If it is safe to play these sports then businesses should be allowed to open so long as the same COVID-19 safety measures are in place.

I am sure people would rather be able to see their families, friends and so on, especially with school holidays about to begin. Why weren't the rules relaxed for everyone?

This decision by the government is ridiculous and dangerous.

But, of course, when it comes to sport the government allows the rules to be bent time and time again.

Why is it that in a state with thousands of COVID-19 cases and hundreds of deaths, the NSW coronavirus news conferences are full of confidence, hope and positive tidings?

Opening day is within sight for the double-vaccinated.

Yet in the ACT, with its handful of cases and no deaths, our Chief Minister is full of doom and gloom.

Despite our record vaccination rates, we have no pathway, no hope for the vaccinated, and a prediction of months of economic misery and lockdown.

Why is this so?

I have sent an email to the ACT Minister for Health suggesting that the ACT government distribute rapid antigen tests.

I understand they are readily available at no cost in the UK through the NHS.

My husband and I are in the position of being quite limited in the way we can help our children by looking after our grandchildren (four and 10 months) while they attempt to work at home.

With rapid antigen testing we could test them and ourselves daily and, all being negative and if regulations allowed, bring the children to our house to be cared for, for at least a part of every day.

On Tuesday evening I went to Parkinson St in Weston, where I'd twice previously been tested, for a COVID-19.

The place was "locked and barred" but visible through the glass door was a sign saying testing was no longer done there. It added the standard cop-out line "go online for further information".

Seriously, ACT Health? Nobody thought it appropriate to add the address of the nearest testing site to the notice or post it prominently on the inside of the glass door?

That would've been logical, sensible and helpful.

I'm due for my second jab next week and have been told to get tested before that as I have had a cold almost ever since I had the first shot.

I'm in mid-70s and am unable and unwilling to remain standing in the cold outside a closed testing clinic playing around with my phone.

I caught the next bus home. My test must wait.

At the last election Labor grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory for a variety of reasons. They already appear to be doing the same approaching the next election.

The infighting over the seat of Fowler preselection is a case in point. Senator Kristina Keneally has been relegated to a difficult-to-win position in the Senate, so the big boys are putting her up in Fowler, a safe Labor seat.

I note that Tanya Plibersek was cagey when asked if she supported the move.

Tu Le - an outstanding local candidate who has lived and worked in the community, is Vietnamese like 15 per cent of the constituency, and has the support of the outgoing member - will likely be dumped by Labor.

She should contest the election as an independent, and with her local record might well win given the anger of the electorate.

At a time when we are constantly hearing from the noisy minority who are virulently anti-vaccine and anti-public health measures, it is worth remembering what the experts expected before this pandemic.

As far as I am aware, no democratic government (or their expert advisers) contemplated lockdowns and internal border closures as part of their pandemic plans.

They would not have thought the community or the economy could tolerate them.

We now have ample real-world evidence that, to a very large extent, both the people and the economy are more resilient than either our leaders or their advisers thought.

This should give us a lot of hope for the future. Not just in dealing with pandemics, but also with big collective problems like climate change.

People can and will do more if they understand why and how to do it. To paraphrase the great suffragette slogan, "trust the people".

The artwork of prominent Australian artist, poet, and political cartoonist Michael Leunig was pulled from the planned posters of the National Folk Festival because the board had not been aware of his views on vaccination at the time of their collaboration.

The artist explained it was a person's right to choose what they do with their body.

The right to be free to choose and refuse medical procedures is so relevant it is in the ACT's Human Rights Act.

Let contemporary folk songs comment, laud and lampoon current politics and personalities. This is one way to keep folk music alive. I have always seen the need for folk music to keep finding ways to be a voice for the next generation. In my opinion Leunig would be supportive.

I hate seeing the administrators of the NFF becoming the controllers of what we are allowed to say, even to this limited extent. In my view they are misusing their organisation which exists to promote and enable the messages and the music from folks.

The Morrison government's plan to force migrants to wait longer to access income support payments is so economically naive it beggars belief. ("Welfare revamp could put migrants in poverty", September 13, p2).

Migrants, like all others in the community, did not anticipate the pandemic. They have come here to be part of the community. Delaying access to income support will, as in all other cases, automatically increase the stresses on the provision of health services, food charities, the legal system and public housing.

If this government was truly concerned about "self-sufficiency" and the "sustainability of the welfare system" it would not have permitted access by the impoverished to superannuation while giving billions of dollars away to their wealthy business mates under the JobKeeper scheme.

Robyn Priddle (Letters, September 13) is concerned about the lack of choice of vaccines for older adults.

She and others should not be too concerned about having the AstraZeneca vaccine.

I was initially worried about this too. What settled it for me was hearing a Fisher GP on radio in May stating the danger of getting blood clots is less as you get older.

Fisher is one of the clinics administering the vaccine.

That settled it for me. I've now had both doses; I only had a mild reaction after both jabs.

Thank you for the article "Our Right to Decide" (canberratimes.com.au, September 13). You reported the legislation before the Senate to enable the Northern Territory to legislate on euthanasia excluded the ACT because our own senator, Zed Seselja, said he was opposed to our territory having the same rights to legislate on this matter as the states. Is that really the case, Senator Seselja? We all need to know exactly where you stand; not just on assisted dying, but on the status of the ACT.

On September 8 NSW police reportedly fined ex-PM Tony Abbott $500 for not wearing a mask while he was walking on Manly Beach. Apparently he was spotted by a member of the public who took a picture and "dobbed" him in to the police.

Tony Abbott argued he did not break the law but said he would not challenge the fine. He seemed most upset by what he claimed was un-Australian "dobbing and snitching".

That comment says it all. When all are supposed to comply with public health orders to keep safe we have a former PM giving succour to those who feel their "human and constitutional rights" are being "violated" by having to wear facemasks in public.

Why, Robyn Priddle, (Letters, September 13) is it a "boast" when Scott Morrison says he "is following the medical advice", and not a boast when McGowan, Andrews and Palaszczuk do exactly the same thing?

Everyone working in hospitality should wear a mask, especially when handling food and when waiting at tables. And please brush or tie back the hair (otherwise wear a cute cap). This has worked in many countries long before COVID-19. Surely Australia can at least try.

It is pretty simple really. Wearing masks (correctly) now will hasten the day when we don't need to wear masks at all.

The Reverend Dr Paschal Corby ("Vaccine conditions that threaten employment are simply coercion" September 13, p18) obviously believes that when decisions have to be made, conscience must trump commonsense so selfishness can triumph.

Breasts will be beaten and snarls will be snarled amid cries of "a khaki election", but Aussies all know that Dutton was right to defend those defending our nation.

Surely an essential service would be something that nearly everyone uses? I don't know how this would apply to religious observance.

When it comes to commenting on our diplomatic and defence relations, Bill Stefaniak ("Dutton on the money", Letters, September 14) should probably stick to what he knows best. And that is ... (fill in the blank).

Clever of Queensland to have their own official "APP" (Annastacia Palaszczuk, Premier). Parochial information can be obtained by downloading from daily news outlets and the television.

The CBA should be renamed the CBN; the Commonwealth Bank of Nowhere. Our branch was initially downsized at the Jamison Centre in Macquarie. It now appears to have disappeared altogether. Even the ATMs are gone.

Has anyone noticed there seem to be more freedoms in Kabul right now? But wait, LiquorLand remains open for the foolhardy here. We call it culture.

If the Canberra Liberals are so concerned with small business owners in Canberra, perhaps they could have a quick word with their federal colleagues. In addition to the owners, there are many, many more workers underneath them. Maybe an extension of JobKeeper could help us all?

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