We know already that our hospitals are facing extraordinary pressures with health authorities expecting hospitals to remain under immense strain for the rest of the winter. Yet despite thousands in Canberra having had the virus (some twice), our numbers continue to grow.

What has happened to the ACT? Last year we prided ourselves on being the most vaccinated city in Australia. We were praised for our compliance with check-ins and mask wearing, but now it seems that many people have forgotten that COVID kills.

On Monday night at Llewellyn Hall, despite there being signs on the outside doors saying that masks were required in the venue, at least a third of the people were not wearing masks. The concert hall was packed with a large number of elderly people in the audience and yet some people clearly don't worry about their own health, or unfortunately about others.

Mask wearing for a couple of hours in crowded places is not hard. As a caring community surely we can do better.

Since his election our new Prime Minister has spent much time abroad at meetings with our allies, in Tokyo for a Quad meeting with leaders of Japan, US, and India to discuss the perceived menace of China, and currently in Madrid by invitation to the NATO summit, convened to discuss aid to Ukraine.

While it is obviously important to reinforce ties and cooperate with allies, relations with nations outside the family are also important, and should not be neglected. An "us and them" attitude may even increase problems of confrontation, and entrench attitudes.

Okay, a meeting with the deranged Vladimir Putin, such as tried by the French president Macron, demonstrated that any diplomatic attempt to stop the murderous war in Ukraine would be useless, but China is a different case. The Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian has indicated that with the new government comes the opportunity of improved relations and "bright prospects".

However Anthony Albanese has reiterated that as it was China that banned imports of some Australian goods, it was up to China to reinstate them. This sounds reasonable, but in these difficult situations where face-saving is important, an Australian initiative without preconditions may pay unexpected dividends.

Richard Johnstone's letter (Letters, June 25) about the irrationality of selling the Geoscience building and then paying rent on it for decades to come is spot on.

Around the year 2001 the Howard Liberal government decided they could and should sell off from the Commonwealth estate scores of federal government buildings purchased over decades for public servants.

That high quality building stock had been acquired in capital cities and regional centres and was efficiently and effectively managed to minimise the cost to the government and the Australian taxpayer.

The buildings were sold to the private sector and then leased back for guaranteed terms at market rents that have continued to escalate. It is fiscal madness, but it is entirely consistent with the federal Liberal party playbook of minimising the public service and guaranteeing huge ongoing profits to their mates in the private sector. Is it any wonder that I vote Labor?

Re: "Double life of an anti racism campaigner", (canberratimes.com.au, June 26).

I found Jeanette Harper's constant denigrating of Afrikaners in South Africa quite distressing. Yes many of them were incredibly racist, but so were the English speaking South Africans. I grew up in Durban in the 60s and can vouch for that from personal experience.

There were many liberal Afrikaners (myself included - I was arrested twice for anti-apartheid protests in the early 70s). A few that come to mind are Breyten Breytenbach and Andre Brink. Paul Pretorius was president of the national student body and was banned for years because of his anti-apartheid stance. There are many others.

Ms Harper's comments smack of the racism she claims to oppose and surprising from anyone who worked with the Black Sash.

Noel Whittaker states "wishing and hoping won't fix climate change" "Doing the sums on solar batteries as energy crisis looms in Australia" (canberratimes.com.au, June 27).

His article on solar panels, batteries and electric cars focuses on costs. Perhaps the focus should be on household pollution reduction.

Don't see it as investing for profit but simply as a way of doing your bit to reduce pollution for future generations. If you can afford an electric car, then buy one. Simple.

Your report "Capital's COVID hospitalisations surpass 100 admissions", (canberratimes.com.au, June 26) was sobering.

When it comes to public expenditure, governments always talk about priorities. I'm pretty sure that a third Canberra hospital has been mooted and delayed for longer than the perennial government favourite - the tram stage two - which will only ever benefit a small proportion of Canberrans.

Why, I wonder, is a new hospital, which would benefit all Canberrans, a second-order government priority?

Mr Bandt has finally gone too far. His stand re the Australian flag is deeply offensive to most and is beyond politics.

