Renaming it will ignore the people who sailed to NSW and diminish recognition of their contributions to the establishment of our land.

As an associate member of the Canberra Chapter of the Fellowship of First Fleeters, with concern I object to the building's renaming.

Isaac Tarr, our family's ancestor, arrived on the Sirius in 1788. He was the only royal marine who chose to settle on a land grant of 60 acres near Morgan's Run, Norfolk Island. His efforts to raise food crops helped to sustain the growing, starving settlement at Port Jackson.

He was elected to the Settlers' Society to represent directly to the lieutenant governor the views of others to determine, plan and provide marketable produce.

Isaac relocated to Parramatta, where he employed convicts on his grant of 40 acres and later married Elizabeth, a convict woman, in 1797. The couple produced one daughter who, in 1818, married an emancipated convict.

Isaac and Elizabeth are buried at St John's Cemetery, Parramatta. Thanks to the Sirius the role of the Tarr family as progenitors became well established with over 19,500 Australians, of which our family is one.

In the interests of a factual debate, may I correct Eric Hunter's assertion (Letters, April 10) that governors-general don't make decisions.

They do; thousands of them as I witnessed as official secretary to the governor-general for over five years (2003-2008).

Almost every piece of legislation, every piece of delegated legislation, senior appointments and especially the deliberations of the Federal Executive Council, require decisions to be made by the governor-general. They are done mostly on advice, but not always; and I have observed PMs and ministers being called to account on important occasions.

Importantly, one of the governor-general's roles not often witnessed by the public is to act as a final check and balance in the decision-making process, standing independently at the apex of Australia's national life.

They should be remunerated accordingly, and those arrangements not flippantly dismissed by equally silly assertions like those from Stephen Barnett (Letters, April 10).

Doug Hurst (Letters, April 10) unfairly compares modern Australia to that of Aboriginal society when the European colonisers first arrived. Well no kidding it's different. A fairer comparison would be to the lives of the colonists. He imputes that First Nations living standards were undesirable because they "survived on what they could hunt and gather, slept on the ground...". I wonder how Mr Hurst would fare if thrown into the outback on his own at that time?

As for his assertion that Aboriginal people "lived in an often violent world... [and] made up stories for entertainment", has he been living in a bubble? Humanity is demonstrably much better at killing each other now, and our entertainment industry is endlessly pumping out made-up stories.

Doug Hurst (Letters, April 10), and separately on the same day, Peter Kurti of the Centre for Independent Studies, both proclaim the benefits brought to Australian Indigenous people from European arrival, Peter pointing to "the rule of law, defence of human rights, and liberal democratic government" while Doug suggests to "the wonders of modern medical care", longer life expectancy and "entertainment".

It's a matter of perspective though, isn't it? If it had been possible to ask Indigenous people in 1788 or at any time prior if they actually wanted any of those things, what would they have said? Could they ever seen the need for a liberal democratic government or Netflix?

More to the point, if they had been asked if they wanted those things at the cost of dispossession, multiple attempts at genocide, theft of their children and grandchildren, and ongoing disadvantage compared to the European colonisers, what would they have said then?

So, the Albanese government hopes that Israel will "accept" a "special adviser" to scrutinise the actions of the IDF that led to the deaths of humanitarian aid workers including, most regrettably, Ms Frankcom.

Has our government considered the implications of this appointment, which may lead to investigations by other nations into Australian domestic affairs, such as juvenile crime in Alice Springs?

Israel is a sovereign nation, the only democracy in the Middle East. One can only visualise what be the result of popular protests in say, Ankara or Tehran (the last where sharia law has mandated that women be stoned to death or hanged).

Appointing a respected, much-decorated military veteran such as Mark Binskin is surely an opportunistic move by Albanese and Wong to wring the most political juice out of dreadful circumstances.

Crispin Hull grasps reality on the issue of immigration and refugees ("Australia has lost control of its borders and it's making us all worse off", April 2).

Yes, we are being swamped by people (irrespective of race) who come by plane, not boat, and overstay their visas. We need about 350,000 dwellings a year to deal with the highest population growth since 1952, but are only building 170,000. Quality of life is getting poorer for the majority, particularly the young.

There has been long-term deterioration of Australia's training regimes as governments withdrew money and support. Building ever more dwellings takes valuable agricultural land and encroaches on important wildlife habitat. The alternative, densification, threatens the amenity of existing suburbs.

