Websites previously identified as .com.au or .net.au etc. can now be simplified to omit the "com" or "net" part of the address. As the ombudsman has pointed out, this will give criminals the opportunity to "capture" currently existing legitimate sites and either ransom them or even steal business if the current owners do not register the shorter domain names by the September deadline.

This will also open the entire Australian online business economy to potentially serious disruption by an external power so inclined. The new registration process is an "opt-in", rather than an "opt-out", system. It is a case of re-register or else face the consequences. And do that in less than a month.

In my view this is an outrageous breach of faith by the domain authorities. All our website addresses are maintained in a small number of centrally managed databases, which are addressed by browsers to direct people to specific web addresses. If the addressing protocol of the .au domain has to be changed, it would be very simple for a computer process to update all databases so currently registered websites were linked with the new protocol automatically.

The government should be ordering the domain name authorities to ensure that this danger does not threaten Australia's online business community. It should be telling them that if they do not, it will legislate to take control of their domain registration licence, just as the energy regulator has on occasion taken control of that market.

Contrary to Dr Douglas Mackenzie's assertion (Letters, August 14) about "the inability to provide food" for the global population, the World Food Program website contains the following statement: "Global hunger isn't about a lack of food. Right now, the world produces enough food to nourish every child, woman and man on the planet. But nearly a third of all food produced each year is squandered or lost before it can be consumed".

Again, contrary to Dr Mackenzie's assertion that "populate or perish is a tragic anachronism" the Albanese government will grow the migrant workforce by increasing the intake by 40,000 people each year, to address the lack of skilled workers.

Moreover, Australia's population is ageing as a result of sustained low fertility (strongly correlated with abortion becoming a matter of choice) and increasing life expectancy. The Royal Commission into Aged Care found that the system already fails to meet the needs of our older citizens. The situation will only get worse without the growth in the population necessary to provide sufficient carers for the inevitable growth in the number of aged persons.

China's Ambassador Xiao seems a very pleasant man. A country and culture that can produce people of such quality deserves considerable respect.

China has been criticised for taking control of Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong. But it ill becomes Australians of European, and especially British, origin to offer such criticism. From the 13th century on, England gradually took control of Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The areas annexed by China at least lay along Its borders; but in 1788 the United Kingdom began to colonise Australia, which lay at the other end of the world.

China seems far too sane a country to contemplate a takeover of Australia, and I welcome Ambassador Xiao's call for the two countries to be friends.

One of the politicians I respect the most is Senator Jim Molan but I must disagree with him on one point.

In the light of the Chinese ambassador's aggressive speech at the press club Jim suggests he and embassy officials should be banned from speaking there .

On the contrary I think the ambassador made it crystal clear to the assembled journos what a dreadful and dangerous regime the Chinese Communist Party has become. The more he speaks the more likely it is that Australians will wake up to the gravest threat our nation has faced since World War II.

The ambassador confirmed that the CCP is quite comfortable invading and subjugating Taiwan and turning it into one vast re-education and concentration camp for 23 million people along the lines of Xinjiang province where over one million Yuigurs are imprisoned and tortured in re-education camps

Jim Molan is spot on however in his calls for Australia to do whatever we can as a matter of urgency to ensure we have fuel security, sufficient war stocks to fight for more than 10 minutes and re-arm with lethal offensive weapons that can provide us with a real deterrent. The new federal government needs to heed his call.

I was the observer for the Australian Conservation Foundation at the Hawke economic summit in 1983. This summit presented a hand-picked set of speakers that included none from conservation, or churches, or women's groups.

At the end of the summit Hawke stood before the audience and said: "We, representing the people of Australia ... " This was a lie but a perfect example of how "consensus" was manufactured.

It seems we are to see a similar exercise with the forthcoming skills summit.

The economic model underlying all the speeches will be directed toward further and continual growth. Yet there is abundant evidence from a large number of studies and hundreds of thousands of scientists that continual growth is impossible, unsustainable, inequitable and self-destructive. But these voices will not be heard at the summit.

