The only thing I would have added to Julian's otherwise compelling reasoning is that women are generally naturally and honestly empathetic, while men can generally have empathy only by working against their inbred and inculcated tendencies and, for most, only as an adjunct to a self-centred value system and agenda. It doesn't have to be this way, but this is how it is now. We can change it in the future, but we need the right leadership and mindset to do so.

Of the 50 female federal MPs available to vote last week on the territory rights bill, three (6 per cent) voted against it. Of the 86 male MPs present to vote, 34 (40 per cent) refused to support the bill.

For too long conservative political, religious and other patriarchal entities have worked hard, often in cosy and powerful collusion, to resist giving others access to democratic rights and choices about personal health and lifestyle matters. Fortunately, this country also has a strong history of women understanding and fighting for fairness, rights and the breaking down of entrenched barriers. It seems that an increased number of rational, open-minded, and even-handed women in the House of Representatives has contributed greatly to ensuring that this bill now moves to the Senate.

I do scoff at frequent pronouncements by various politicians about how smart Australians are. I think Donna Page's article ("The foot and mouth disease (FMD) risk is real", p14, August 6) supports my dismissive response to politicians telling us how smart we are.

Ms Page's sample of responses to the FMD outbreak by several Australians include sentiments along the lines of "don't know", "don't care" and "it's a hoax". I don't think we're all as smart as we are often being told we are.

What a difference a somewhat sensible government makes. Soon after the news of the emissions reductions target of 43 per cent by 2030 on track to being legislated, comes the news that Clive Palmer's proposal for new coal mine has been rejected. The latter is particularly poignant as the old-school bruiser tried to buy himself some political power by spending extraordinary amounts of money campaigning in the previous election - and failed. It restores one's belief in democracy, the balance of opinions and the limits of corporate influence in our politics.

And yet one hopes this is just a start. It will take a while but the time of greedy, loveless men destroying the natural world and abusing everyone else in the process is ending. Good riddance.

Both Adam Bandt and Paul Keating are right about neoliberal Labor. I'm with Keating on Labor's policies on Medicare and superannuation. I'm with Bandt when he lists the privatisation of the Commonwealth Bank, Qantas, CSL and tax cuts for the rich. Covers most bases.

There's no doubt about a neoliberal move in Labor since the 1970s. Current government approaches to keeping the 2024 tax cuts for the rich and claiming increases to JobSeeker payments and other support payments are unaffordable speak for themselves. Can't wait for a debate between the two at the National Press Club, if it happens.

Yes, I admit I am a terrible crook. I stole a Dinky toy when I was eight but, must admit, it played on my mind, so I returned it.

Now 70 years later, my entire life has included volunteer work. Most I have enjoyed, some not so and I would ease myself out of those. Since I retired from paid employment, the past 20 years I have worked as hard as ever in volunteer jobs, all of which I loved. Then I thought of another volunteer position in a well-known Canberra establishment which I thought I would enjoy.

No, I will not go there. Despite once holding the highest level of security clearances, this particular place is absolutely crazy. Before applying, I should have obtained a degree in computing. They use words like uploading, onboarding and advice which I simply do not understand. They require four different forms of proof that I am me.

My final email to them: "Your system tells me I am a crook, not to be trusted unless I can prove otherwise. So be it. I am a crook, an out and out baddie." I can live happily with that.

When and if pesky bike riders pay over $1000 a year to register their bikes and hundreds of dollars to insure them, plus obey simple road rules put in place for everyone's safety including horse riders, he or she is not entitled to whine about car owners. Until then, enjoy your free bike ride, obey the road rules and your sense of entitlement. Please don't say your bike is carbon-neutral; a lot of energy and resources went into making your bike and bike paths.

I attended a session on the Carnegie/La Perouse intersection on August 6, held by the ACT government. I hate to say it but I am embarrassed to be a member of this community with the way the government workers were treated. Rude members of the public and cameras being used to intimidate these public servants. This is not OK. The inner south self-righteous and better-than-the-rest behaviour on perfect display.

