It would make good sense to send the Taipans to Ukraine

Ukraine has an urgent need to transport injured people to safety and reduce the death rate. Too many soldiers and civilians are dying during this Russian attack on a peaceful nation.

It makes no sense to pay enormous sums for these helicopters to be destroyed when a nation fighting for its survival can extract a huge benefit from them.

The Australian government says it wants to support Ukraine and there have been some significant contributions over the last 18 months for which Ukraine is greatly appreciative. However, the war is not over and our support needs to be ongoing and must be modified according to the needs of a desperate country whose people lack adequate equipment despite enormous human investment.

Ukraine does not ask for our support on the ground as the people are fighting with everything they have. They do ask for military and humanitarian support to transport injured civilians and soldiers to hospitals.

The Taipans would be enormously useful and would immediately save lives. There is absolutely no reason to delay this transfer.

In case your reporter is wondering why she even bothered, her Lake George article published over two pages on January 15 ("Lake George is unusually full and that's pretty special considering its history") was wonderfully informative to our community.

For people like Ryan Wilson, it did include Indigenous references. The reporter did her job, presenting facts. I'm sure Mr Wilson would be welcome to refer any dreamtime aspects, photographs optional, for the editor's consideration.

Transport Canberra's 2021-22 annual report noted revenues of $14 million from fares plus $1 million from advertising, and an operating cost subsidy of $6.80 for each of 11.9 million passenger boardings. Transport Canberra's Quarterly Data Reports show about 1.4 boardings per passenger journey.

After subtracting advertising revenues, those figures imply that Canberrans directly and indirectly paid a total of $94 million, or about $11 per passenger journey, for Transport Canberra's operations.

But University of NSW researchers ("Flexible buses in Canberra suburbs would cut costs in half," January 7) estimate Transport Canberra's operating cost at $13 to $108 per passenger, depending on the time of day.

By way of comparison, a 280 kilometre coach trip from Canberra to Sydney costs $51.

A full calculation of public transport costs would include infrastructure costs such as the more than $880 million that has been committed to extending light rail from Alinga St to Commonwealth Park, and other capital costs such as $83 million for ninety new buses ("How much the ACT government paid on contractors in the 2022-23 year," 20 August 2023).

Susan Cowell (Letters, January 15) laments the fact that young male drivers view their cars as "an extension of their genitalia".

It's an interesting metaphor, but sadly it's not just young male drivers, but drivers in general and especially so here in Canberra.

I've found it impossible to drive at the speed limit on any of Canberra's main roads (anywhere with a speed limit of 80kmh or higher) and a good many roads with 40kmh or 60kmh limits without someone tailgating way too close behind.

If there's more than one lane you'll soon be overtaken by someone to whom the speed limit obviously doesn't apply.

Don't even get me started on drivers for whom orange lights are a signal to speed up and beat the red (though they rarely do) or cyclists and pedestrians who ignore the red lights altogether.

It would seem that a great many of Canberra's road users simply don't believe the road rules apply to them, irrespective of their age or genitalia or whether they drive, ride or walk.

I do not presume to speak about the war in Gaza in its entirety. However, Bill Stefaniak (Letters, January 16) is wrong in saying that what is occurring there is not genocide.

The UN definition of genocide is "a crime committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic or religious group, in whole or in part".

Rendering nearly two million people homeless and killing at least 24,000 are acts of genocide by Israel in my book. I am proud to have David Pocock representing me in this matter.

So older cyclists are increasingly being killed on our roads according to a UNSW road safety report.

Surprise surprise. The study reveals the bleeding obvious. An ageing population, more fragile bones and balance issues whizzing around a long way from the ground dodging dangerous obstacles.

As a septuagenarian I gave up cycling years ago out of prudence. My best years of cycling were in the Adelaide Hills as a young kid on single speed bikes.

Now for my exercise I rely on my evolutionary-endowed legs.

Kathryn Kelly (Letters, January 7) calls Israel's generous offers of Palestinian statehood a "myth".

The 2000 and 2001 offers at Camp David and Taba respectively were mediated by Bill Clinton who was later scathing of Yasser Arafat for rejecting them.

