This trail was completely renewed just a few years back.

I can see perfectly good treated-pine sleepers being removed, to be replaced with I'm not sure what.

I hope they don't simply end up at the tip. Surely taxpayers' money could be put to better use, even if this spend is meant to simply stimulate the COVID-19-hit economy?

I am a regular user of this beautiful trail but do not expect it to be maintained to a gold standard.

It needs to have the feel of a trail, not a highway.

I read with interest the letter from Michael and Christine O'Loughlin (Letters, October 19) in support of the Ainslie NIMBYs who oppose the social housing project for 10 older Canberra women.

By the way, older women are the fastest growing cohort of the homeless.

I hope that I can exercise my own NIMBY request. That is not to have anyone like the O'Loughlins in my neighbourhood.

I refer to your report "Some ACT teachers reject COVID vaccine mandate," (canberratimes.com.au, October 21).

A school principal claimed the vaccines were "experimental" and that he was "willing to risk catching COVID". Are the children, parents, and grandchildren who attend that school also willing to take the risk of his infecting them?

To the Charnwood-Dunlop School principal: presumably you are familiar with the topics of maths and science. There's a reason 99 per cent of Canberrans are vaccinated. It is to protect your staff, pupils and parents. Wake up, champ.

Johnathan Davis MLA (Letters, October 21) provides a touching account of his childhood growing up in an uplifting public housing environment.

Guess what, Johnathan, we also grew up in public housing. But that was at a time when public housing was largely allocated to low-income working people, a far cry from the welfare-dominated wasteland it's become today.

We don't blame the tenants. They don't own the properties and are not responsible for managing the public housing estate. Additionally, in many cases, they need help to meet their obligations, help that all too often is not forthcoming.

No, the blame lies squarely with the ACT government, including your leader, Shane Rattenbury, who has point-blank refused to discuss issues arising from public housing. He and you are members of a government that not only has shown extreme reluctance to apply and enforce its own tenancy provisions, but also has exacerbated the problem by implementing new tenancy laws that render it almost impossible for landlords, including Housing ACT, to deal effectively with problem tenants.

Like you, Johnathan, many Canberrans claim to welcome the possibility of public housing being located near where they live. Therein lies a solution. The ACT government should seek expressions of interest from those who wish to have public housing located near them, and leave the rest to live their lives in peace.

It was good to read that MLA Johnathan Davis had an enjoyable upbringing in ACT public housing (Letters, October 21).

As indicated in the letters pages of The Canberra Times (and different forums over the years), many others, tenants and neighbours, do not share his views nor his experience.

But Mr Davis draws our attention to his status as an MLA .

His role is to represent his constituents, hopefully after consulting them beforehand, and work with colleagues and others to respond to the many problems of social housing - including availability, waiting times, maintenance of dwellings as well as the behaviour of some tenants.

When he has done that, his views as a well-informed MLA can then be considered.

We are not attacking public housing tenants per se, Johnathan Davis MLA (Letters, October 21), but the minority of these people who make other residents' lives miserable and Housing ACT's "pass the problem" non-solution.

It is strange Davis didn't address these serious community issues. The new normal, perhaps?

Jonathan Davis MLA rises in defence of ACT public housing (Letters, October 21).

Good on him. In his own experience of social housing, it was all idyllic. Others have had different experiences, with neighbours who dwell in filth, make too much noise and keep dangerous dogs.

There are strict rules against antisocial behaviour of that kind. The real problem we have in Canberra is that the authorities do not enforce their own rules.

Douglas Mackenzie (Letters, October 13) refers to the federal government's implementation of its JobKeeper scheme as "yet more evidence of the incompetence of this government".

Douglas is right, but not for the reason he gives. Not a single taxpayer dollar funded JobKeeper. The billions of dollars were, quite simply, conjured out of thin air.

JobKeeper was flawed in not covering all Australians, whether in employment or not. What we needed at the time (and still need) was a universal COVID-19 assistance scheme targeted at people, no exceptions, and not businesses.

The government could then, if necessary, tax back any dollars paid to those Australians who did not need the assistance.

I refer to the Morrison government using its numbers to block a parliamentary investigation into Christian Porter's acceptance of money from a blind trust to pay his legal fees.

Labor frontbencher Penny Wong said the PM has used his power to shield a mate from democratic scrutiny and accountability.

That sounds like the stuff of a third-world banana republic.

It shows the decay in democracy under the Morrison mob in power.

What a crying shame.

With all his self-inflicted wounds in recent months (bushfire response, vaccine acquisition and rollout, quarantining, Porter, submarines, his own response and dealing with the Nats on climate change, to name a few), how should we rate Scott Morrison as a prime minister?

With apologies to the Bard from Macbeth, may I suggest he will be remembered as:

"But a walking shadow, a poor player

That strutted and fretted his hour upon the stage,

And then was heard no more. He was a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing".

When, in August, Qantas announced plans to resume international flights in and out of Australia, there was no criticism from our federal government. Indeed, the PM was positive.

But when the NSW Premier made his pitch to win a share of international arrivals for his state, he was publicly and peremptorily reminded by our PM that the federal government controls international borders.

Has Mr Perrottet failed to bend the knee?

There is no doubt in my mind that the "zero net emissions by 2050" target has already been embraced by the federal government.

But it can't be announced until all the payoffs to vested interests are negotiated. We're about to see more pork more quickly than most people would believe possible.

So Dutton thinks breaching parliamentary standards is a workplace entitlement. What's next? A unicorn petting zoo?

The world is returning to normal. Walking the inner-city streets and CBD first thing in the morning, we again come across discarded alcohol bottles and cans, cigarette butts on footpaths, abandoned electric scooters and vomit. The boys are back in town.

I fully support Johnathan Davis's view (Letters, October 21). One can be materially poor but culturally rich. We find both groups in any suburb we can name. Thank you.

Anne Prendergast (Letters, October 21) is incorrect. Euthanasia is not murder, it is medically supervised suicide. The alternative is people taking matters into their own hands, dying alone and without the opportunity to say goodbye to their loved ones. Anne thinks this option is preferable. I think it is cruel.

I understand Anne Prendergast's belief (Letters, October 21) that euthanasia is murder. But rest easy Ann, we are seeking voluntary assisted dying, not euthanasia. You can call that suicide. I want the right to decide to kill myself if I am suffering greatly with a terminal illness. I will need help and medical support to do that in a manner least distressful to myself, loved ones and the emergency services.

I see the LNP mob is now justifying Christian Porter's blind trust as a "workplace entitlement". It is breathtakingly brazen to justify an anomaly as "normal". Unions take note; anything can and should now be in the bargaining mix.

The Coalition's election strategy is now clear. Morrison is the strong and versatile leader who can protect us from China on the one hand and the National Party on the other. Barnaby Joyce is the brave leader who's not afraid to state to the nation that his primary consideration is his own position.

Blimey. The Canberra Times could have printed a warning on October 19 so that I would have finished my prunes by the time I got to Pope's cartoon depicting Scott Morrison licking his own nether regions.

The unvaccinated gamblers, who obviously enjoy silly odds, may wish to buy a $5 "Vaxalotto" ticket for that shot in the arm to satisfy their habits. I'm sure the Chief Minister could get the ACT vaccination rate to at least 110 per cent of the population.

Tony Abbott, the "private citizen", really is the suppository of diplomacy, isn't he?

I feel frustrated by this government and where it is taking us. Their Chinese (lack of) diplomacy continues. We've had the drums of war, Abbott, and exports. Could there be an election on the horizon?