Why is it that we rarely read any stories about the positive achievements of the Albanese government when they've achieved more in 18 months than the Coalition did between 2013 and 2022? In some sections of the media all we read are stories about "Airbus Albo" and how Australia is on the path to ruin. "Five reasons why the Albanese government is doomed" and so on. In 18 months we have had massive improvements in overseas diplomacy, resulting in the removal of punitive Chinese tariffs imposed while the Coalition was in office. The government successfully legislated its emissions reductions targets of 43 per cent by 2030 and net zero by 2050. Legislation to establish the new National Anti-Corruption Commission also made it through Parliament, with the NACC having started in July. Labor has made changes to childcare and is introducing a more generous paid parental leave scheme. It has also massively increased the salaries of aged care workers. The Albanese government's reforms are already having a positive impact on the Australian Public Service, after a decade of relentless outsourcing for the sake of it. We've had a productive royal commission into Morrison's robodebt. There are major hurdles such as the economy, the NDIS and the High Court decision but there is much more to the Albanese government than "Airbus Albo" and "we'll all be rooned thanks to Labor". That's propaganda. Given that the Albanese government recognises the dire, cascading risks climate change poses, why are they still supporting fossil fuel expansion? The greenhouse gas pollution generated by Labor-backed coal and gas projects is seven times more than their policies will cut from our domestic emissions. Ridiculous. Chris Ryan draws the wrong lessons from the Pacific war and the Japanese role (Letters, November 28). We are entirely capable of defending our island continent without Japan, or any other ally. We don't need allies to make war, but we do need to take a leading role in international diplomacy to build peace. This calls for us as a nation to be independent and peaceful. In the organisation of industrial-scale war no nation ever has clean hands and we should not delude ourselves otherwise. Sadly, in respect to the "hell-ships" that transported Allied POWs, of the 22,000 that died en route 19,000 died in ships sunk by American submarines. The Americans had broken the Japanese codes and knew what ships were in the convoys and what was in each ship. This information was not passed on to the commanders of the submarines because it was thought more important to destroy the ships and thereby damage the Japanese war effort than to spare the POWs. General Sherman got it right: "War is hell." The Master Builders Association of the ACT would know that architects already have to be registered in the ACT. Not so for "designers". ("Builders slam developer licensing gaps", November 30). Also, the subject proposed new developer licensing legislation needs to cover latent building defects - those existing, but not apparent in the proposed two-year liability limit. Further to the letters of Christopher Wren (November 28) and Michael White (November 29) while the Montevideo Maru was Japanese those who died were mainly Australians. The torpedoes which sank the ship were American. They were fired by the USS Sturgeon. For details and fascinating information, prepared for the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the sinking in 2022, I suggest interested readers look at the website of the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru Group, Papua New Guinea Association of Australia Inc. Glen Humphries ended his article about The Crown Season Six on Netflix saying: "I'm still debating whether to watch the new season or not. Though I have the feeling it might just irritate me even more." ("The Crown has Become Tarnished", December 1). If the reviewer can't get to actually watching the season that he is writing about I would be more than happy to review it for The Canberra Times readers. NBC presidential historian and author Michael Beschloss says Trump "has told us he's going to use the American military" to "suppress his opponents" if he wins back the White House in 2024. He says: "This is what authoritarians do. This is what fascists do." (Huffington Post, November 28). No two-ways about that. Trump displays all the hallmarks of an authoritarian rogue leader; the kind one associates with a third-world banana republic. Beschloss warns the American people to take what Trump says he will do very seriously. It would be plain stupid not to. The man's a dangerous threat to American democracy. We can't blame climate change for the storms and flooding last week, of course, but the increased sea and air temperatures we are experiencing clearly add to the intensity of winds and volume of water we get dumped on us. A one-degree rise in air temperature leads to a 7 per cent increase in the water-carrying capacity of the air, according to Sydney University. The sea and air temperature off our coast has been as high as four degrees above average this last month. I am saddened to see that Australia is providing 5per cent of the world's supply of the very stuff we know is causing the warming (though we are just 0.3 per cent of the world's population), having increased coal production by 42 per cent and gas production four-fold since 2005. So who can we blame for the intense rain? We have passed one degree of global warming now and the IPCC predict we will be three degrees by the time my grandchildren are my age. This might explain why thousands of us were blockading the world's largest coal export port last weekend. The law may not have been on our side there but we were defending, not offending, our planet, our country and our children's rights. Best wishes to Andrew Messenger for his retirement and thanks for your years of service to the local community across a range of stations ("Andy signs off on 50-year media career", December 1). I'm so glad they didn't sack you on the first day when you mispronounced Manuka as, well, "manuka". ANU research reveals the Voice referendum likely failed because of the model presented to voters, not because they rejected the idea of constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians. The proverbial drover's dog could have told us that. Blame for the Voice's demise must surely rest with the government. It failed to acknowledge the proposal was flawed and should have split the question into two parts; constitutional recognition and then the Voice. All the Albanese government succeeded in doing is making a difficult task even more difficult by treating voters with contempt. This ensured the referendum failed. A net zero transit symposium was recently held in Perth. A Chinese manufacturer brought a trackless battery powered (wireless) tram to Perth to demonstrate its capabilities. The vehicle follows small magnetic nails set one metre apart along the desired route and provides a highly stabilised ride. Attendees at the symposium reported: "It's like a smartphone compared to a landline: nobody called it a bus after riding it." If Perth can get a trackless tram for evaluation, why can't Canberra? Did anyone from the ACT government attend this symposium? If not, why not? If someone from government did attend have they now stopped to reconsider whether future stages of the tram are the best solution for Canberra? I don't care anymore. El Nino, climate change, global boiling. You can all sod off. I'm getting swimming lessons. The news the new New Zealand government is backtracking on legislation to curb smoking by banning the sale of cigarettes to those born after 2008 is most disturbing. This is a step in the wrong direction. Putin is using missiles and drones to hit Ukraine's energy infrastructure with winter fast approaching. It's time for Ukraine to start hitting Russia's energy infrastructure as there are more Russians (145 million) to feel the cold than Ukrainians (40 million). M. Flint (Letters, November 28), all countries including Australia must decarbonise. The planet is not warming slowly as you say. According to ice-core data the rate of warming is about 10 times faster than warming after an ice age. Douglas MacKenzie (Letters, November 29) in his criticism of Seselja ended with "I dare say he (Seselja) will have plenty of support" if he attempts a comeback. It's taken a while but he has finally come up with something that I can actually agree with. Why has ABC Radio Canberra stopped sounding the on-the-hour time pips? With the proposed increase in ACT senators I hope that Zed stands again so that I and many others can vote Zed last, again. If I were to identify with those whom James Phillips (Letters, November 30) says "protest, annoy and intimidate", I should "take my bile, anger and hatred and go back to whence I came from". But I'm perfectly happy to stay in Canberra as I have no desire to go back to Queensland. I just noticed that if you write out the alphabet in a single line then Zed is at the extreme right. How can he be blamed for his views if they are a matter of alpha genetic predetermination? Economics is the province of economists who are being constantly taken by surprise. Even in the midst of the tense, fraught ceasefire period, Israeli forces continued to their suffocating surveillance regime of Palestinians by raiding the Jerusalem family homes of released exchange prisoners. I never thought I would see open anti-Semitism on the streets of the nation's capital. In response to Judith Washington's concern (Letters, November 27) about mixed wards at Canberra Hospital, patients go to hospital to get better, not to get dignified. The gender of other patients is immaterial.
