one degree.

Biden's war support record is there for all to see.

So, I put on my University of Delaware T-shirt in celebration of Joe Biden's inauguration only to see Thursday's The Canberra Times front page had a photo montage showing Joe Biden in his "home city of Delaware".

Not for the first time The Canberra Times (and ABC) have got Biden's Delaware wrong.

To be clear, Delaware is neither a city nor a town. It is a state - the first of the original 13 - which he represented in the US senate for many years.

I've also seen his "home state" wrongly reported as Maryland and Pennsylvania. He was saying thanks and farewell in Wilmington, Delaware, which happens to be the birthplace of my wife.

The Strumpet should have lost his Twitter account a long time ago, just as he should never have been elected. No accounting for the taste of some voters.

An experiment was conducted on Twitter - direct quotes were lifted from the President's messages. The quotes when used under another names were immediately then blocked or banned.

He was given plenty of rope. But don't say that on social media, you might get censored.

I have found a very essential home for one of the 34 surplus original concrete bus shelters ("Concrete bus shelters find new home, canberratimes.com.au, January 16).

I propose that the shelter be located directly opposite the current southbound route 31 shelter (No 4937) on Aikman Drive / Belconnen, as the current northbound shelter (No 4144) is too far away at 350 metres for the elderly residents of Kangara Waters Retirement Village/Belconnen to negotiate. The next shelter (No 1736) at the entrance of the Rehab Hospital is slightly closer at 300 metres, but is uphill. Once installed, the shelter could also service bus service R8, and the current R8 shelter removed.

I sincerely hope that Transport Canberra shows some empathy towards the elderly, and considers implementing my proposal asap.

In writing "If not for COVID-19 (Donald Trump's) promise of jobs in America would have come true", Ian Morison (Letters, January 21) overlooks the former president's dismissive and negligent attitude to the ravages of the coronavirus.

According to worldometers.info, there had been 24,918,147 coronavirus cases in the US, and 414,094 deaths as of January 20, the day Trump officially ceased to be US president.

Mr Morison should have written "If not for Donald Trump ...".

I was wanting to know if there are any Canberrans who were involved with the Contra Youth Centre in Canning Street, Ainslie, from 1969 to 1972. It was set up as a centre for organising protests against the Vietnam War and students and young people gathered there for meetings etc.

My husband Ian MacDougall also ran classes on Marxism for interested students, some of whom were involved in the Socialist Youth Alliance Canberra branch he established in 1970. He was very active in organising protests. I would also like to know when the centre closed. My husband was not involved much after 1972. Anyone with any information could contact me on 6290 2655. I am writing a book on MacDougall's life and the centre and the protest movement was a significant part of his life during the 60s in both Sydney and Canberra.

In the article "Australians cashed up for end of stimulus" (canberratimes.com.au, January 14) treasurer Josh Frydenberg seems to be almost gloating when he announces "there is a huge sum of money available to be spent across the economy helping to create jobs and maintain the momentum of our economic recovery".

Would it be too cynical of me to ask whether Mr Frydenberg could check to see just how much of the $200 billion of "amassed savings" came straight out of superannuation accounts into savings accounts?

My dearest hope is that the current fracas over horses on the ACT-NSW Border does not result in a re-run of the debacle of 1989 when an unknown number of wild horses were inhumanely slaughtered at Smoker's Gap by untrained and unqualified rangers using inadequate calibre rifles.

There was an award winning documentary They shoot horses don't they? It is still available online. As I know from experience (no it was not in Vietnam) shooting from a helicopter is not something learnt on the job. It seems every other country on earth has come to terms with wild horses, except Australia.

A 24-storey mainly residential redevelopment complex, called "W2", is proposed to be built next to the Woden Town Square and cheek-by-jowl with the north facade of the Lovett (formerly MLC) Tower.

W2's excessive height and bulk insults the nationally-important planning and urban-design heritage, and amenity of the Woden town centre. Approval of its earlier, almost identical iteration was obviously a mistake ("'No option': Decade-old DA endorsed by authority", Jan. 6, p. 4).

W2's proponents do not claim their development will satisfy Rule R18 of the Territory Plan's Phillip Code which requires at least 1000 square metres of the town square be in sunlight from 9 am to 3 pm on the winter solstice. Rule R19 requires W2 retains a minimum three hours solar access to the main daytime living areas and private open space of dwellings on adjoining blocks in winter. The Lovett Tower may contain apartments. In that situation, W2 would not comply with R19, and effectively imposes a "restrictive trade practice" on Lovett Tower's development.

Approval for W2 must be disallowed.

On Wednesday night I had a dream that Donald Trump had flown away and President Biden and Dr Biden were moving into the White House. I dreamt he was leading the most diverse government in US history and had pledged to heal his "wounded land". And then I woke up and it was all true.

"Signs of the Times" (Letters, January 20) raises the the question "what is bordering on stupidity?" Answer - Mexico and Canada.

American democracy has prevailed despite the dangerous attempt by a megalomaniac to dismantle it. Americans have demonstrated their allegiance and commitment to the country's constitution and the institutions of state and government, and not to a power intoxicated man.

I gather Twitter has been busy transitioning accounts to the new administration. Might there be a new requirement this year for an @ex-fakepresident account?

The world's attempts to glean seeds of hope through battling the pandemic with vaccination brings to mind connotations of needles in haystacks and last straws.

I used to wonder why the landscaping profession was so keen on using native grasses in public plantings. Now, after bountiful spring rains, Northbourne Avenue plantings and others are indistinguishable from Canberra's unmown verges and nature parks. They have created a uniscape.

My mother once told me that during the post World War I Spanish flu epidemic she and her siblings liked it when their mother sent them to the shops to "do the messages". They had to wear masks and apparently they thought that they looked "cool".

Recently on Twitter someone said that he didn't want to wear a mask because he valued his freedom. I suggested to him that, if he wanted real freedom, he should drive on the wrong side of the road.

People wonder why the PM hasn't stepped in to pull McCormack, Christensen and Kelly into line. The Coalition holding government with a two seat majority in an election year might explain this.

Now two people have publicly declared Muhammad Ali as the greatest. Kenneth Griffiths, (Letters, January 19) and Ali himself. A sportsman, not undefeated, pales in comparison with Franklin Roosevelt, Henry Ford, Elvis Presley and many others.

Seriously? I refer to the newly discovered spray-can "works of art" by Sidney Nolan. If I turned up at the National Gallery with those under my arm, wanting to sell them as my own work, the staff would probably insist that I be breathalysed.

State borders are being closed and harsh restrictions imposed on the basis of fear, not science. Can communities be expected to comply with these unscientific decisions?