We could start by ensuring that only our brightest and best represent us there. It might not suit for Australia to become involved in an aid 'bidding war' (unlike the 'war' that the air chief represents), and the xenophobia and limited vision of a large section of the Australian voting public probably will not permit anyway, but a little bit of innovation might advance our cause no end. Has Foreign Affairs given any thought to 'actively' supporting the entry of a team from PNG in our national rugby league competition? Rugby league is after all PNG's national sport and would win us more kudos than any road-building project. Roger Terry, Kingston

High price for trams Interesting and entertaining as they may be, letters to The Canberra Times from John Smith, David Jenkins and Jack Kershaw (Letters, July 4) simply encapsulate the fact that no amount of post-hoc rationale for the implantation of a tram network in Canberra will ever justify the folly of the uber-expensive system. Let's face it, the tram system was the brainchild of the Rattenbury party, and the only reason for committing us to a tram system in the first place was to keep the Labor Party in office. The adoption of trams was the simply price we all paid (through increased rates and taxes, reduction in services, etc) to retain a Labor government. P. J. Bewley, Barton ACT needs an ICAC

The Chief Minister's justification for approving the LDA's purchase of Milapura on the grounds that the government will get at least $100 million from the residential sale of the land ("ACT government bought land for $7 million despite valuing it at least $4m (canberratimes.com.au, July4) preempts the analysis of possible alternative greenfields development areas. As indicated in the Auditor-General's report, and agreed by the chief planning executive, the assessment should be independent of land tenure. This analysis, which should also investigate Kowen and west Murrumbidgee, needs to identify the travel, infrastructure and environmental costs of the alternatives. It should be a key component of the current review of the ACT planning strategy. It does not bode well for the future that the Suburban Land Agency viewed it appropriate that potential rezoning was considered in the amount paid for Milapura. This creates a perception that any review of the timing, priority and appropriateness of alternative greenfield areas is compromised and biased to justify the government's land purchases. The detailed analysis should be available for public scrutiny.

The Barr government's arrogance, lack of transparency and inadequate concern of process, also reflected in its light rail dealings, raises questions as to its competency and honesty. An ACT ICAC is urgently needed as the government survives, despite being well beyond its use-by date, due to an ineffective opposition. Mike Quirk, Garran Electricity market flaw The socialists in the LNP seeking to expropriate AGL's Liddell power plant in order to transfer it to a Singaporean utility have inadvertently highlighted a flaw in the national electricity market.

Namely, a concession given to incumbent generators which means they, unlike new entrants, don't have to pay connection charges in order to access the transmission grid. This flaw in the rules, insisted on by state governments in order to protect their monopoly rents at the commencement of the national electricity market, is ripe for reform. Further, in accordance with their share of dispatched electricity, generators should have to directly meet at least half the annual revenue requirement of the networks. If generators were required to sell electricity inclusive of network charges in the spot market they would have a commercial interest to challenge the excessive revenue requirements of network monopolies. To date the generators have failed to participate actively in the regulatory process for determining network charges and the market is poorer for their absence.

Mike Buckley, Barton Rights and wrongs By his own admission now, Australia's last PM did the right thing, signing the Paris emissions treaty in 2016, for a doubly wrong reason — just because the Americans were, and despite for once in history differing with them. Were he still PM, he would clearly follow Trump in doing the wrong thing — exiting the agreement — for the wrong reason — by default agreeing as ever with the Yanks on everything. Though, in fairness, admittedly then at least reverting to being true to his neanderthal ideology.

Alex Mattea, Kingston Inappropriate ads If you use the bus station in Woden you cannot have failed to notice the advertising adorning the Grand Central towers building as it undergoes redevelopment. There are numerous pictures of a woman draped seductively displaying copious amounts of leg. One can only assume the building is soon to become a brothel, rather than residential accommodation.

Also, recently outside Fernwood in Woden bus station there was advertising that said that Fernwood was a "sanctuary". From what and whom? I take offence if it is aimed at me, a mere male. Ian Jannaway, Monash Take heed of warming warnings

The report "Northern hemisphere swelters in record heat" (July 6, p20) lists instances of record high temperatures in North America, Europe, Eurasia and the Middle East. For example, Montreal, which is almost 2.5 degrees farther from the equator than Hobart, suffered through its highest temperature on record – 36.6 degrees Celsius. Burlington, Vermont, which is almost 1.5degrees farther from the equator than Hobart, had its hottest-ever minimum on July 2 at 26.6 degrees. Qurayat, Oman suffered even more, with an almost unimaginable minimum last week of 42.6degrees. Cities and other locations in eastern Europe and southern Russia endured record or equal-record high maximum temperatures. In the UK, record high temperatures occurred in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland, causing roads and roofs – and, likely, railway tracks – to buckle. Wildfires (or bushfires) are not something that you would normally associate with the "green and pleasant land".

