High-rise buildings and light rail both inevitable in Canberra

In the bipartisan business model, Australians adore the massive population growth, hate their barbecues and backyard swings, and younger people can't wait to embrace the exquisite vibrancy of vertical living (or schools).

The current Treasury estimate for 2022-24 migration is 885,000. An astonishing 60 per cent higher than the previous Rudd record of around 560,000. In turn, that record was about three times higher than anything "normal" or sustainable.

So, Michael, you better assume Canberra will double in population, whether you like it or not. The high density is coming, whether you like it or not.

There's no good reason why light rail shouldn't come with it. For all the harrumphing of instant (especially southside) experts, the existing line is successful and effective. Even the Summernats punters piled on.

I'm one of those Canberrans you mention, who'll catch light rail, not a bus. I behave the same, in large and small European and American cities from Darmstadt to Bordeaux to Portland.

We can afford it. Four-hundred cities enjoy it; more than a few having torn up earlier tram systems. That will never be said of trackless trams - aka buses.

I was interested to read the report in The Canberra Times of January 4 about the two independents announcing their candidacy for the ACT 2024 election.

There was yet another sweeping statement, this time by independent candidate Ann Bray, about the effectiveness of the current Canberra Stadium at Bruce. Ms Bray's sweeping statement is that "Bruce was not easily accessible for many Canberrans".

Can Ms Bray explain who these "many Canberrans" are that cannot easily access the Bruce Stadium?

My understanding is that the Canberra Stadium at Bruce is only 10 minutes from the city and close to all the Belconnen and Gungahlin suburbs. It is also within easy driving distance from all other parts of the ACT.

More importantly, there are direct buses to the venue on every occasion that there is a major event at the stadium.

So unless Ms Bray can explain who the "many Canberrans" are she should desist from making such sweeping statements.

Jane O'Neill's (Letters, January 7) criticism of Jack Waterford's December 30 article, in which he stated that Hamas has flourished because of Israel's everyday treatment of Palestinians, is unfounded.

Israel did evacuate their settlement in Gaza in 2005 and since then, especially with the blockade of Gaza, they have made life impossible for the Gazans. The situation in the West Bank is also heartbreaking as I witnessed in 2002 and 2003. It is even worse now.

Another myth repeated by Ms O'Neill and others about Israel's offers of Palestine statehood must be rebutted.

Professor Clive Williams wrote (Letters, October 19) about these offers, giving reasons why they weren't accepted.

The Oslo Accords in particular did nothing to stop the expanding Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, one of the main stumbling blocks to a Palestinian state.

There is an excellent article by Colter Louwerse of Exeter University, "Israel has rejected every offer from Palestinians for a two-state solution", explaining the untruths behind the relentless claim that Palestinians rejected offers for a Palestinian state.

The truth is just the opposite, as Louwerse details.

I urge Ms O'Neill to google the above article and also JewishVoiceforPeace.com which provides a welcome alternative to the Zionist narrative on Palestine.

Hopefully the South African genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice this week will bring an end to the killing in Gaza.

In relation to the recent airline disaster at Tokyo Airport it needs to be noted the Japanese people respect authority and by and large adhere to rules, regulations and commands.

If the same incident had occurred on a flight carrying a lot of Australians, arguments and fights would've broken out over why people could not leave the plane and many would've taken their in-flight luggage with them.

Such actions that would've delayed the evacuation of the plane and possibly have resulted in certain deaths and more injuries.

The people complaining on the Japan Airlines flight were mainly English-speaking.

This and a number of other factors combined to produce the optimum result, including the crew's decision to use the right evacuations and the fact that the Airbus A350 has carbon fibre-composite fuselage skin which is more "burn-through" resistant.

Roderick Holesgrove (Letters, January 8) repeats his regularly published claims that the Jews of Israel are "colonisers" of an area "occupied for centuries by mainly Palestinian people".

He ignores the fact Jews occupied this region as the Kingdom of Judea thousands of years ago, before Palestine was even a name.

They can hardly be colonisers of a land they have called home for millennia.

And he puts great blame on the UN-mandated partition of 1947, ignoring that there were multiple examples of post-war partitions and border adjustments in attempts to balance competing claims and historic disputes.

Yes, people were inevitably displaced and some solutions worked out better that others, but is he also willing to declare that Pakistan is an illegitimate state because it arose from a post-colonial partition and millions were displaced and died in the process?

