The athletes are young, very fit and healthy and at the top of their game. They have also been blessed by the government to be allowed to hop, skip and jump the vaccine queue. ("Olympians to receive early access to Covid vaccine", April 28, p4).

Meanwhile many of those in groups 1a and 1b - the aged and the disabled - who have long been recognised as being under greatest threat from the virus are still waiting for their first and second jabs.

It's time to adjust our focus and review our priorities.

The Olympics should be cancelled or deferred for 12 months. The athletes can continue training and even participate in virtual competitions as they prepare for the next Commonwealth Games.

They will be able to hold their heads high with the knowledge that by waiting in the vaccine queue with the rest of us their doses of vaccine were redirected to the most at risk in groups 1a and b. Let's keep life and lives in perspective.

I am so sick of hearing about athletes who have worked so hard for up to five years to be able to compete in the Olympic Games. They are to receive priority vaccination against COVID-19.

What about those people languishing in residential aged care who have worked for 50 or 60 years, contributed to the wealth and well-being of the nation and supported said athletes through taxation? They get shoved to the back of the queue because they can't run or throw a ball and are easy to ignore. When will they be vaccinated?

This entire Olympic rort makes me sick.

Reading the report "Light rail design contract to cost $90 million" (April 29, p3) drove home to me the unnecessary complexity and breathtaking expense of the Rattenbury-Barr government's light rail project. The London Circuit overpass alone will cost many millions and cause major traffic disruption in the busiest part of the city.

The next huge outlay will be the crossing of Lake Burley Griffin, followed by the mutilation of Commonwealth Avenue and the re-engineering of the State Circle-Adelaide Avenue intersection. All for the Canberra Greens' pipe dream of a 19th century - or, to be generous, early 20th century - transport system.

The ACT government could have a 21st-century mass transport system and save money by following the lead of Paris, Mexico City, Montreal, Santiago, Tokyo and 22 other world cities and invest in rubber-tyred urban trains. These can use existing roads and bridges, and are fully flexible rather than being confined to steel rails.

One per cent inflation? In the hope the RBA folk read the CT letters, here's just a couple of suggestions to add to the CPI basket, to make it less obviously artificial and intentionally underestimating.

In addition to burdens such as council rates and utilities, the blowout in property insurance (car and home) due to extreme weather events can no longer be considered marginal and irrelevant. It's happening all the time, ubiquitously and devastatingly.

An apocalyptic 45-minute hailstorm a year ago wrote off 20,000 cars and destroyed roofs across a significant swathe of Canberra. With repairs still ongoing.

Secondly, it's time to recognise Australia is becoming an apartment-living nation - and egregiously-built apartments at that.

Ignoring the newsworthy, overnight-evacuated newish builds that sensationally bankrupt owners, the vast majority of the large proportion of apartment complexes built in the last generation bleed their owners progressively and unrelentingly, through rectifications, litigation and exorbitant "maintenance". Their body corporate levies inflate accordingly in a way that should also certainly be quantified for the CPI.

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