It was our first match of the season at the Gabba. Here was I, a wet-under-the-collar sports scientist and coach who enjoyed analysing batting and bowling techniques; over-eager to prove myself to the team. We got walloped. Jeff Thomson slinging rockets around the boys' throats on a Gabba greentop didn't help.

Alan heard me talking to some players who hadn't negotiated those rockets at all well. What he heard prompted him to come over to quietly take me aside and gently coach me on what to say and when to say it to cricketers at this level, many of whom had Test match experience. I listened and I learned. A lot.

Following a chat with some senior players, this set the scene for a great team spirit within the Victorian team. We won the Sheffield Shield that year and again the next. Thanks Alan.

Machiavellianism is alive and well in international diplomacy. There's clearly little love lost or trust around the table. American President Joe Biden has come out to say that he believed the French had been told about the AUKUS arrangements and the cancelling of Australia's submarine contract with the French. Either Biden is throwing Australia under the bus or our prime minister pulled the wool over the Americans' eyes as well as the French. Clumsy all round.

The recent report that French President Macron said Scott Morrison lied to him over the submarine deal, should come as no surprise. It reminds me of the time that a journalist (allegedly) asked Morrison "Of all the lies you've told as PM, which one is your favourite"? To which Morrison replied. "I don't tell lies"! "Yeah, that one's my favourite too" quipped the journo.

I often read complaints about the hospital system in Canberra so I thought it appropriate to speak up about a really positive experience. I have just spent a week at Calvary John James and was totally impressed with the service - from admission to discharge. I was most fascinated with the wide range of countries represented by the staff - people from India, the Philippines, Africa, Nepal, Egypt, Macedonia, England and even the occasional Aussie. I was impressed with how harmoniously all these people worked together to deliver a thoroughly professional, competent nursing service. If only people on the world stage could pull together as these staff do, what a fantastic world we would have.

Though the ACT government does a good job protecting Canberra's water catchment from feral horse damage, it's a matter that needs constant attention. NSW has issued a draft plan to manage the horses in Kosciuszko National Park. The plan proposes a 'horse retention zone' within 5km of the ACT border. Though the general direction of the plan is a welcome decrease in horse numbers, it could be improved, from the ACT's point of view. Submissions are open to all, and close on November 2. The Reclaim Kosci group have provided a handy submission guide at https://bit.ly/Kosciguide.

The news that the ACT government has at last seen sense and will vary the territory plan so that residential building blocks have more space for trees and less space for 'McMansions' ("Garden city rebound", October 29, p1, 2) is very welcome. More trees will be sorely needed as global heating progresses relentlessly and today's tree-starved outer suburbs become heat islands.

A note of caution: one result of global heating is more frequent, intense and faster-moving wildfires such as those of the unforgettable 2019-2020 Black Summer and the 2003 firestorm that destroyed much of Canberra's south-western suburbs.

To minimise the risk of a repeat of "Canberra 2003", there must be strict limits on the number and spacing of highly flammable trees such as eucalypts and pines in Canberra's fringing suburbs, and more emphasis on the colourful deciduous trees that decorate many of Canberra's older suburbs.

The recently completed Cirus 23 storey twin unit blocks are only 20 meters from the Ginninderra Lakeshore Park thus it significantly overshadows and overlooks this public open space. This planning obscenity occurred on the Barr government's watch but the residents of Belconnen will be living with it for decades. There needs to be a height limit for the Belconnen Town Centre as a matter of urgency so there are no further intergenerational planning nightmares inherited by our children.

Why is it that any criticism of LNP policies, on climate and more, ends with an attack on Labor? We saw it with your otherwise admirable editorial ("Scott Morrison will be the pauper at Glasgow's COP26 feast", canberratimes.com.au, October 28). Let's look at history. Rudd claimed the greatest moral challenge for climate then was strong but defeated by Copenhagen. Gillard worked with Greens and independents for an admirable climate response which was working. Abbott trashed that and LNP handed out taxpayer monies for little climate benefit (so much for a Labor "carbon tax"!), battled internally for years including rolling Turnbull, fondled coal in Parliament and now this pretend conversion under cover of News Ltd's climate conversion. Yes, Labor disappoints for not leading, but given LNP wedge politics and fellow-traveller media, maybe they need to play the politics. On climate, housing, inequality, NBN, China, integrity and yes, economy, my trust leans to Labor.