There is somewhat more to agree with than usual in Bradley Perrett's column ("Can't wait: start defence fix now", August 6) in regard to the defence review announced August 3. Not agreed with is his wish to have "transcendentally important" nuclear submarines built without delay in America. Such submarines are at present excluded from the Smith-Houston review. The decision to get them certainly should be reviewed, with public input, by Smith-Houston or special parallel inquiry. It is beyond belief that the new government has unquestioningly adopted the rushed plan to get the nuclear-powered subs.

Ostensibly, the subs make sense only for intelligence-gathering in peacetime in offshore China waters, for Australia's purposes alone or for joint Australia-US purposes. They would add little to the defensive or offensive force of the US in armed conflict over Taiwan. They are too few for defence closer to home of Australia per se: for that, only spending the money on larger numbers of cheaper conventional units might make sense provided we can crew them and keep them at sea; also provided that we can eat crow and go back to the French to supply them.

It is not a foregone result that Australia will get a dispensation from the International Atomic Energy Agency or from the broader international community to power its new submarines with nuclear material. Overall, the nuclear subs gambit is ill-conceived and prodigal, bad strategy and terrible diplomacy.

Thanks for the news that DJ Albo has had a sound system installed at The Lodge ("DJ Albo keeps NZ PM Jacinda Ardern's gift at Lodge", August 6). But the article lacks some details. Is Albo a Pioneer in amping up the Lodge? Did he get Bang (& Olufson) for the bucks? Is there a Denon in the den? Sigh. I'll conclude Marantz.

Richard Denniss's article heading ("Coalition on path to irrelevance", CT, August 6, p28), is half-right. Moreover, Richard's assumption that the public sector workforce will continue to grow rapidly around the country is also sooo previous paradigm.

Canberra, with its bloated public service bureaucracy, is not leading the way for the rest of Australia. The future will involve devolution of governance to local and regional areas and its administration will become localised and more lean, nimble and responsive to the communities being served.

My sporting credo is pretty much summed up in the words of the almost-anthemic Andrew Denton song from the early nineties: "I Don't Care as Long as We Beat New Zealand." But I must say the incredible fall-off-the-couch-inducing win by Ollie Hoare in the Commonwealth Games 1500m on Saturday night was just about matched by the genuine appreciation and celebration of Hoare's win shown by the self-described "happiest ever sixth-placedgetter", New Zealander Sam Tanner.

Maybe those darned Kiwis aren't all as bad as I thought!

Your correspondent Charles Gascoigne (Cyclists and pedestrians are people not 'road user pests', Letters, August 5) apparently believes that road users who are not in cars should have the freedom to choose which traffic rules they obey. Is this the way to a safe future for all Canberra travellers? I think not.

Though the idea that the current unrest has increased the threat of nuclear war formed the subject of much analysis yesterday, including Jack Waterford's "Collapsing confidence amid lack of US clarity" and a letter from H Zandbergen, it was strange and disappointing that the anniversary of the day the atom bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, the dawning of the nuclear age, went by unremarked.

The concept of an Indigenous Voice to parliament apparently assumes that all Indigenous people are of the same opinion.

Apart from the agricultural context, it seems to me that many people in positions of power, especially politicians, are at real risk of opening their mouths and putting their foot into it.

It is warmongers like Bradley Perrett and Nancy Pelosi that are bringing the world to the brink of a nuclear war. It will just take a mistake/miscalculation, as Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary, keeps saying. The doomsday clock must be very, very close to midnight.

Roderick Holesgrove (Letters, August 6) made the comment that early climate catastrophe warning systems be set up . We have had one operating in Australia in the 1980s. It was then that insurers started increasing premiums in cyclone, fire and flood-prone areas. Now it is hard to get home insurance in large areas of Queensland and NSW. Governments should have then been watching the insurers' actions and imposing constraints on fossil fuels.

Following on from Jost Steller (Letters, August 6), regularly driving through Narrabundah and Red Hill during autumn, I was amazed at the number of residents taking such great effort to ensure the leaves form their trees were lodged in the gutter. It would need a daily road sweeper to remove this negligence.

The Chinese government controls the largest military in the world. It regards itself as a super power and yet appears scared of a single woman. How extraordinary.

Recently, all members of the ACT Legislative Assembly were invited by Canberra residents who oppose the annual kangaroo cull to a walk at Farrer Ridge. On Saturday, we recorded our appreciation to Nicole Lawder as the only one to turn up. It is claimed there are 143 kangaroos here. We saw 10.