The Saudi Ambassador to the US had also urged Arafat to agree.

The third offer, in 2008 was even more generous. Among other things, it gave the Palestinians land equivalent in area to the whole of the West Bank and Gaza and a capital in East Jerusalem.

Yet Mahmoud Abbas, as he has subsequently said, rejected it "out of hand".

Abbas says that he is not prepared to accept Israel as a Jewish state, nor give up the "right of return" of millions of descendants of Palestinian refugees to Israel, rather than to the proposed Palestinian state.

These reasons are incompatible with the central tenet of the Oslo Accords, which is two states for two peoples, Jews and Palestinians.

This Palestinian intransigence is the primary obstacle to a two-state peace.

Can someone please explain why it is that Australia is supporting the International Court of Justice in its action against Russia and the action in Ukraine and yet has not supported South Africa and Malaysia in their action against the actions of Israel in Gaza?

The latter is seen by many people as a much more serious issue.

What is it that makes the difference in these two actions?

Is there something different between the wars in these two localities that makes this government ignore one legal action but support the other?

It really is time to stop this government being so hypocritical by in toeing the US and Israeli line.

You can walk into a Woolworths supermarket on just about any day of the year and walk out with a packet of locally manufactured meat pies. In all probability you will also be able to put some lean kangaroo meat into your shopping basket.

However, I defy anyone to walk into an auto showroom anywhere across the nation and walk out with the keys to a brand new Australian-built car. And that's thanks to Peter Dutton and the former Abbott coalition government in which he was then a cabinet minister.

Clearly the 18th century English man of letters Dr Johnson never spoke truer words than when he observed that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel".

"Invasion day" shares much with Anzac Day. Both are deeply solemn rather than celebratory.

Like Anzac and "the great war", the loss and maiming of warriors it set in train affected almost every Australian family in its day. And that's without the "collateral damage". Neither effort was in victory.

Their sagas are dirges of massacre and Australian lives wasted, not without valour and fear, for a vast dividend of sorrow.

Many of those lost have no marker on a burial. Both events were followed by deadly pandemics, and long memories. The invasion however had no war correspondent and until recent decades, few historians to report and record it.

I'm with you James Mahoney (Letters, January17). Be grateful the word "storm" is still around. It won't be too long before it is replaced with "adverse weather events".

Peter Dutton wants everyone to be able to drape themselves in Australiana, yet he also despises virtue signalling. Can he have it both ways? It is a feature of his polemic that he likes to have his cake and eat it too.

Alex Mattea (Letters, January 16) suggests another 457 visa category to cover ADF recruitment. Perhaps similar consideration could be given to stable hands. There are many reports of people being admitted to hospital in a "stable condition".

Debbie Sleigh is wrong (Letters, January 18). Senator Wong may not have visited the site of the Hamas massacre but she certainly acknowledged the attacks by meeting with the Israeli families of the hostages and clearly advocating for the unconditional and safe return of their loved ones.

The younger generation have access to so much more information that we as the older generation never had. Odd, then, that they are so dumb and make dumb decisions. It's painful to watch them at times.

Albo will pass on the tax cuts in July 2024 despite some economists warning him not to. He let the referendum go ahead despite knowing it would not pass. He is just a rigid, inept and stubborn person who neither listens to professional advisors nor the people who voted for him.

Unfortunately Bill Ruse (Letters, January 17) Queen Mary is not an Australian. She renounced her joint Australian-British citizenships when she married the then Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark in 2004.

COVID highlighted the "deterioration of our strategic environment" with basic masks, gowns and toilet paper unavailability undermining the belief supply chains would stay intact. Instead of focusing on weapons, the government would be better off investing in pharmaceuticals, fuel reserves and toilet paper.

Comments by Gordon Fyfe and Danny Corvini (Letters, January 17) about the planned demolition of Gus's Place, despite its heritage listing, underline the power of the developers. A similar protection breach occurred when the block next to the Little National Hotel in Barton, "a known habitat for the critically endangered golden sun moth", was sold for development.

I disagree with Doug Hurst (Letters, January 18), that modern Australia is built on invasion, dispossession, enslavement and genocide. That's not the Australia that I pledged allegiance to.