This is a place supposed to provide security, safety, and appropriate care for vulnerable and elderly residents.

These are special members of our society who deserve to be safe, comfortable, at the end of their lives.

Reading of the problems involving daily care with showering, incontinence, possibly feeding problems fills me with much anguish . And, presumably with irregular staff responsible for their care, this must be a confusing situation for these special members of our community who deserve a high quality of input in their care.

Having experienced a similar situation involving my much loved 82-year-old mother in a Melbourne Aged Care Home, requiring weekend overnight trips to monitor her care, this brings back very sad memories for me.

This has to stop.

The government is calling for submissions on a draft national plan regarding domestic violence. How amazing that the Coalition has found time to make the offer of possible extra funds when they are so busy preparing for an election.

For underfunded and overloaded women's services, the extra money may look as superb as swimming pools, as splendid as sporting facilities and as clever as car parks.

I'm writing this letter to you whilst trying to participate in a training course related to my business but the internet feed is just continually breaking up. Thus my business efficiency is potentially reduced.

The 40-year-old copper network here in Evatt which delivers the NBN to my home from the node is continually failing to operate even for the minimum needs of my business and private use.

This sight gag actually greatly reduces business growth in the medium to long term. Labor has allocated $2.5 billion to fix some of these problems so my question is how much is earmarked to be spent in Fenner?

Maybe someone from Federal Labor could answer that question before the next election.

The article "Hailstorm repairs roll on two years later" (January 16, p3) makes only brief mention of the roughly 44,500 vehicles, including my own, damaged by the golf ball-sized hailstones.

Just in my own neighbourhood I see almost every day, cars - some of which were expensive - peppered with deep dents, as if a vandal (or vandals) had attacked them with a large ball-pein hammer. That figure of 44,500 is probably a significant underestimate.

We, yes all us, should be very thankful it was the British that settled this continent. I am sure most of us are, which is why we celebrate Australia Day.

The British imported their version of democratic, cultural and industrial civilisation and we Aussies developed it to the envious position that we are in today. I sincerely hope that in the very near future we do not witness a real invasion.

David Day, in John Curtin - a Life, records how, in 1942, while Australian troops returned from the Middle East across seas controlled by the Japanese navy, Curtin, wracked by anxiety, was virtually incapable of sleep.

In Australia's Boldest Experiment - War and Reconstruction in the 1940s, the late Stuart Macintyre wrote that World War II was "a catalyst for change ... an ordeal that imposes heavy demands and an endeavour that creates new expectations". It set Australia up for the boom years of the 1950s.

Fast forward to Omicron, described by journalist Margaret Simons as Australia's greatest crisis since European settlement. Certainly, the COVID pandemic is our greatest emergency since World War II, with, so far, 1.4 million cases and 2,700 Australian dead - tragically, a disproportionate number of them born before or during World War II.

During this ordeal, can anyone imagine Scott Morrison losing any sleep?

Does any rational person think a re-elected Liberal government would act on "new expectations", or be "catalysed to change" anything, including a single one of the appalling statistics about poverty in Australia quoted by Zoe Wundenberg ("Poverty demands systemic solutions", January 11, p18) for example, that almost 14 per cent of Australians, and 739 000 Australian children, live in poverty?

Rae Harvey of Griffith (Letters, January 19) tells us that everywhere they drive in the inner south there are potholes. This indicates only that they never drive outside the inner south, there are a growing number of potholes all over the ACT.

If Rae is looking for a pothole-free buttery smooth asphalt, they don't even need to leave their suburb, a kerb-to-kerb strip has been freshly laid the entire 900 metres of La Perouse Street between Flinders Way and Caley Crescent. It was far from the neediest candidate for a complete reseal.

Rae also repeated the furphy that properties of the inner south are carrying the ACT tax system. In truth, these high value residences are Canberra's most lightly taxed.

A short message to the cheap shot merchants out there, sitting comfortably on their "holier-than-thou" band waggons who think making fun of a person by mucking around with their name is somehow amusing.

I certainly doubt if Djokovic or the many people barracking for him think calling him "Novaxx", "Djoker" or any of the other less than printable names is somehow amusing.