While symbols including flags are emotive and can evoke strong feelings in favour of or against the entity represented, for an Australian party leader to do what Mr Bandt has done is beyond the pale.

By rejecting the national flag he rejects Australia. And, worse, he offers no positive solution for his (to me) confected and deliberately divisive outrage. If he rejects the flag, what does he suggest should replace it? Or indeed should replace the Australian body politic?

It seems we are becoming a nation increasingly and unnecessarily and dangerously divided on racial, economic and gender grounds, among others. It is fine to have different opinions in our democracy. That's what the ballot box is for. But to foment division for its own sake, as Mr Bandt appears to do - particularly because he offers no alternative solution - is unacceptable.

In light of the recent decision in the US, how do we begin to have a respectful conversation about abortion?

Too often the issue is couched in terms of women's rights only: "It's my body. It's my choice - back off!" It takes two to create life. Women need men to take this issue far more seriously than they have.

The pro-choice narrative lets men off the hook, allowing them to, among other things, spread their seed with impunity, leaving women to do all the heavy lifting.

Casual, inconsequential sex has emerged as the default ethic of the age. Thus, a sexual encounter has been commodified; hollowed of its meaning; perhaps even decoupled from it: a mere exchange of goods between consumers.

Is there anything casual, or inconsequential about sex?

This is not a facile pulpit call to cancel casual sex; rather, it is a call to imbibe our young with a counter narrative: "you are of inestimable worth. You are infused with inherent dignity and value. This worth is inviolable. It transcends gender, sexuality, social status, ethnicity, colour, and creed. Endowed with this objective truth, it behoves you to not only honour and reverence your own humanity in all its fullness, but that of others as well".

Perhaps our conversation might begin with a question: "What does it mean to be human?".

Noel Whittaker's article "Doing the sums on solar batteries as energy crisis looms in Australia" (canberratimes.com.au, June 27) draws attention to the high cost and poor return on residential batteries.

Given this, and the low and declining cost of solar panels, householders could give consideration to installing additional panels on the west side of their roofs.

Panels so installed would provide power in late afternoons, particularly during summer daylight saving when there are family members at home using power.

A study is needed to examine the costs and benefits of such a proposition.

This could be a valuable interim step until such time as the cost and efficiency of batteries improve.

Drop the charges against Bernard Collaery and indict Alexander Downer.

On March 20 Scott Morrison announced he had paid $28 million to Whitehaven Coal for 70,000 tons of coal to be sent to Ukraine. Does anyone know whether it has arrived?

With the PM and his various senior ministers including Richard Marles (CHOGM), Penny Wong, and Tanya Plibersek (Portugal) overseas who is in charge? I don't think it unfair to compare him to Kevin 747 given domestic issues appear have less significance when he is not here.

Now Albanese has returned staff levels to those legislated for back benchers and independents under the MOPS Act suddenly people who haven't even sat on the red benches yet think they have been robbed. In my day the total staff allocation was three. What would eight staff even do when Parliament isn't sitting?

I concur with Jo Clay when she states "I just can't see how we could possibly prioritise $40 million going into the horse racing industry when we have all these major social and environmental problems to deal with". She should have added "how can we prioritise $1.9 billion being spent on a tram to Woden for the same reasons".

Jo Clay thinks $40 million is too much to give the racing industry with climate change, COVID and homelessness to address. The same can be said for the tram expenditure. And the horses are faster.

On assuming the throne Morrison's corroding diktat determined the public service was nothing more than the politician's handmaiden. He stacked PM&C and outsourced to mates.

It is a positive that at the UN Ocean Conference Tanya Plibersek said "under the new Australian government, the environment is back - front and centre". To avoid hypocrisy, however, the federal government should rescind support for Woodside's Scarborough gas project. This would stop 1.37 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution.

I urge The Canberra Times, in its reporting of the CIT fiasco, to add the other three 9s to the contract value. I think $4.99999 million dramatically conveys the suspect nature of this contract, priced just $10 below the point at which it would have required external review and approval.

It is unlikely, given the cost of living, COVID numbers, and international tensions many people outside Canberra will give two hoots about more minders for teals and others. If the new independents keep on carrying on like cut snakes and the dog in the manger they may suffer a backlash.