When we start changing names willy-nilly where will it end?

We had no worries about First Fleet names or stars in the sky. I am a blood brother (literally with an Aboriginal mate from childhood) and I am proud and respectful of our Indigenous heritage. Less so of our early white settlers and terrorists.

I have no problem with the Sirius name on anything, along with Albemarle, the other ships of the First Fleet, previous tourists and subsequent arrivals. It is part of our history. It can't be eroded or ignored. Some of it is a good and brave history.

If we go about changing non-Indigenous names we will end up unknown to the rest of the world. Australia is not an Indigenous word. So are all of the state and territory names.

Where do you stop? Why start? To our Indigenous brothers and sisters I say we get on with living in our current century and fight for things worth fighting for like health and education and co-operation. We don't need to give old ex-politicians oxygen for old worn-out prejudices or for young drum-beaters to jump on a wagon.

Why do we insist on animating inanimate objects like a Disney cartoon? Did Sirius actually navigate and sail itself (Letter April 15)?

If we follow the same logic, as David Rowlands implies, the Second Fleet ships were responsible for the human losses on the voyage rather than the decisions made by the British naval provisioners and, presumably, ships' officers.

It's like blaming (or glorifying) the goal posts and ignoring the human capacities of the goal kickers.

I refer to your article "More roo strikes on cars" (April 14).

There is no question that at times kangaroos will suddenly jump out into the path of cars out in those more rural areas around Wamboin and other localities. Only total extermination of kangaroos and wombats will avoid such collisions.

However I have travelled those rural roads may times and also the roads in and around Canberra for the past 50 years and have yet to hit a single kangaroo or wombat.

I take considerable precautions and slow down, particularly at night, on evening and early mornings, when kangaroos are more likely to be grazing green verges. If everyone did that, many accidents could be avoided.

Of course, with so few kangaroos now left on our reserves, there is little risk anyway. But there will always be some risk and if drivers took more care, slowed down at those critical times, there would I suggest be very few accidents and less risk of injury to both human and animal. I live in hope but I won't hold my breath.

Any car accident is cause for regret and sadness when an animal is killed or injured (''More roo strikes on cars", April 14).

So far, as a driver with over four decades' experience, I've been fortunate.

This includes 13 years of driving extensively in Canberra at all times of the day and night, and prior to that, in the other "hot spot" mentioned in Peter Brewer's article, Goulburn for eight years (including two years commuting to Canberra).

I never hit a kangaroo in this region, nor in any state of Australia.

In over three months sharing the driving in rural and wilderness areas of North America we avoided colliding with deer, elk, coyotes, moose, bears and bison.

On one occasion, a herd of over 30 elk decided to meander down the main street of Jackson, Wyoming. The traffic stopped and waited ... and waited. No one even sounded a horn.

Defensive driving, mindfulness of other road users, good humoured patience and a bit of luck can take you a long way.

Wildlife overpasses on busy arterial roads would also be an intelligent and humane response.

With the recent kerfuffle over Peter Dutton's bizarre comments linking a demonstration in Sydney to the Port Arthur massacre, via the Prime Minister's leadership, Albo may like to revisit and adapt Julia Gillard's famous speech.

"I will not be lectured about leadership by this man; I will not ... Not now, not ever .... If he [Dutton] wants to know what poor leadership looks like in modern Australia, he doesn't need a motion in the House of Representatives, he needs a mirror. That's what he needs".

And we wonder about persisting inflation and decry the cost of living. One of the not insignificant pressures is the almost universal levying of credit card surcharges by small to medium businesses, in retail and service industries.

This is generally well in excess of the actual cost and typically undeclared till after payment, however illegal that no doubt is.

It's probably only the large stores who are now conspicuous by not going down this path (Aldi is the exception among supermarkets).

As for the argument that credit card issuers' charges would come back to consumers anyway in pricing, competition among businesses might have always had them absorbed instead.

Now an almost universal tranche of credit card surcharges, themselves inflated, has come to characterise the Australian business model.

Is this why we are constantly told cash is irrelevant and outdated?