It's not and there is more than a reasonable case to say it's racist. This bloke has made more substantial contributions to charitable organisations, including the bushfire appeal, than the totality of his pathetic critics put together.

Finally, my message to those contributors to these here pages that wanted to give Djokovic a two fingered salute as he left the country is that the only disappointment in it for me would be that when doing so, you weren't looking in the mirror

Sincere thanks to Ian Ring for highlighting the distinct inability of the Morrison government to plan ahead ("Amateur hour is over. It is time to get real on public health", canberratimes.com.au, January 19). Foresight, vision, and meticulous planning are the mark of a good leader in any field.

Instead of planning for desirable health outcomes the federal government has either basked in the glory of successful public health measures implemented by state governments or, more recently, used diversion tactics (Tennis, anyone?).

There are many more health threats on the horizon, largely resulting from our rapidly changing climate. A competent government would already be implementing a radical plan to address climate change and be prioritising support for communities to prepare for a world with more zoonotic and vector-borne diseases, natural disasters, poor air quality, and food and water shortages. Preparedness is indeed "key to survival".

In all the huff and puff, mostly negative, commentary about the Australian Republic Movement's (ARM) presidential election model, John Warhurst ("New republican model is a creative compromise", canberratimes.com.au, January 20), presents a reasoned assessment.

Perhaps that is hardly surprising from a former ARM chair. However, Warhurst deals with the salient issues in an informed way that shows why the proposed model would work to overcome long-standing divisions about how we should elect a president.

This is a far more constructive approach than some of the knee-jerk negativism offered by leading monarchists and some academics.

For them it seems the only way to comment on anything is to proffer the "it won't work" approach, rather than to discuss how it could and should.

George Christensen has not been very responsible when he advocated for others not to have the COVID-19 vaccine.

If he didn't believe in a vaccination program he could stay away from that. But he has no right to advise others.

Our Prime Minister was also wrong when he said "It's a free country, people are allowed to say what they think".

No, Prime Minister. Freedom does come with a lot of responsibility in particular with the politicians.

Herbert Hoover was elected the 31st President of the United States in 1928. One of his election slogans was "a chicken for every pot". Perhaps Scott Morrison could update this election-winning promise. "Chicken nuggets in every supermarket freezer aisle".

My letter of January 21 was amended by the letters editor in such a way that it might appear I was questioning the sanity of some of my fellow Canberrans. What I did say in the original letter was that Vanstone, in her article of 20 January, had questioned the sanity of people who might vote for independents. Unlike Vanstone, I do not question the sanity of those with different opinions.

Is there a reader who can help identify the white butterflies around this year and last year? I checked the white cabbage moth and it does not appear to be it as the black spots on the wings are different. Also, what is the name of the larger black with white butterfly that lays its eggs on citrus trees?

I just returned from a holiday drive to South Australia, purchasing diesel as needed. At no servo en route did we find diesel anywhere near as dear as in the ACT. Not Balranald, Hay, Narrandera, or anywhere else in country NSW, country SA, or even Adelaide. In some cases it was up to 18 cents cheaper. 'Twas ever thus, it seems, for ACT drivers.

David Pocock's predictable promises ("There's nothing radical about climate action in 2022", canberratimes.com.au, January 21) were welcome, however of the eight issues he lists as important to Canberrans at least six are the responsibility of our ACT Labor/Green government. Are you standing in the right election, David?

I hope we all celebrate a happy Australia Day with goodwill. Thousands of men and women descended from people who came here from 1788 on fought and died for our freedom in WWII.

They also fought with heroic Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Don't let us let them down by outdated hostilities. Let us celebrate the peace they fought for together.

Well said, Chris Emery (Letters, January 23). We have a government that can spend half a billion dollars on "Disney-fying" the Australian War Memorial but can't swing a measly $4 million to repair damage to the Museum of Democracy, a building which embodies values many Australians gave their lives to defend. It is an eloquent statement of our government's values. Grandiloquence over gratitude.

The US and the west shouldn't defend Ukrainians against a Russian invasion. Nor should they defend Taiwanese against China. Instead draw redlines everywhere else. We don't need another war. Remember Cuba and those 13 days in October 1962.

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