The first? Only if one overlooks the many tens of thousands of Aboriginal people who died violently in the frontier wars as a result of the colonial invasion of this continent.

Many of them were fighters and many were victims of the massacres that took place across the country.

In an extraordinary paradox, the frontier wars were the only wars fought on Australian soil, by people fighting for their own land and very survival, and yet they are the only wars in which Australians fought that are not commemorated at the Australian War Memorial.

By the Australian War Memorial's own mission - to "assist Australians to remember, interpret and understand the Australian experience of war and its enduring impact on Australian society" - this is an obvious travesty and injustice.

The memorial's arbitrary exclusion of the frontier wars from recognition and commemoration as wars diminishes our understanding, both of their historical significance for us all and their enduring impact on first nations' people.

Prime Minister Albanese's commendable commitment to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, with its call for "truth-telling about our history", gives powerful impetus to the need for both truth-telling in full, and commemoration, of the frontier wars.

It's long since time for the AWM to take up this responsibility.

I write to congratulate Dr Sue Wareham for her lucid reasoning as to why the frontier wars should also be recognised at the Australian War Memorial, in her recent interview on Radio National.

The 1788 occupation of Australia was strongly resisted by the Australia's First Nations people and, whilst they lost the war to the British colonisers, there should be a place at the Australian War Memorial to commemorate the many battles that ensued after the arrival of the First Fleet.

The AWM commemorates wars that have been won or lost as a testimony to those Australians who took up arms in conflicts.

The AWM has recognised conflicts before Australia's federation such as the Boer War. So, the time has come for the AWM to also recognise that the British occupation of Australia was not a peaceful settlement but a brutal campaign.

Imagine the furore if our Nick wins Wimbledon and the over-the-top pile on if he doesn't. Go Nick.

I am surprised about the number of readers writing into The Canberra Times recently complaining about the Reserve Bank governor raising interest rates.

Yes; he may have said back in 2020 that he couldn't see interest rates rising before 2024, but the hindsight experts seem to forget one very important development since he made that prediction.

That was that no one predicted that Vlad would decide that Russia wasn't big enough for him and he had to take over Ukraine in February this year.

That single decision threw all interest rate predictions out the window not only in Australia but in many other countries.

Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.

The timeline of events in the article on Bernard Collaery ("Bernard Collaery welcomes decision by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to drop charges", canberratimes.com.au, July 8) left out one significant event.

In 2008 former Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, resigned from Parliament and joined Woodside Energy, the beneficiary of the Timor Leste cabinet room bugging operation.

It took a change of government, but fairness and justice has prevailed ("Bernard Collaery welcomes decision by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to drop charges", canberratimes.com.au, July 8). Bernard Collaery will be able to get on with his legal practice and his life generally. Let's hope that his unfair treatment will not reduce the courage he has shown in standing up against the injustice of powerful interests. Not speaking up allows injustice to prosper in secret.

The cartoon about Bernard Collaery cleverly drawn by Mr Pope in your July 8 edition was a humorous reminder of a political matter.

Sadly though, it was also a reminder of what a criminal country we are in Australia when such a matter could occupy the lives of so many innocent and worthy people for years following a criminal act against one of the poorest countries in the world, all for the sake of future oil revenues and political survival.

An insidious act by political operators who should all should be prosecuted for their crime.

I don't believe Boris Johnson intends to give up the prime ministership.

Wild horses couldn't drag this guy away. He is as gone as Bibi Netanyahu. He's just stalling, hoping that six months of lame duck leadership will somehow restore his fortunes.

Of all the tripe coming from the Green-Labour excuse for an ACT government, the Soviet-speak rubbish on the raising of London Circuit takes the cake. Public consultation!? What "consultation"? Improve traffic flow!? How can a traffic light controlled intersection improve on an overpass!? I could go on.

On top of this, it's an outrageous waste of taxpayers' money. Far better spent on alleviating waiting times on Canberra's hospitals, for example; currently the worst in Australia. Mad incompetence.

The number of deaths from COVID-19 has risen exponentially since the beginning of 2022, compared to 2020/21.

We are told to live with COVID. Well clearly we are not; 300 deaths a week is not living with COVID but dying with COVID.

If this weekly number of deaths was from car accidents there would be an outcry across the nation. Australians would demand that the issue be addressed immediately.

Well, we know how to stop the spread by simply mandating that we go back to wearing masks when outside our homes. Also reinstate social distancing. We know these two steps can make a huge difference.

I'm not suggesting we go any further than these simple steps. It would help ease the pressure of our over-burdened health system. It is not a big ask. All state and territory leaders please think about it.

Don't wait until, heaven forbid, it is one of your loved ones that dies of COVID-19.

Herman van de Brug (Letters, July 2) seeks a conversation about nuclear energy in Australia. Here, then, are some questions for discussion.

Is Australia prepared to create anew (and pay for) a nuclear industry which could establish and support nuclear energy operations? Will small modular reactors ever prove themselves? At what cost?

Nuclear energy operations generate significant quantities of nuclear waste and, eventually, mothballed reactors which both remain radioactive for millennia. What extremely-long-lasting (physically and politically) ways can be found to handle this?

What are the prospects of locations for reactors and waste depositories being widely agreed? Are Australians prepared to run the risk, however slight, of a nuclear accident?

Can nuclear energy be competitive with renewable sources economically, politically or environmentally without strong carbon pricing (apparently politically out of the question)?

While Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Kim Jong-un, and - to a lesser extent - even Vladimir Putin definitely make the world a more interesting place, they are not inside a television studio filming new episodes of The West Wing or Yes, Prime Minister.

They are real people, with real power, making life and death decisions about the real world.

The deaths of lord knows how many people because of the incompetent way in which Trump and Johnson responded to COVID-19 for example is nothing to laugh about. And, as for Boris's "leadership" on Ukraine, he was trying to divert attention away from his domestic troubles. Good riddance.