Money is one of the many reasons you should buy a white Tesla

Also, Tesla's default Australian colour is white. You pay at least $1000 more for any other colour; at least that was the case when I bought mine in 2019.

If Sebastian thinks the Tesla shape is boring he might not know that it came about because of the designers' focus on minimising the drag coefficient.

When it was first released it had the lowest drag of any production car on the road and this, together with other important innovations, gave rise to higher efficiency and lower running cost than other EVs at that time. It is still amongst the best.

Fossil-fuelled cars are so horribly inefficient that drag is not really relevant unless you are designing a racing car.

This is not the case with EVs. However many manufacturers seem happy to sacrifice efficiency to pander to our love of boxy, gargoyle-encrusted, fuel-hungry monstrosities.

I'm not a fashionista but I do appreciate thoughtful engineering. Fads and the Joneses have nothing to do with it.

With the inevitability of a cancer we now have it confirmed that Donald Trump will be the Republican Party's choice in the November US election.

This year we have been seeing articles from pundits speculating on the chaos that a Trump win will visit on the United States and the world.

Existing international policies across the globe will be in danger of being trashed and new alliances formed with countries who currently stand apart from US benevolence. We can expect mayhem and chaos.

But what if Trump loses? Surely, based on what happened four years ago, we can expect the US to go through more mayhem and chaos as Trump and his acolytes seek to overturn the result - as they did on January 6, 2021.

Can we be sure that the US government and its agencies are robust enough to withstand the same disgraceful behaviour that occurred then?

Come what may we should strap ourselves in and prepare for a very rocky end to 2024

Apparently there has been a dramatic increase in speeding in school zones.

Obviously the present arrangement of a 40kmh sign for the hours of 8am to 4pm isn't working.

If the ACT government is serious about reducing speeding in school zones why doesn't it follow NSW and have school zone flashing lights at each school, which operate between 8am and 9.30 am and from 2.30pm to 4pm. These lights are hard to miss.

What will it take for Andrew Barr to front the media and provide an explanation, or even apologise, to Canberrans?

The past week brought revelations that no buses were provided after a concert the ACT government promoted and it refused to even meet with a company that could build the Labor-Green light rail more cheaply.

The only comment from the government was more corporate speak from two of the government's many quangos (why are there so many of them?).

Similar things occur regularly. This suggests Labor and the Greens are more interested in hanging onto power than spending our money wisely and providing us with services when and where we need them.

It does not have to be this way. At October's ACT election we can vote for sensible independents who are committed to progressive social and climate policies as well as ensuring our taxes are spent responsibly.

We continue to see a pro-developer blinkered approach from the ACT Chief Minister and his government. The current game plan of relentless economic and population growth is what is creating the claimed need for massive increases in infrastructure spending.

Our once species-rich environment continues to suffer from this approach. We suffer along with it as a consequence.

Just like a capable farmer who understands the stock-carrying capacity of his acreage and manages it accordingly, our leaders need to understand and apply the principles of sustainability, balance and protection.

The Greens should be the champions of sensible population planning and protection of our natural environment, but appear completely impotent.

The independents hold promise, but need to be far more vocal and energetic in their efforts to expose the relentless growth model for the madness that it is.

The City Renewal Authority spends little time at Dickson. The aggressive, foul-mouthed and abusive beggars and others make for an unpleasant - and even dangerous - shopping and meeting experience.

Traders have had to take steps to move such people away from their business doorways.

We read of the low salaries paid to AFP officers compared to other forces. Once the public service mantra was to "neither lead nor lag". Today it is badly lagging. AFP retention is a real problem.

When police are present at Dickson (and at Watson) 99 per cent of the trouble makers desist.

One solution? Pay the MLAs and renewal authority executives more money. They can turn out to assist the police at Dickson. And in the city.

Suggestions the Pharmacy Guild of Australia is the most powerful lobby group in the country are supported by the federal government's decision to offer its members billions of dollars in support after doctors were empowered to issue 60 days of prescriptions last year.

