Connections a breathtaking and profound show of art

The way the art has been animated to painstaking lengths and trembles all around you as the giant screens loom over and the quality sound system booms out delightful and sorrowful context appropriate melodies and beats is something you have to experience for yourself. Mere words cannot come close to describing the elegance and wonder of this event.

The ticket prices are more than reasonable given how much work has clearly gone into making this pièce de résistance of art experiences and will likely sell out quickly. Grab a ticket and get in there while you can. You will not want to miss this significant and profound experience.

As a Centrelink worker in the policy area, I was staggered when we first were told about the Robodebt program. I considered it illegal for a number of reasons, and all my coworkers I talked to agreed. We were proved right, and thousands of customers suffered, with some allegedly losing their lives over the stress.

But when the huge deficiencies of the scheme were recognised and Robodebt was stopped, what happened to the secretary who introduced it? The secretary was promoted. What happened to the minister? Nothing. What happened to those public servants who devised the scheme? Nothing.

Bring on the royal commission and justice.

RE: Labor has a chance to calm the storm brewing in the Pacific (Opinion, June 7) by Peter Dunn. This article was a welcome change from the anti-China rhetoric so common lately. Dunn concluded with: "Being prepared to collaborate with China on this important issue [climate change] might just be a win-win-win for all." He also noted Mike Pezzullo's "drums of war are beating" comments slammed shut Chinese doors to Australia.

However, even Dunn seemed to have a bias against China. For example, he wrote: "China responded to the amplified criticism with typically aggressive actions." Were they typically aggressive actions? I thought they were normal.

Also, Dunn wrote "as the world's largest gas emitter China is seen as the source of the existential threat" and "China is the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases", and "China has serious ground to make up in tackling climate change". These comments are unfair: Australia, US and Canada have per capita emissions twice those of China.

Australia's unfair criticism of China should stop immediately.

During my 35 years in Australia CIT has provided educational services, both business and personal to my family. Its mission to fill the plethora of practical and educational needs of the population which fall between school and university is an heroic task.

Of recent years those needs have diversified so widely that its excellent advertising has outstripped its delivery, caused to a great extent by poor funding.

The $8.5 million spent, very wisely in my opinion, obviously provides guidance and mentoring for its chief executive through the labyrinth of modern educational demands and complexities, demands which will change as we retrain our youth and workforce with the agility such an organisation will be expected to show.

"Questions About Science" (Canberra Times, June 7), raises the question of restoration of funding to the CSIRO and for university research. Our new Prime Minister on Wednesday indicated the importance of STEM while talking about the launching of sounding research rockets from the Northern Territory.

Unfortunately, it appears that in the hurly burly of Coalition pre-election funding announcements, it wasn't thought important enough to provide ongoing funding for the Questacon Outreach programs-Science Circus and Innovation which encourage STEM interest in Primary and Secondary Schools respectively.

At present, it appears funding is only available until the end of this year. This needs to be addressed urgently as it also affects the training of students who can "carry the message" to future generations.

The ACT government never ceases to amaze. The Demonstration Housing Project was intended to deliver different housing types that are not currently available in Canberra. It has taken six years, after the project was approved by the Legislative Assembly, for the government to change the Territory Plan for just one block, to enable a Manor House to be built in Griffith.

It could have looked at the Manor Houses already built in NSW to assess their suitability for the ACT. It could have let us know how it was going to evaluate the outcome. And it could have taken more notice of the views of the local community (four in favour; 531 against). But it didn't.

Instead, with huge overhead costs over the last six years, it has attacked the integrity of our planning system and will deliver something that most people do not want.

Why did it persist?

I read, with trepidation, about the new record level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere ("CO2 levels soar to scary new heights", June 5). In 1856, it was discovered that carbon dioxide is a heat-trapping gas. Since then, the Keeling curve has risen exponentially, with carbon dioxide parts per million rising from a stable base of 280 to a high of 421.

Humanity is playing with fire. Following 26 COP meetings, the landmark "Paris agreement", and countless global pledges, 2021 still saw a record 36.3 billion more tons of greenhouse gas emissions entering the atmosphere. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report says these emissions must peak before 2025. It's 2022. We stand on a precipice. For the sake of future generations, we need to wake up. And fast.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen seems not to have heard the old adage: "When you are in a hole, stop digging."

Unable to accept that too much renewable energy is the main cause of our troubles he wants more, apparently unaware of the extra back-up gas, pumped hydro, batteries, management effort and a far more complex grid needed with renewables over coal, and with it the far greater cost.

If he can't see that the attempt to replace coal with renewables has exceeded its natural limits and more renewables will simply make things worse, then he is wearing ideological blinkers. Look at Europe, especially Germany. They are turning back to coal to keep the lights on while they plan the long-term future. So should we.

I have a selfish interest in not wanting to set a precedent for criticising a grandparent in the eyes of grandchildren. But really? Dallas Stow (Letters, June 9, "Definition of a Word") is being curmudgeonly by describing me as a curmudgeon for writing occasionally about the extraordinary decision to spending taxpayers' money on outmoded technology to do half the job at half the speed at twice the price of the modern alternative recommended in the ignored business case.

"Not the tram," cried Brer Rabbit. "It must be though I am not a curmudgeon," said Brer Fox.

Jack Kershaw (Letters, June 9) refers to the key problems of his particular hobby horse, the Civic to Capital Hill part of the tram journey to Woden. I think he needs to take a broader view. The entirety of the proposed journey is much slower than currently achieved by buses, the cost is crippling, the embodied energy could never be recovered, and there will be a decade of traffic chaos. Apart from that the tram seems a good idea.

He also demeans the concept of a trackless tram, with axle loadings designed to run on our (admittedly poorly maintained, dodgy and potholed) roads. He calls these vehicles electric buses, and they are not. MLAs, in particular, please take note. These new vehicles are a much cheaper alternative to the tram, function much the same, and can make huge improvements to Canberra's traffic and emissions right now.