Australia should be ashamed that it treats its poor and disadvantaged with such cruelty and inhumanity. Australia's economy is certainly strong enough to bring an end to this behaviour.

It is behaviour sadly characteristic of the present government whose own actions early in the pandemic recognised the gross inadequacy of JobSeeker unsupplemented. However, given the long history of this matter, both major political parties share the blame and shame.

An extra $3.50 a day? This is not enough to buy a loaf of bread. This is a disgrace. The government speaks about all the jobs becoming available, but where are they?

I understand, from hearing from unemployed people on the ABC news, that there may be huge numbers of applicants for any given job.

A few days ago I saw a 65-year-old woman who is now homeless living in a tent.

Why are there so many homeless people? Once there would have been public housing for people who could not afford the private rental market.

All the states and territories have been negligent.

Why has the government refused to fund the building of public housing?

Spending on roads and bridges does not put roofs over the heads of desperate people.

Furthermore the money the government has given to this kind of infrastructure is almost exclusively for male jobs.

An extra amount equal to the cost of a cup of coffee each day, while searching for a job in a very difficult unemployment situation, is the government's answer to the desperate situation millions of Australians face.

Australia rates very low on the level of unemployment benefits in the OECD. While well off people can afford expensive tax advice to minimise paying their reasonable share, some people have to choose between feeding their families or paying the rent.

On the ABC's 7.30 on Tuesday, the minister was unwilling to address the unfairness of MPs receiving $250 per night when they are away from home while the unemployed make do on $43.57 a day.

When will the government show some leadership on this important issue?

Faye Thornhill (Letters, February 24) says she was attending an anti-(mandatory) vaccination rally, along with caring, concerned mums, dads, workers and others, most of whom were "well informed", because she is pro-choice.

I wasn't aware that having the vaccine was mandatory, so her attendance seems to have been unnecessary.

Personally, I will be choosing to have the vaccine because the science overwhelmingly supports its efficacy.

Society obviously must not tolerate even low level drink driving.

Reports state that Canberra Raider Corey Horsburgh was pulled over by police for failing to use his indicator while negotiating a roundabout.

Given that at least half of the drivers I observe haven't the slightest clue about indicating correctly at roundabouts, Corey must be the unluckiest driver in the ACT.

Perhaps The Canberra Times could publish a simple diagram showing the correct method, which is really quite straightforward.

It is both sad and tiring to read about yet another young Raiders recruit who has been done for driving under the influence.

What was he thinking? Oh, wait a minute, he obviously wasn't. Alcohol seems to be at the root of many of the recent troubles befalling Raiders players in particular and NRL players in general.

What will it take to prevent these sorts of stories happening in the first place?

Since Wilson Parking brought in the $7 all day parking at Homeworld (used predominantly by public servants I would suggest) you have absolutely no hope of finding a park if you want to shop at any of the shops or visit Access Canberra.

I've lost count of the number of times I've driven in, around, then back out because there's no parking.

I have emailed a few of the shops there to complain, but there's nothing they can do. In fact one of the shops said the car park is full from early morning.

All of the businesses will be losing business if something isn't done to rectify this situation.

I for one will just take my business elsewhere. Ideally a row of one hour parking for customers only could be created, but I doubt Wilson Parking would want to miss out on the revenue.

As you drive past the Gungahlin Leisure Centre there is a strong pungent smell.

It is not from the stale 50m pool water because there isn't any water. The pool has been empty for 12 months.

It is actually the stench of political cover up.

A television station was not permitted inside recently to take footage for a news story and Ms Berry was strangely unavailable to give us the government's usual "spin".

Privacy and confidentiality have been trotted out yet again but we really do not need to know the financial machinations behind this deplorable situation.

What caused the tiles to delaminate? When will work commence to fix the problem? What is the estimated date for reopening? Is it akin to the problems in Tarra Place, Ngunnawal perhaps?

I wonder when we will get a whiff of transparency, frankness and honesty?