That was an excellent and much needed reform which received overwhelming positive feedback from the public.

A scare campaign from the Pharmacy Guild claimed it would result in hundreds of pharmacies closing. Trent Twomey, head of the guild, who owns multiple pharmacies cried at an interview about how dire things would be if these reforms went ahead.

Warren Entsch, amongst others, has suggested Mr Twomey run as a candidate for the Liberal Party.

I wrote a letter a few weeks ago about melanoma and The Canberra Times followed up with an interview and article. Some of that $3 billion guild members will receive would have paid for melanoma checks for tens of thousands of Australians who can't afford the $300 fee.

Yet again the government has backed down to a lobby group. Why is it that the squeaky wheel always gets what it wants?

Apparently there are three lobbyists in Canberra for every politician.

The ACT government and its spokespeople might squirm a little but they continue to issue vague, selective spin about public transport provision, especially in relation to Sundays and public holiday evenings ( "No buses after concert despite urging", March 13).

They fail to admit to the social, safety and mobility impacts of still having the last local bus services heading homewards from main interchanges into the suburbs around 7.30pm to 8.30pm on those nights and the dangers of hanging around for a bus home that runs only once every two hours on Saturday nights.

Too many cuts and inconvenient route changes have been made to local bus services, both in the lead-up to and since the introduction of the "new improved" public transport system five years ago.

These public amenity losses have never been acknowledged or assessed as part of the Stage 1 light rail costs. Many who used buses a lot no longer do so.

This loss of patronage has been able to be used quite conveniently by the transport minister to only focus on improving services on the "popular" and fewer, yet far more frequently serviced, rapid routes and their peak travel time periods.

The plan to add a few more bus services on a Saturday afternoon come April won't deliver the many frequency improvements where and when they are needed.

The article in The Canberra Times about the appalling vandalism of the Vietnam memorial on Anzac Avenue included not only pictures of the vandals graffiti, but repeated their words in the body of the article.

Please, do not give these anti-social clowns free publicity for their ill-considered and misdirected propaganda.

Blur the pictures, leave out the words, deprive them of the publicity oxygen they seek.

It's a slick but tired line (Letters, March 13) that the only money Labor has to pay for its programs is "ours", whether it's about paid parental leave or tax cuts. If that's so, then the only money the Coalition would have had to pay for its expensive promises, like parking areas where there were no train stations, was also ours.

Peter Dutton has announced that he is considering sites for nuclear reactors. It has been suggested people living near the reactors might get reduced rates for their electricity. Does that mean they have something to worry about and are entitled to compensation?

ACT Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee ("Lee ignites stadium wars", March 14) will lose the forthcoming ACT election if she backs a city stadium. While everyone is sick of Andrew Barr's numerous feasibility studies it is obvious there isn't room in the city for the type of stadium Canberra needs. It would cause even more disruption than the appalling roadworks.

Graham Wright (Letters, March 14), refers to a "shallow talent pool" in the Coalition. I suggest he is far too kind.

We are now welded into the AUKUS partnership. To what extent should we accept responsibility for the behaviour of our best "war buddy"? Shouldn't we be ashamed American bombs are destroying Gaza and slaughtering trapped and starving people?

Politics aside, our need is for secure, affordable and clean energy now (and an end to unnecessary roadblocks and delays for renewables). Not for a nuclear crusade that appears incapable of delivering power before 2040.

At the end of the Broncos and Rabbitohs game on Thursday night I was surprised the commentators hadn't introduced a "hurt" feelings report.

Dutton doesn't seem to think we should be accepting refugees from Gaza, a war zone. I suspect he doesn't want us accepting Muslims.

The Australian Electoral Commission is considering introducing new penalties for political lies. If this was a substantial fine the national debt would be paid off very quickly based on what I see on television and read in the papers.

Only unworldly bureaucrats could devise a nonsensical system in which Australia grants a visa then cancels it while the visa holder is travelling, leaving them stranded. Surely common sense would indicate doing the checks before granting the visa? The Ministers for Home Affairs and DFAT have ducked for cover.