Our politicians and most of our economists and journalists wrongly believe that the economy is and should remain the basis of our thinking and decision making. The environment, on the other hand, is considered peripheral and can be fitted in around the more important economic considerations.

This is wrong. The economy, and everything else, is totally dependent on a healthy and functioning natural environment.

But you can be sure this message will not inform the forthcoming summit. Its chosen speakers will all proclaim programs and policies based on the fallacy of an infinite planet.

Further to the article about the criminals who have recently "graduated" from drug and alcohol treatment programs, it would also be interesting to know how their innocent victims are faring.

For instance, have their victims recovered from the trauma of armed robbery and violent threats, had their stolen goods returned, been repaid for the costly damage caused to their property and so on?

The focus on helping violent criminals to resume enjoyable lives may be an admirable goal, but it is sad that the often long-lasting impact on their victims does not warrant equal attention.

I sincerely hope that Sunday's incident at the Canberra Airport terminal in which five pistol shots were fired at random ("People fear for lives as shots fired", August 15, p4) does not presage Australia's contracting the American disease: a national addiction to guns. This country has already adopted many aspects of the American way of life. The last thing we need is to slavishly imitate American gun "culture".

I recommend Warwick Williams does a little more research before he condemns the Voice as "empty symbolism" (Letters, August 15). For starters, he could read Henry Reynolds' Truth Telling, detailing the treatment of First Australians and the blind-eyes turned to the English laws that were supposed to protect the "natives".

He could read the various detailed, expert commentary on how the Voice will, as part of our constitution, ensure our original inhabitants are able to be heard by, but in no way control, the Australian parliament.

The Voice, at the very least, should be regarded by the rest of us as some recompense for the often illegal treatment that was meted out over the past 230 years.

He might investigate how effectively non-Indigenous groups, in comparison to others, are able to access the corridors of power, while also confirming that trashing of housing is far from the sole prerogative of Indigenous occupants.

And finally, Warwick could look back on the past decade in particular and examine just how little the party Senator Price represents, and supposedly speaks on behalf of, has actually done to ensure that today's Indigenous Australians have been afforded the same "equalities" the rest of us take for granted.

The Sydney Opera House should be renamed the Australian Opera House.

I heard the other day that Israel has their F-35s and that they are grounded due to a suspected mechanical fault. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Brilliant idea Harry Davis (Letters August 5). Go CHAUKUS.

I wonder how many of those recently extolling the merits of puffer jackets realise that the down and feathers are often plucked from the ducks and geese while they are still alive. Please ensure that the down and feathers are ethically sourced in any garment or doona purchased.

David Hall (Letters, August 15) asks us to imagine China will come and take our coal. Why would they? There'll always be a cabal of fossil-fuel miners ready to sell coal to China regardless of the consequences for the planet. There'll always be governments, unwilling to look beyond the next election date, who'll aid and abet them.

The ACT government is talking about taxing empty houses. There has been no mention of how many government houses are empty or if Barr and his government are going to be personally taxed for their neglect on this issue.

The ACT government claims only 1.9 per cent of dwellings are unoccupied but the census shows a vacancy rate of 6.6 per cent. The latter figure is often used to criticise allegedly "house hoarding" owners for not curing homelessness. What weight can we put on these figures? Could it be that some people decide not to fill in the census? Is that the reason?

To those who are outraged that Australian Cam Smith, among many others, has joined the "breakaway" golf competition; have you ever changed jobs to get a pay rise?

I support E Mary Barker (Letters, August 14) about the wisdom of accepting asylum seekers into Australia. The asylum seeker issue should be tackled by the G-20 countries in a team effort. The G-20 nations spend over two trillion dollars a year on armaments. If they cut that by just 2.5 per cent it would release $50 billion to invest in the stability and economic development of poor nations.

Matt Comyn has just pocketed a massive 35 per cent increase in his remuneration, taking it to $7 million which includes a long-term deferred equity reward. The committee said this was owing to his performance "meeting or exceeding expectations". Would his increase have been correspondingly reduced if his performance was below par?