We now discover it is to be closed in December two months prior to the lease expiring. ("Centrelink Braddon will be shut down in December, government confirms", canberratimes.com.au, October 15).

It is untrue to claim that few people are using either facility. The excellent and professional staff are helpful, kind and particularly adept at sorting issues which cannot be resolved by filling in a form, or on the telephone.

This office has the reputation of being one of the best in the country. I've sought their help over recent years and found them extremely competent at solving technological issues far beyond the experience of many of us over 70.

Matters covered include updating pension and rights concerning the homeless. Many citizens requiring help have limited or no access to computers or scanners.

The frail and elderly cannot walk to distant bus stops nor afford to travel to Belconnen, Gungahlin or Woden. Nor can asylum seekers within the limited rights and resources available to them. Disabled people are treated with dignity and understanding and told how long they may be required to wait if it's a particularly busy day.

They'll be offered a specific appointment another day if necessary. There is adequate seating and parking at Braddon. To lose this facility would be a disaster for many of us on the northside.

This closure represents yet another example of the Coalition's lack of any consultation or concern with the electorate.

The ACT government has announced plans to upgrade the Gwydir Square at the Kaleen shopping centre.

The most pressing issue at the centre is car parking.

As a consequence of building the primary school next door, every school day the parents are using the car spaces provided for shoppers, making the centre an unattractive place to shop.

The government's solution is not to expand the parking area but to reduce the size of the parking spaces as a means to increase the numbers of spaces.

This is a disappointing outcome as the other proposals including a toilet block, landscaping and rubbish bins are all worthwhile but hardly compensate for the lack of parking.

This is a proposal which increases employment opportunities at considerable public expenditure, but fails to solve the shopping centre problems.

Why is The Canberra Times giving Bradley Perrett - funded by the "Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas" - so much coverage when it's obvious that the only idea he has is "China bad; USA good".

I don't recall him writing anything approving of China in any of his articles to date. His 16 years in Beijing must have been a nightmare.

Thinking that the Judith Neilson Institute must have been just a front for the CIA, I googled the institute's website.

If the site is to be believed, the Judith Neilson Institute is run and governed by eminent and eminently sensible Australians.

Nevertheless, why should we be served regular helpings of this kind of China trashing? The last thing we need is encouragement to follow the USA into yet another senseless war.

I'm all for efforts to reduce carbon emissions and fervently hope that we can achieve a breakthrough. But I would like to know more about the real costs of generating and using hydrogen in our economy and society.

So-called "green hydrogen" is produced using electricity generated by renewable methods, ie mainly solar and wind power. Large amounts of electricity are needed to produce the hydrogen, passing an electric current through water, to split it into hydrogen and oxygen.

To help us keep our feet on the ground it would be helpful if The Canberra Times could publish an article explaining how much electricity is needed to generate, say one kilogram of hydrogen.

If hydrogen were to be used to power a car, how much electricity would be needed to produce the hydrogen to fill its tank? How would this compare with the cost of recharging an electric car?

There is an increasing expectation that Prime Minister Morrison will go to Glasgow on October 30 with a commitment to net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

However, it has been made crystal clear that the federal government is not doing anywhere near enough to put Australia on track to that net zero goal ("Spending no shortcut to net zero", October 16, p23).

What's more, the August 6 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stressed that net zero by 2050 will be too late to avoid calamitous global heating: all developed nations must aim for net zero emissions by 2035, or 2040 at the very latest.

I have read many articles in this and other publications about the need to switch to electric vehicles.

None of these has mentioned what will happen to the millions of petrol driven cars and trucks that are currently on the roads.

Whilst I support the need for the introduction of renewable energy, I have not seen or heard anything on a plan for the disposal of fossil fuel powered cars.

Obviously they will not be traded in on an EV as currently happens when a replacement vehicle is required.

Prince William is absolutely correct when he says saving the earth must come before space tourism.

On the one hand we have poverty, disease, deprivation and food and resources needlessly going to waste.