The Public Eye item about "sovereign citizens" demands (April 15) was eye opening.

Asking for a Mercedes car seems self defeating because a sovereign citizen would not be allowed to drive on roads that Australian taxpaying citizens have paid for.

Also, are these people receiving government benefits like pensions or healthcare?

Clearly any such benefits should be discontinued immediately because they have voluntarily forsaken Australian citizenship.

As a member of the Conservation Council's Transport Working Group, I wrote in January last year that "We can replace our entire fleet of polluting buses with zero-emissions electric buses, and build bus rapid transit between Civic and Woden for less than the cost of the slower and less frequent services of stage two of light rail" (Letters, January 12, 2023).

Without consulting with the Transport Working Group or with the council's members, the council's president responded, "He did not consult the TWG. His views do not reflect those of the Conservation Council ACT Region which supports light rail stage two" (Letters, January 16).

The president then summarily expelled me from the Transport Working Group.

Now the Public Transport Association of Canberra has openly endorsed buses as an alternative to light rail ("Yes, great cities are built on rail. But ignore buses at your peril," April 10).

This presents the Conservation Council's president with a challenge.

Will he expel the Public Transport Association from the Transport Working Group? Or will he represent the views of the Conservation Council's members?

Last week, as the Sirius controversy raged, I was reading a vintage Australiana book: Walkabout by Charles and Elsa Chauvel (1959).

One passage read: "Shame on us, that we Australians should usher in our visitors by planes from overseas through the tanning smells near Botany Bay.

"Some people feel the name 'Botany' should be dropped because it is reminiscent of convicts, but this land is too big for that quality of thinking".

Penny Wong has floated the possibility of recognising the Palestinian state ahead of agreement on a two-state solution, a course being canvassed internationally prior to a vote on the issue at the UN before too long.

Peter Dutton, however, often swims against the tide including on this issue. It seems he has been in the wilderness and has just become aware of the fall of the Berlin wall and will soon try to grasp the Oslo Accords.

Unsurprisingly, he takes guidance from a man who lives even further in the past and recently complained about the renaming of the Sirius Building in Woden ("Ship of Fools", April 12, p1), ignoring current sensibilities.

May be the selection criteria for agency heads and senior executives of the Department of Health needs to be extended to include commonsense decision making.

Penny Wong's statement on Palestinian statehood reminds me of the bloke who came back from Munich promising "peace in our time". That didn't end all that well.

Dutton's nasty recent speech likening the pro-Palestinian protest at the Opera House with the Port Arthur massacre failed to mention the Christchurch massacre where 51 Muslims were shot by the Australian white supremacist. Dutton is a disgrace.

Vasily Martin (Letters, April 12) seems to think that Russia is still communist and should therefore be supported by lefties like me. But Russia is not communist. The Russian Orthodox Church loves Putin and his family values.

"Is anybody really offended by the name Sirius today?" asks Steve Evans ("Don't let department name-changers get Sirius", April 12). "Yes" is surely the answer from anyone genuinely seeking to find offence. That said, your reports about the architecture have me intrigued; when is the next open day?

Re the dog star building. Why not just rename the building "Labradorus" and keep everyone happy?

How appropriate that the sound failed as Justice Lee was delivering the verdict in the Lehrmann defamation case. Just another twist in this sordid saga.

It would be more peaceful to have quiet electric vehicles. However we shouldn't prevent the conversion of EVs to sound like ICE vehicles (Letters, April 13). They need to be heard by other road users as a safety issue.

I would like to know who made the decision to rename the Sirius Building. What is their role in the Health Department, how senior are they and what is their salary? As they are paid to look after our health, many would prefer rational decisions to be made. Free of silly ideology.

I've been filling out quite a few forms of late. The section for gender is getting very complicated. They always seem to forget my preferred choice. I am always looking for the box marked "who gives a flying fig?"

I'm waiting with bated breath to see how the Linda Reynolds defamation case against Higgins and Sharaz plays out. The ACT government is already $90,000 out of pocket for Drumgold's remarks.