Initially I received daily texts. On day nine the text from ACT Health advised me it was day 13 (similar to Mr Sullivan ("From flying visit to 15 days inside", August 31, p4). After this I did not receive any further contact by text, phone or email.

My husband received no contact whatsoever from ACT Health either by text, phone, email or home visit until August 30 when he received an email saying he would be released on August 27 (which had already passed) and was only day 10.

As we are both keen to comply with COVID-19 restrictions and to protect ourselves, our loved ones and our community, I rang ACT Health on day 13, endured a lengthy wait on hold and finally spoke to an operator.

I was told there was a "glitch" in the system and that many people were being emailed release notification on day nine or 10 of their quarantine. I asked the operator to check if they had a record of our COVID-19 tests for day two and day 12 of quarantine. I was told these are not automatically sent through on their system and it would be helpful if I could forward a screenshot of my negative test.

How can we have faith in the system keeping Canberra safe when people are potentially being released on days nine or 10 of quarantine without evidence of COVID-19 tests being completed?

Sarah Basford Canales has written an interesting article on the superb parrot ("Canberra researchers trial superb parrot nests amid habitat loss, climate change threat", canberratimes.com.au, August 30).

The article makes no mention of captive breeding programs for this species. Presumably, there aren't any.

Can I suggest in the interest of preservation of this and other such species that captive breeding, under the supervision of experts, be tried? The birds bred in captivity could be released in stages, with food and other resources made selectively available for them until they could manage on their own.

I was told when on a visit to WA some time ago that captive rainbow lorikeets from the east had been introduced there, and were out-competing local bird species for the available resources; which indicates what could be possible for the superb parrot, provided it had human support.

I have set up in my backyard a feeding station designed to be inaccessible to large aggressive birds such as white cockatoos, but accessible to smaller species they have in the past driven away. Time will tell.

It is no surprise that a former Australian Institute of Sport director has backed a move of the AIS to Queensland ("Former AIS director backs Queensland move", canberratimes.com.au, August 24).

The federal government has abrogated its responsibilities to this ground breaking and respected national institution in Canberra and let the AIS run down, neglecting its funding for years.

It has taken the same approach with other national institutions based in Canberra, such as the National Gallery, National Library, National Film and Sound Archives, National Archives et al. It is plainly Canberra-bashing and an attempt to win votes from those other electorates who envy this great city. It is great sport to run Canberra down.

It is time the federal government showed its pride in its unique capital city and "puts its money where its mouth is".

Many Canberra Times letter writers say more Afghans should be helped to get out of Afghanistan, but the harsh reality is that most Afghan refugees will end up spending their lives in refugee camps. The UNHCR already has around 2.5 million registered Afghan refugees seeking placement.

Fleeing to neighbouring Pakistan and Iran is not an option. Between them they already have six million Afghan refugees and have closed their borders to additional arrivals.

Although more than 100,000 Afghans will have been airlifted out of Kabul, only around half will be fast-tracked for placement in Western countries. The rest will join the queues of those waiting in refugee camps.

Muslim countries (with the exception of Tajikistan) don't want refugees, and that includes the wealthy Gulf states. Uganda would take 2000 of those airlifted out, but most Afghans won't want to go to Africa.

Back in Afghanistan, the reason the Taliban doesn't want to educate girls beyond a basic Islamic education to age 12 is because mothers educate the next generation of men and educated mothers would cause the gradual undermining of the Taliban's fundamentalist strictures.

Conveniently, under Taliban rule Afghan girls become marriageable from age 12 and are then expected to devote themselves to work in the home.

Thank you Douglas MacKenzie (Letters, August 27) for your advice that vaccinated persons can still carry the COVID-19. This of course is no different to the influenza virus and many others.

What you should have included was strong advice for all to get vaccinated against this evil curse that has been released upon our world. Any complications from transmission would then be much less damaging, and the world could probably live with it, and hopefully defeat it.

Police mobilised in their thousands to counter violent street protests. Soldiers patrolling the streets assisting the police in their task of ensuring that population remains compliant or at least indoors in family groups. The right of assembly suspended by increasingly draconian measures. The states threatening to tear the national unity apart under the guise of parochial interests. Did I wake up in North Korea? No, in Australia in 2021.

