Just last Saturday my very lefty friends and I were talking enthusiastically about how, while we don't often share politics with her, we really admire her work ethic and conduct as an opposition member, and are so excited to see an Asian Australian woman as the head of a major party.

One friend even remembered receiving a door knock from her years ago, with Ms. Lee engaging kindly and trying to find out what she could do for her constituents.

Ms Lee, while your party is not for me, I have been so impressed by your work during the pandemic and especially the recent lockdown; very few politicians in Australia actually understand the role of an opposition politician.

Ms Lee reliably keeps the government in line by pointing out mistakes and policy missteps with propriety and cordiality, and has some solid policies of her own.

These are qualities rarely seen anywhere on the political spectrum. If you ever change parties you would have my vote in an instant, and I know many people like me feel the same.

So let me get this straight. After much prevaricating, our government has announced that Australia will now have a greenhouse emissions target of net zero by 2050. But there'll be no legislation to underpin the target, no interim targets and no new strategies for getting there.

But, hey, there'll be lots of emerging technologies that will get us there with no trouble. Really?

The data already shows that if Australia continues on its existing emissions reduction trajectory we should get to net zero some time in the next century, not 2050. That might be a bit late, chaps, but at least it won't be in your term of office.

Australia's carbon budget under the Paris agreement allowed for 10.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent to be emitted. We are currently on track for that to be used up by 2031 or 2032. After that, probably significant trade sanctions.

Will that help our regional communities?

It was disappointing to read ("AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw slams ACT drug decriminalisation push", canberratimes.com.au, October 26).

Senator Seselja is of course against reform.

Regressive legislation and policing are never effective (they may control 10 to 20 per cent of the trade) in the so called drug wars. They are also extremely costly to the tax payer for enforcement and in medical costs.

Portugal has been extremely successful over 20 years in controlling drug use by decriminalising drugs and treating drug addiction as a medical condition. It is reported that drug deaths have at least halved and jail drug related prisoners have fallen from 40 per cent to 15 per cent of the prison population.

First time drug users are "suspended" i.e. no further action. Drug dealers are still criminals and can be prosecuted. The Legislative Assembly should invite the Portuguese expert, Dr Goulao, to Canberra or send the Chief Health Officer over to investigate.

Another desirable approach would be to put drugs on a prescription only basis and a subsequent necessity for such users to enter a drug rehabilitation course at less than half the cost of housing them in the Alexander Maconochie prison and save its enlargement.

Drug dealers would then have no income and disappear.

Like Glenn Fahey (Letters, October 24) and letter writers John Walker and Michael Hall (Letters, October 26) I agree that core principles are vital to learning mathematics.

Where I differ however, is with the idea of "drilling" tables and other basic skills. I am of the generation where we "drilled" tables and other principles on a daily basis from the age of six to at least 12.

I can still do the tables, starting at two and going to at least 12, but if you asked me what "x" multiplied by "y" is, I can only do that if I go back to the beginning of the table and work it through. And I was always a good maths student, did high level double maths for my matriculation, and later became a computer programmer (although octal arithmetic rather ruined my shaky decimal knowledge).

Such teaching methods do work for many students but not all. For me, my arithmetic came on dramatically with problem solving and other methods decried by the writers.

It is important to remember not all students' brains work the same way. Teaching the basics often requires several methods for all students to master the skills. And that is what is important; getting all students to the required standard, not just those for whom certain methods work.

Every time I vote I think about the suffragettes and what a privilege it was back then to finally cast a vote and to have your vote, as a woman, count for the same as that of a man.

I also think about countries like South Africa, where people queued for hours to cast a vote, so important was it for them to finally exercise their democratic freedoms.

I am so dismayed and appalled at the current Prime Minister and his cronies that it is only these reflections which prevent me from casting an ineffective informal vote at the upcoming federal election.

Democracy does not mean three-word marketing slogans to ensure your "base" is on your side and will vote for you next time; nor does it mean secrecy and lack of integrity, the only two things this government is good at.

Adam Triggs ("Why do people still promote shared currencies as an economic solution to anything?", canberratimes.com.au, October 26) attributes the severity of Greece's debt crisis to the euro.

