Your report "Calwell High School parent 'absolutely livid' to learn depth of school's violence, staffing issues", canberratimes.com.au, April 7) is the tip of the iceberg.

From family experience I believe it has been going on for several years. Don't hide behind COVID minister. Resource the school properly. Bring the parents in to assist.

If a kid is guilty of bullying then discipline him or her.

It is simply not good enough as it stands.

I'm still reeling from the autistic child in the cage affair and Namadgi School issues some years ago. This is more failure upon failure.

The minister should resign and take the education bureaucrats with her.

What are we doing about not having enough teachers to staff our schools?

When a teacher is away more often than not the class is split and shared with other teachers. Or a whole level has to learn from home.

But, while there is a shortage of relief teachers, we apparently have no shortage of lawyers and do not even need to advertise to fill vacancies on the AAT and the like.

Can we scoop up some of these surplus lawyers and help them to qualify with a dip ed or master's degree?

They have shown themselves to be competent learners and hopefully they are equipped with empathy and explaining talents. What can be more important than our children's learning?

Entry grades for education degrees have been surprisingly low in recent years, suggesting that teaching is easy. It is not. And to suggest otherwise is unfair to entry level students. But it can be hugely rewarding and a lot of fun.

What can we do to encourage both young and mature age people to teach our kids? This is just as important and just as urgent as aged care. Where are the policies and promises?

I have lived in Canberra all of my life and it is very sad to see the once pristine well kept Canberra deteriorate to what it is today.

Yay we have a tram and lots of art around the place but we also have unmown grass, uneven footpaths, bumpy roads, garbage on the roadside.

Now to top it off they want to go fortnightly with our rubbish collection.

I am certainly not in favour of this. It would be a big mistake and would make our city more unsightly. Not to mention the smell. When the tip was free people always made the effort to keep things tidy.

Now you have to pay for it not as much effort is made.

This is why rubbish ends up in the bush and on the side of the road.

The government needs to wake up.

The government has announced more funding for the ATO's Tax Avoidance Taskforce in this budget.

Joe Hockey cut the ATO's the budget in 2014. Amongst the 3000 people to lose their jobs were 500 working in tax avoidance. When asked why, he said "we can trust our companies to pay their tax".

Two years later he established the Tax Avoidance Taskforce because, to his apparent astonishment and no-one else's, he'd discovered that businesses weren't paying their tax bills. We've been in a catch-up ever since.

Does anyone still believe that the Liberals are "good economic managers"?

Prince Charles is irrelevant to Australia becoming a republic. The personalities of any of the Royal family are also irrelevant. We don't remain a monarchy because we "like" the Windsors.

Australia is an adult country and can happily leave the apron strings of mother Britain, without having to hate whoever is the monarch of the UK.

It's like an adult child moving out of home; it's just time to be recognised as an independent adult. We can remain in the Commonwealth as many other countries have.

It's more than time for Australia to become a republic.

I have noticed recent Border Force advertisements encouraging the the reporting of suspicious activity within Australia's borders. The obvious question is does the agency's legislation allow for collection of surveillance information onshore about any suspicious activity?

I'm reminded of the proposal by Border Force to stop people outside Flinders Street station and ask them for ID several years ago. That was obviously beyond the power of the agency.

Is this another example of a rogue agency? If Labor wins the election a judicial inquiry into Border Force would appear merited.

The Coalition government is on the verge of calling an election and there is at least one glaring promise broken: the introduction of a federal integrity commission.

The draft that was proposed and then shelved was a lukewarm offering which convinced no-one that it would actually do anything, let alone hold anyone in Parliament to account.

Whilst both sides have done it, the Coalition has made a particularly brazen series of appointments of Liberal Party faithful to various government offices at lovely big salaries. It seems to be a pattern of all Coalition governments, as a term finishes, to make a slew of similar appointments.

And of course, the pork-barrelling related to carparks, infrastructure goodies and sports facilities have already been reported, but not forgotten.

There is plenty of money for these appointments and other pork yet there is no money to pay nurses and carers in aged care homes, let alone to provide proper care and nutrition for residents.

If the report "Polls suggest trouble for Seselja" (April 6, p1, 4) had been on TV or radio, it would have been beautiful music to my ears.

Mr Seselja - who is always in the background when there is an "announcable" favourable to Canberra - seeks to impose his religion-based ideology on the whole of the ACT. Subjects such as same-sex marriage and voluntary assisted dying (or euthanasia) spring to mind.

As a senator for the ACT, he should make himself aware of ACT voters' demands and wishes, then argue and vote accordingly in Parliament.

I'm writing to express my appreciation to everyone across the ACT who supported the Smith Family's 2022 Back to School Appeal.

For many this year's return to school may have been the toughest yet. Not only are we concerned the pandemic has exacerbated the gap in learning outcomes between children living in poverty and their more advantaged peers, we're also worried families are facing more hardships, including rising living costs, a housing affordability crisis, and the impacts of the digital divide.

When any family faces ongoing financial difficulties, it makes it harder for them to support their children's education. We know there are still thousands of young Australians who don't have access to the education essentials they need to learn, and we're concerned it'll be those who can least afford it, who'll continue to struggle.

Our Learning for Life education program provides support to children and young people. And thanks to the wonderfully generous response to our sponsorship appeal, we'll be able to provide around 3000 more students with evidence-based and life-changing support for the duration of their education. To learn more about Learning for Life and how you can make a difference, visit thesmithfamily.com.au.

For 100 years, the Smith Family has been working to improve the lives of children in need. So, to everyone who generously contributed to our appeal, and for those who've helped Australian children thrive over the past century - thank you very much.

I am fascinated by letters (Letters, April 3) complaining about the bin trial. Our experience is quite the opposite. With two of us the fortnightly general waste collection is more than adequate; a quarter of a bin. The fortnightly recycling bin is around three-quarters full. A single bag of food waste sits alone in the weekly organic waste bin.

We compost general garden waste and vegetable and fruit scraps from the kitchen. At times we fill the green waste bin with garden prunings. We take our soft plastics back to the supermarket.

Maybe previous letter writers can explain what makes up their excess of general rubbish.

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