Liberal senator Zed Seselja claims the Morrison government is a "world leader" in climate action ("Climate survey: Canberrans among nation's strongest climate action advocates", canberratimes.com.au, August 31) yet, according to experts, the only two policy decisions to have shifted Australia's emissions downwards were state government land clearing restrictions and the carbon tax that Seselja's party opposed and repealed. Perhaps he meant a world leader in taking credit for others' actions.

David Hobson claims there were 4300 deaths from influenza in 2019 (Letters, August 28). My search of the ABS Leading Causes of Death for that year suggests that he is misquoting the combined total for influenza and pneumonia (4124).

Influenza was not reported separately. According to the RACGP there were 902 deaths from influenza in 2019, 36 in 2020, and none so far this year.

This compares with 989 Covid deaths in Australia since 2020. The very low number of flu deaths since 2019 probably explains why they haven't been reported daily, as Hobson complains, and why we are much more concerned with Covid now.

He is also incorrect and inconsistent when he claims that when deaths are attributed to Covid, it isn't the "main cause" of death in many cases.

The ABS follows the WHO definition of primary cause of death as "the disease or injury that initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death". This is the definition Hobson implicitly relies on when (mis)quoting the ABS figures on influenza.

It is not surprising that small-scale ACT construction sites will be precluded from opening up soon, given the number shut down in the past couple of years for showing a poor attitude to meeting very basic onsite worker and visitor safety requirements ("Restart plan ire builds up", canberratimes.com.au, August 30).

ACT inspection and monitoring resources will be stretched enough already without chasing rogue employers and building companies that may pay scant attention to additional COVID-19 safe workplace conditions designed to protect the health of their workers, those workers' households and the broader public that the sector interacts with during the work day.

The costs of noncompliance in a coronavirus environment are high and would ultimately be borne by the ACT government and the Canberra community.

Many would also be aware of the reckless disregard shown by some NSW builders for that state's new return-to-work requirements, especially in relation to projects tucked away on smaller suburban sites.

At a recent press conference Gladys Berejiklian began with the glad tidings that soon the vaccinated will be able to go on a picnic in the park. Oh, and by the way, we've had over 1000 new cases in the last 24 hours. Why does the Roman Emperor Nero spring to mind?

After watching COVID-19 protestors fighting for "freedom" I began to wonder if the Taliban would be prepared to swap a jumbo jet full of anti-lockdown infidels for a few of the Afghanistan citizens who graciously assisted the Australian Defence Force.

While Mr Joyce hopes Qantas will be able to resume business as usual the scientifically literate community is waiting for an announcement from the aviation industry about how it will reduce carbon emissions. Returning to business as usual isn't going to do it. Our emissions generating lifestyle got us into the climate emergency.

In response to Dr David Roth (Letters, August 30), I determined some time ago that Simon Cowan's columns and wacky views were not worth reading. I simply ignore them. It seems to me that by reading and challenging Simon's views I would give credence to them. I do not wish to do that.

Those Afghan leaders who fled their country are privileged traitors.

The astronomy article ("For astronomers getting a look in can be a challenge", Sunday Focus, August 29, p33) notes "astronomers here in Australia can observe the night sky in Chile during their normal working hours". One wonders what happens during normal sleeping hours. The dark web, perhaps?

To enhance his chances of re-election at the upcoming general election Scott Morrison should emulate China's Xi Jinping on climate change policy. That is to agree to everything the international community wants and then to do what is in Australia's best interest regardless.

For 20 years armament companies have been making a killing in the war in Afghanistan. Huge profits have been made. As Al Capone once said, "war is a racket". Capitalism has no principles in war.

It was all about Trump for four full years. Then COVID-19 for 20 months so far, and then, without any break, came Afghanistan. How can anyone endure all this in addition to our own demons? I am not coping well.

Electric vehicle charging in Braidwood would not just be useful for EVs of modest range such as the Leaf (Letters, August 19). Others with three times as much range might skip a charging stop in Batemans Bay and continue on to Braidwood if the chargers in Batemans Bay are occupied.

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