I recently had to rescue a joey tangled upside down in a rusty mesh fence between the Wanniassa Nature Reserve and a government horse paddock.

Mum was going around crazy on one side, my dog on the other. These old mesh fences with multiple wires seem a relict from resumed farms.

Retaining such fences may contravene Chris Steele's recent animal cruelty act.

I refer to The Canberra Times article "Residents oppose YWCA housing proposal" (February 18, p14) about the YWCA plan to build, on their own site in Ainslie, 10 single-storey units for vulnerable older women and women who have experienced domestic violence, and the opposition to this initiative by some local residents.

This opposition, couched in terms of maintaining a privileged version of "community facilities" within a largely affluent suburb, smacks of discrimination. The existing YWCA facility takes up a relatively small area adjacent to Bill Pye Park.

Of course it is appropriate to consider the impact of any new development on an existing neighbourhood. Surely Canberra has the capacity to come up with a sympathetic and imaginative design for this proposal that can incorporate the intention of the YWCA plan and the existing amenities of Rutherford Crescent.

I suppose, in the end, it all depends on what one defines as "community".

Ainslie has one of the highest proportions of social housing in Canberra at around 20 per cent. The YWCA's proposed multi-unit development will increase the proportion of social housing in the street to 50 per cent. We support the government's goal of salt and peppering social housing across Canberra at 15 per cent for each suburb.

Our issue is less with the YWCA's opportunistic land grab, although disappointed with their attitude of ignoring the social infrastructure needs of the local community. It is with the government's recent inclusion of a clause encouraging residential development on community facilities land (supported accommodation). This has been done without any assessment of local community needs or consultation on alternatives.

The vision for this site is to reinstate it as a preschool, community garden and a centre for sustainability.

We are seeking a moratorium on multi-unit residential developments on community facility land. The government could swap a same-sized block of appropriately zoned residential land for the YWCA so community life can be breathed back into Ainslie's community facility site.

The Morrison government has increased the JobSeeker allowance by $3.57 per day. Perhaps the Prime Minister could calculate how many kilos of sausages that would buy for a family on JobSeeker per week.

I am in awe of the (self-proclaimed) intellect, and instant success, of the demonstrators for vaccination choice ("ACT demonstrators were pro-choice, not anti-vaccination" Faye Thornhill, Letters, February 24). I assume their chant, as they marched around the Carillon, would have been: "What do we want? The status quo! When do we want it? Already!"

With Craig Kelly resigning from the Liberal Party surely Scott Morrison is aware skating on thin ice can be a hazardous occupation. Or is he so consumed with his own rhetoric he is blind to the position he and the Coalition are in?

For TV journalists: We are well over footage of vaccine bottles on conveyor systems, needles going into arms, and swabs going up noses.

What a difference between the dignified demeanour of Ashleigh Barty in defeat compared to the tantrum by prima donna Novak Djokovic. Ashleigh lost the match but she won our respect and our hearts instead. Well done Ash.

Your headline (Monday, February 22) stated "Biden declares Texas a major disaster". I would have thought that this would have been applicable to the rest of the USA Joe.

It's logical Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny be sentenced to a Soviet-era penal colony. President Putin is all about restoring the Soviet past, an essential element of which was the purging of dissidents and locking them up in remote Siberian Gulags.

Your regular puff pieces on the new members of the Legislative Assembly, while they provide proof that there is a person behind the position, and for some they may be interesting profiles, provide no insights into how the subjects' personal experiences connect to their omitted political visions or any commitment to a policy.

There's a touch of karma in Morrison/Frydenberg's castigating Zuckerberg, and negotiating with him, while unashamedly using his "product" as the Google behemoth throws a few crumbs to newsrooms and the starved ABC looks on.

Thorium reactors are a viable energy source. It is difficult to make nuclear weapons from their byproducts. The half-life of thorium is 500 years. People like Rory McElligott (Letters, February 22) with alarmist and ignorant views are the real "thickheads" in this debate.

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