I agree that had Greece been able to manage a measured devaluation of its own drachma things may have been better.

In a crisis, however, there may have been an excessive depreciation, an inflationary spiral, very high interest rates and widespread informal use of the euro in Greece.

The Asian financial crisis of 1997 is an example of the possible over-reactions in financial markets which Greece was spared by being part of the euro area.

Dr Triggs is right that fiscal transfers are why it makes sense for NSW and the ACT to share a currency with Western Australia rather than New Zealand, even though their industrial structure is more like NZ. (And the third section of our Constitution Act lists NZ while the opening sentence excludes WA).

I agree with him the European Union would be well advised to move towards fiscal as well as monetary union.

He is also right that Australia sharing a currency with El Salvador by adopting Bitcoin as legal tender would not make sense. That would mean giving up the independent monetary policy which has given us three decades of low and stable inflation.

With reference to "AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw slams ACT drug decriminalisation push" (canberratimes.com.au, October 26) I note that MLA Michael Pettersson is proposing to reduce the penalty for drug possession to $100.

This is because, he claims, "the threat of jail time or a criminal record does not deter people from taking drugs".

Perhaps he could also reduce the fine for speeding to $100 as fining people exorbitant amounts has done little to deter people from speeding, as highlighted by the increasing number of people being booked.

We need to know what it will cost to go to net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. We need a costed plan, and leadership. I don't see either.

Consider what it would cost to generate all our electricity with solar panels. We use 265 terawatt hours per year (2019-2020).

Assuming that solar panels work on average 3.7 hours a day at full rated capacity, panels with a total capacity of 200 gigawatts would be required. At a cost of $1.5 per watt, the cost is $300 billion.

Over the period 2021 to 2050, that is $1.10 per person per day.

I have ignored the costs of land, installing the panels and the transmission lines, but I have also ignored the 24 per cent wind, solar, and hydro power that is currently part of out annual electricity generation.

As for the space required, about 40 kilometres by 40 kilometres would do it. We have an abundance of sunny desert land that is of little value for other use.

We can do this.

Unlike Bronis Dudek (Letters, October 25) I am delighted to see The Canberra Times has obtained the services of such a knowledgeable China expert as Bradley Perrett. Mr Perrett is uniquely qualified to comment as he actually lived in China for 16 years. He can therefore tell it like it is. Perhaps, Mr Dudek would prefer you publish a weekly column from a writer for the CCP mouth piece The Global Times instead.

Is God (whoever or whatever she, he or it may be) just for those who have nothing substantial to believe in?

When was the last time anybody heard of the gap between the rich and poor narrowing?

Warwick Budd's letter ("Unfortunate Truth", October 25) laments that he shares his birthday with Alexander Downer. While there is little doubt that each would have been a little bundle of joy to his parents in the day, a fork in the road for me was when a picture of Alexander in fishnet stockings appeared in the newspapers. One of the strangest top-10 moments in the last 30 years.

Rod Matthews (Letters, October 27) said that graffiti artists deserve long sentences. He offered one sentence of 30 words, and another of nine words.

Too polite to call our government's furtive delivery of "the Australian way" plan a load of secretive and inadequate tosh Boris Johnson seems to have been invoking Sir Humphrey Appleby when he described the Coalition's huffing and puffing decision-making as "heroic".

It's a dangerous time Australia is going through with a Coalition government not united policy wise in regard to climate change.

They have struck a deal and the electorates have been kept in the dark other than the news that a promotion for a Nationals to the cabinet.

The Coalition's obfuscation has produced a carbon "commitment" that can be summarised in three words: smoke and mirrors.

If Eric Hunter, (Letters, October 28) a proud lowlander from Cook, is going to mock the Glasgow conference attendees should they be requested to wear the local kilt for a photo op he had better not apply for renewal of his Hunter clan membership (if he has one).

Apparently senator Matt Canavan has said farmers are no longer the core constituents of the Nationals. If that is so then surely it is time for the National Farmers Federation to become a political party to rival the Nationals in rural Australia.