However, since June 24 this year, wildfires have occurred in Ceredigon, Wales; Londonderry, Northern Ireland; Winter Hill in Lancashire, and most recently, on Saddleworth Moor in Greater Manchester. According to the University of Manchester, wildfire is now being taken very seriously by British authorities, and severe wildfire has been added to the UK government's National Risk Register. As the CT report states, no single record, event, or trend can alone be attributed to global warming, but numerous extreme events, phenomena or simultaneous and/or linked events are consistent with the predictions of global warming. We should, unlike people such as Tony Abbott, be taking the warnings seriously. Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

Applause for headline act Your "strip club bikie brawl" headline (July 6, p1) reminded me of the New York Post classic "Headless body in topless bar". M. Moore, Bonython Leyonhjelm conduct in spotlight Assuming senators are public servants, the APS Values and Code of Conduct apply to them, and Senator Leyonhjelm blatantly violated several: "The APS respects all people ... "; "The APS demonstrates leadership, is trustworthy, and acts with integrity, in all that it does" and "an APS employee must behave honestly and with integrity, act with care and diligence, treat everyone with respect and courtesy, and without harassment, at all times behave in a way that upholds the APS Values and Employment Principles, and the integrity and good reputation of the employee's Agency and the APS".

Core Australian values include respect for the freedom and dignity of the individual, equality of men and women, a spirit of egalitarianism that embraces mutual respect, tolerance, fair play, compassion for those in need and pursuit of the public good. APS procedures state "an employee may be suspended, with or without remuneration, where the agency head believes, on reasonable grounds, that the employee has, or may have, breached the code and where the suspension is in the public interest, or the agency's interest". Malcolm Turnbull owns this. How seriously does he take Australian values? The integrity of Parliament? The respect and integrity required to be shown by each parliamentarian? His actions, not his mere words, demonstrate his true values. Judy Bamberger, O'Connor

Time to change voting age Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John, 23, has just successfully got a committee to consider lowering the voting age to 16. Sixteen-year-olds in many countries such as Austria, Scotland, Argentina and Brazil already have the right to vote. And when Australian 16-year-olds work and pay taxes, it's about time that they should be able to have a say in making the laws they have to follow. In contrast to the federal Greens, the ACT Greens seem to be taking young people for granted, for example with Minister Shane Rattenbury's recent campaign to make it more difficult and more expensive for young people to drive.

Young Canberrans and those who support them should support the push for a lower federal voting age by writing a submission to the committee at aph.gov.au/votingage. And they should let the ACT Greens know that – since they are in government – there is no excuse for not taking action on our local voting age. Lionel James, Canberra Hunting for animal solution There has been much discussion lately about the use of poison, in particular to control the number of feral animals in ACT. This is a very cruel practice and I believe we are one of just a few countries in the world that allows its use.

Furthermore, I think it is negligence to be using these poisons in our water catchments. This is where most of the feral animals are (behind locked gates). Frankie Seymour suggested (Letters, June 30) the ACT government is encouraging recreational hunters. This is not true as there is no hunting allowed in ACT national parks or reserves. The only people who are allowed to hunt in ACT parks are the ones enforcing the bans.

I would be the first one to put my hand up if hunting is ever allowed in these areas. Paul Toivonen, Belconnen Lesson not learnt on culling Re "A scourge on the environment: How the ACT government is culling pigs" (canberratimes.com.au, July 2). I would like to make a few points about wild pigs and other introduced animals that have returned to the wild in Australia. It is now well understood that randomly killing animals that breed litters rather than a single young at each birthing, always increases rather than reduces the populations of these animals.

The only evidence that naturalised animals in Australia have ever had any deleterious impact on Australian ecosystems is where those ecosystems have already been severely modified by European agriculture. The problem is not the introduced animal exploiting the modified landscape, but the government's determination to continue modifying the landscape. What little research has been conducted into the consequences for ecosystems of eradicating introduced species once they are established suggests such eradications are potentially disastrous. Killing of naturalised cats on Macquarie Island resulted in a crash in seabird populations as the rat population, relieved of its predator, ate their eggs. On mainland Australia, native bird of prey populations crashed after rabbit haemorrhagic disease killed so many rabbits.

There has got to be something sick about a society that thinks it is acceptable to control animals by killing them with excruciating poisons. Lydia Steele, Red Hill TO THE POINT SENSATIONALISING TRAGEDY The ABC does itself no favours by sensationalising tragic family events as mealtime "breaking news". On Thursday night the ABC pasted in big red letters for an extended period the sad report of a killing of two children in Pennant Hills, NSW. The oversize "news strips" ran across The Drum and all other news reports after 6pm, suggesting that we needed to be continually aware of this sad event. The ABC had no more to report but seemed to insist this largely personal event be highlighted beyond its national significance.

Regain your perspective, ABC. Geoff Rohan, Kambah AFFORDABLE HOUSING Developers have not, and will not deliver housing affordability. Government surely must take more responsibility, and return to a system it abandoned under pressure from "land economists", banks, real estate agents, and developers (blatant marketeers all), and directly deliver high quality affordable housing itself, on its own land. Desirable spin-offs could be a gradual correction in the overall housing market, a slight but market-tempering increase in interest rates, and a return to investment in productive and sustainable industries. Jack Kershaw, Kambah

RELEVANT AND AMUSING Many thanks to your Mr Pope for his very relevant cartoons. He provides a great service to the people of Canberra and beyond as does the Letters to the Editor/Opinion writings, both showing the daily hypocrisy of our government and the serious and rapid diminution of decent values. Rex Williams, Springwood Email: letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au. Send from the message ﬁeld, not as an attached ﬁle. Fax: 6280 2282. Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Canberra Times, PO Box 7155, Canberra Mail Centre, ACT 2610. Keep your letter to 250 or fewer words. References to Canberra Times reports should include date and page number. Letters may be edited. Provide phone number and full home address (suburb only published).