In competition with the northern suburbs of Canberra and Summernats, Tuggeranong is having its own "summer of fun".

If you have an unregistered trail bike then come on down and belt around the bike path surrounding the lake until your heart's content.

If you have a power boat, come on down and burn, full power, around the lake.

If you want to go fishing and can't be bothered to walk a short distance from one of the several car parks, no problem - just pull a post or two out of the chain link fence and drive on down to the lake edge.

No need to take your beer cans home with you afterwards, either.

Then there's the option of riding a Harley down the main shopping precinct of Tuggeranong (just don't wake up the police desk officer as you roar past the station).

Neither police (including water police), nor city rangers, have been sighted for yonks.

As a payer of excessively high rates for the privilege of living in such a titillating environment, I demand corrective action from this weak-kneed, toy tram-focused government.

So it has now been acknowledged officially that Summernats is essentially a bogan-style event, its business operator having proclaimed proudly that: "Australians love a mullet. There's nothing better than a good bogan car and a mullet ("Festival of fumes roars into town", January 5)."

This cultural view is now used to interpret and promote Summernats as "cool".

Unfortunately in very recent times females, in particular, have been trolled and vilified by Summernats devotee networks from across Australia for making any negative comments based on actual experiences.

This is especially in relation to the undesirable and unwanted environmental, health and social impacts arising from Summernats' well-advertised focus on hours and hours of overly-audible burnouts, and the loud and dangerous human behaviours this stimulates for weeks before and after early January, on many roadways in northern Canberra.

I take issue with Jane O'Neill's description of destruction of the Gaza strip as self-defence (Letters, January 7).

How can the indiscriminate killing of tens of thousands of Gazan inhabitants, many of them women and children, be described as self-defence?

According to Benjamin Netanyahu, the war has months to run so with disease, hunger and dehydration in a destroyed civil environment adding to the "kinetic" deaths, we can expect loss of 30,000, 40,000 or 50,000 Palestinians.

You can add to the deaths the life-destroying injuries and destruction of the public infrastructure and residential stock.

Rather than defending itself, Israel has dug a well of enduring hatred in Palestine and most Islamic nations.

Israel now has an international reputation to match Putin's Russia or the generals in Myanmar.

Actually, David Purcell (Letters, December 27), PM Albanese has been helping at the charity Christmas lunch in Sydney for years. As the MP for an inner-Sydney electorate why shouldn't he keep doing this? He really doesn't have to indulge the mainly well-off national capital at Christmas just for show.

Your verdict "Kingsley's chips never fail to disappoint" ("Who does the best hot chips in Canberra? We put potato to the test", January 8) should ensure that I steer clear of that establishment.

Looking at the pictures of clouds of car exhaust and tyre fumes at Summernats made me wonder if any consideration is given to the deleterious effects of these carcinogenic and toxic fumes on people, particularly children.

The justifiable concern over missing cabinet Iraq War-related documents might be funny were it not so serious. It reminds me of Sir Humphrey's: "If we say a matter is under consideration, it means we've lost the file. If we say it's under active consideration, it means we're looking for it."

The National Museum has an exhibition that covers the migration of moths. But I can find nothing about the migration of people to Australia or their experience when they arrived. This is supposed to be the national museum of a nation of immigrants. Perhaps the Albanese government's Multicultural Framework Review - due to to report in March - could start with the National Museum.

In Canberra we debate whether someone is a climate "sceptic" or "denier". In the US Trump has a serious chance of re-election this year. If he wins the global population will face a far more immediate threat than climate change.

Anthony Blinken is not in a position to ask Middle East countries to be a restraining influence in the multiplying conflicts in the area. The heavy US support of Israel, both diplomatically and militarily, has been a major factor in escalating and perpetuating the violence in the area.

Blinded by gold braid, top-heavy echelons of desk-warriors are trying to dragoon foreign cannon fodder to protect the market and enhance the profits of WMD manufacturers. Pete Seeger's Where have all the flowers gone? is more powerful today than ever.

I am not a fan of Summernats. But nobody should be taken advantage of, particularly in these current economically challenging times. For some retailers in the Dickson precinct to be blatantly increasing their prices during the event is unconscionable. I hope the ACCC's terms of reference for its enquiry are wide enough to put an end to these opportunistic practices.