What a pleasure it was this evening to slip into Manuka with my husband to eat at our favourite cafe/restaurant on Franklin Street, and to see the place buzzing with activity. Brilliant action by the ACT Minister for Small Business to have agreed to making outdoor dining more viable by dramatically increasing the available space at the heart of Manuka. Closing off the south side of Franklin Street is a clever initiative and we need more of this kind of forward thinking to help offset the business losses.

On this morning's early morning walk I found that ACT government workers have ringbarked mature and young trees with poison. One assumes it's to kill the grass surrounding them, but trees are organic and affected by herbicides, unlike poles or pieces of concrete where the poison is usually seen.

The blue stain of the herbicide is not just on the grass, but also the tree trunks. Is it any wonder that our trees are unhealthy and our tree canopy shrinking?

If we must use poisons because it's cheaper than doing the work manually, it must be limited to essential purposes where no harm to other plants or to insects is likely. We need trees and a bit of grass growing around them is not harmful.

Your editorial (October 31) rightly says that "Nobody with any intelligence and moral fibre is in favour of racism - and yet there is clearly a lot of it about", giving hope for a similarly forceful and consistent statement appropriately condemning the ACT's annual kangaroo cull, because nobody with any intelligence and moral fibre is in favour of speciesism either.

At least in the year 2021 the victims of racism are nearly always allowed to remain alive, whereas the same cannot be said for the many thousands of precious eastern grey kangaroo individuals - with inherent rights to life and peace - which our callous, psychopathic (with respect to eastern greys at least) ACT government and community have condemned to frightful deaths over the past 13 or so years.

This has been based on the softest and most dubious of scientific arguments, and despite the fact, as all people of deep intelligence and moral fibre know, that science should never override ethics.

So, have I got this right? Voting is compulsory and I would incur a fine if I failed to vote. If the proposed voter ID requirement is introduced I must provide acceptable proof of who I am before I'm able to vote.

If I fail to provide acceptable proof I would be denied the right to vote. This situation would presumably result in me being fined, even though I had every intention to cast my vote. Catch-22!

For those looking for some late mail on the big race, the hot tip is écran vert, has made an appearance in the last seven out of eight races. For those looking for the quinella, adding dissonance cognitive is a must. For an each way bet, one can't go past amnésie collective.

I'm still scratching my head about how to prove my vaccination status - the My.Gov site is a nightmare. Since the ACT is almost universally double-vaccinated, why not simply accept an ACT driver's licence as proof - and temporarily cancel the licences of those who refuse the jab?

Two words for Bill Bush who supports decriminalising hard drugs in the ACT: "San Francisco". That once great city has been ruined by doing just that. You can't walk around a street without getting a syringe stuck in your foot. No thanks Bill, not for Canberra.

Now I get it. Forget COVID. Your headline "Garden city rebound" October 29 is about more trees in Canberra. Trees create paper, paper creates books, books create libraries. Our Labor/Green government wants more trees not more books, which is why our other public libraries still are closed.

It appears that the Coalition's policy on climate change is to consider developing such a policy (providing that policy doesn't commit them to actually doing anything.)

It may be my faulty hearing but I thought I heard it referred to the other day as the Nat Zero Emission Policy.

Berejiklian doesn't think that she is "in the wrong" because she probably believes it. She is more than innocent, she is simply naive.

M. Moore in the Canberra Times (October 31) feels sorry that, Gladys, former Premier of NSW, might have been in an abusive relationship. I agree. The abused was the NSW taxpayer.

In answer to Nigel Poole's question about unnecessary COVID restrictions (Letters, October 31), just remember what one limousine driver managed to do in NSW.

Poor Bill Deane. So envious is he as a Sassenach, he queries my eligibility to wear the Hunter tartan (Letters, November 1). I'd be happy to lend him my (now moth eaten) clan tie, so he can feel more loved.

Gladys Berejiklian, the most powerful female politician in the Southern Hemisphere, in whose hands the formidable Dominic Perrottet was mere putty, was trapped for years in an abusive relationship with Darryl Maguire, the biggest pain in the backside in Wagga Wagga. I need time to get my head around that proposition.