On the other, we have the indulgent and prohibitive (to mere mortals) space tourism industry. You can add to this the recent publication of the Forbes Rich List, a US$700 million Power Ball lottery and the egregious wealth of religious and corporate institutions.

These are but a few examples of the inequality in our society and the seemingly hopeless possibility of it ever being equalised.

We need to address the existential problems and inequality on the planet that we are privileged to live on.

Let's not make the same mistakes on another.

The COVID-19 vaccines have been so well promoted that a kind of vaccine mania seems to have taken hold in an environment where fear is reinforced daily by the media.

Geoff Henkel (Letters, October 16) wants to rush headlong into vaccinating younger kids. But do the costs outweigh the benefits, given that younger children are mostly not badly affected by the virus?

Have sufficient clinical trials of the new tech vaccines on large enough populations of younger children over long enough periods of time been undertaken?

What are the potential mid- and long-term adverse health effects from the COVID-19 inoculation on children specifically?

How are the control groups faring?

I thought Canberra was supposed to be an educated community where critical thinking abilities aren't missing in action.

To complete the unfinished media stories and celebrations about the Nuyina, Australia's newest icebreaker, she was built in Romania.

The Nuyina replaces the Aurora Australis which was built in Newcastle in NSW, when this nation could do stuff.

I think this may explain why submarines will be built elsewhere.

I do hope the Australian Museum will take the Aurora Australis back to Newcastle as an historic example of better manufacturing times.

The opportunistic and selfish Nationals may be looking for millions of trees in the federal Cabinet's climate target hand-out package. The recent embarrassing displays of crumbling intelligence among the party's parliamentary representatives suggests far too many would assume the money will be found hanging from trees, ready for easy yet selective grasping.

QUOTE OF THE DAY?

"Predictions are always hard, especially about the future." Matt Canavan, ABC The World Today, 12.05pm, October 19.

LOCKED OUT, LOCKED DOWN

Bob Salmond (Letters, October 15) is correct when he says Queensland achieved good results in fighting COVID-19 without lockdowns. They used prompt and Draconian lockouts instead. The Premier's infamous comment "Queensland hospitals are for Queenslanders" will be immortalised.

CUNNING PLOY

Wendy Whitham (Letters, October 16) criticised the ACT government for not thinking about opening libraries. The wicked government's reopening document cunningly hid the details about library reopening under the heading of "Libraries".

UNFORTUNATE TRUTH

Whatever others may say about The Canberra Times birthday lists I know my life would be very much better if I had not learned I share my birthday with Alexander Downer.

A PRECONDITION

Ebony Bennett's article, "We need a plan that isn't a fraud", (Forum, October 16) might well have added that first, we need a Prime Minister who isn't a fraud.

VIVE LA REVOLUTION?

Like John Sandilands, I too like most aspects of French culture (Letters, October 16). However, I note Mr Sandilands especially likes the 1789 revolution. If my memory serves me correctly it was an unbelievably brutal bloodbath.

GIANTS OF THE EARTH

To those who doubt that dinosaurs ever walked upon the planet I draw your attention to the Nationals party room.

MIXED METAPHORS

Fred Bennett (Letters, October 21) has me confused. Burnam Wood came to Macbeth's castle and he died in the end. Is this the fate awaiting humanity if we continue to conjure up excuses around the cauldron of global warming in order to prevaricate about addressing the problem?

NO ROAD TO RICHES

Gee, Anthony Bruce (Letters, October 18) backing Winx to win less than 10c for every dollar invested is no way for a small punter to get rich. Rather my problem was a tendency to back a horse to beat Winx. I'm already scrutinising the likely Melbourne Cup field for a horse to beat Incentivise. Chapada maybe?

KOALAS AT RISK

I hope someone at one of Nicole Overall's National Party rallies for the Monaro byelection will hold up a stuffed koala in protest. The koalas of NSW will be stuffed if the National Party has its way.

PERVERSE OUTCOME

The worst thing about the Coalition agreement is that regardless of what happens the bad hatter will be minding the shop while ScoMo's away.