Hull argues that high immigration will ultimately be one of multiculturalism's biggest threats noting that "the past 20 years of high population growth has coincided with poor wages growth; poor productivity improvement; lower home ownership; higher health, education and transport costs; and greater inequality. Inevitably that leads to scapegoatism and intolerance".

If you support multiculturalism, you need to reduce the size of the immigration program so we can assure everyone - migrants and those born here - of a house to live in and affordable health, education and transport.

It seems journalists cannot perceive an era when Americanisms of speech and spelling were roundly rejected by those with just a modicum of knowledge of the English language. A recent front page (April 2) screamed the acronym "AWOL". In the Australian Defence Force the acronym is "AWL", in recognition that "without" is one word, not two.

In her letter (March 30) Jenny McDougall makes a very good point about the detrimental impact of cutting nature reserve grasses rather than letting natural grazers such as kangaroos do the job they were evolved to do, i.e. manage native grasslands and to look after the other animals that live in these habitats.

In fact, a recent long-term scientific study revealed cutting grass lowers biodiversity as it affects a range of ecological and environmental variables. It increases greenhouse gases, kills small animals and insects such as pollinators and reduces the richness and range of plants and native grasses.

To make matters worse, the government has introduced hard-hoofed livestock into nature reserves which further damages a delicate ecosystem.

It is hard to overstate the damage done to Canberra's nature reserves under the stewardship of Andrew Barr, Shane Rattenbery, Rebecca Vassarotti and now Sophie Lewis.

On a recent date that was not April 1 Tony Abbott urged the Liberal Party to pick more female candidates and attract more female members to help it win badly needed seats. Perhaps he is trying to atone for how, over many years, he has very successfully contributed to the Liberals' entrenched "women problem" and its focus on "identity politics".

Or is he seeking to clean up his credentials for another international envoy job, preferably one that would take him to places where he can continue to hold forth at politically conservative conferences and far-right talk fests?

As a former and quite unique minister for women, he might see himself as a future special UN envoy for the advancement of women?

Talk of a two-state solution is fine but Israel can't live cheek by jowl with a country run by Hamas. It would be war without end.

I see that the go-ahead has been given to cull feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park. if these animals are so destructive and dangerous surely the great white shark is next on the agenda.

With the ACT's financial liability due to increase to $13 billion by mid-2024 surely the solution to partly reduce this deficit is not to proceed with Stage 2B of the light rail. Further savings could be made by not wasting money on schemes such as hiring a systems and analyst thinker for CIT and the rebranding of the ACT Health logo.

In the article "Nuclear danger to Australia", (April 6), the author points to the benefits of pumped hydro as the long-term energy solution. While deriding nuclear power, he fails to acknowledge that if we had "bitten the bullet" years ago when we first began to dig up and export uranium we would be a world-leading nuclear power generator.

R Holesgrove (Letters, April 5) condemns Israel for banning Al Jazeera, saying it no longer has a free press. Israel has actually passed a law allowing it to temporarily ban media organisations which assist its enemies. Al Jazeera can no longer broadcast from Israel. It is blocked in Egypt.

It was very obvious that the author of the article "The four-day work week is coming" (April 8) is a career academic who has never run a business.

Lesley Fisk (Letters, April 9) is not the only one who thought the objection to the name Sirius was an April Fool's Joke. If not, the following streets in Red Hill - also named after first fleet ships - will have to be renamed: Alexander, Borrowdale, Charlotte, Fishburn, Friendship, Golden Grove, Penrhyn, Scarborough, Supply and, of course, Sirius. Then there's the name of the brightest star in the sky, the pesky Greek God and . . .

Perhaps an enduring benefit arising from the publicity surrounding the appointments of Air Chief Marshal Binskin, Air Marshal Chipman and Air Vice-Marshal Chappell, will the greater awareness that the word "marshal" in military ranks ends with a single "l" - just like "admiral", "general" and "field marshal".

Doug Hurst (Letters, April 6) asks why Australia should be putting in a big effort to reduce emissions when China and India don't seem to be doing the same. I ask him "if one is in a sinking lifeboat, would you stop bailing because several others in the boat were not bailing fast enough?"

Israel should recall the words of Isaiah: "Their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; Wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they have not known, And there is no justice in their ways". Isaiah 59:7-8