If this is corruption, how much further does it reach?

I look forward to hearing more from the commission about all the other matters that involved major losses due to corrupt activities within the ACT government. Please bring it on without delay.

I refer to the report that the ACT Integrity Commission has found the conduct of Leanne Cover, CEO of the CIT, to have been "seriously corrupt" (June 28).

What exactly does Chris Steel mean when he promises that corrupt behaviour will attract "severe consequences"? Two years' leave on full pay? Then the opportunity to resign at the death knock?

How did such an official (chief executive of a small government agency) come to have the delegation to commit $4.99 million of taxpayers' money?

If my expertise was in systems and complex thinking, and I was trying to hide a contract by making it less than $5 million, I think I would make it less obvious. $10 under the limit? And is procedural fairness only for very highly paid taxpayer-funded employees? Robodebt also comes to mind.

I refer to the Greens' plan for the existing site of Thoroughbred Park. The site was resumed in the 1920s from my family, the Reads, for a future racecourse. So for over 100 years it has been envisaged as the site for horse racing, which remains a legal pursuit in this country.

It is arrogant in the extreme for a first-term MLA whose greatest contribution to the territory thus far seems to be how she invested her super. It is also arrogant of a party with about 100 members to self-determine the closure of an industry. As a result, I cannot see the need for a Greens representative for Ginninderra after the 2024 election.

The Thoroughbred Park horse racing venue is a complete dud. If this small business was an injured horse the stewards would have brought out the sight screen and put it to sleep years ago.

Instead the government provides an $8 million subsidy to cover half its costs. Independent studies show that Thoroughbred Park contributes very little to the local economy. The venue provides a small group of people an opportunity to dress up like landed gentry, get a bit tipsy and lay a few bets. Clearly there are much better uses for this important site.

The narrow group of the self-interested really have to give up on the faux outrage of being blindsided - again. This well-located site is one of the most valuable in achieving the government's infill policy. The Greens' proposal to reclaim the entire site and optimise the redevelopment for the community is good public policy worth real consideration. The site could deliver 20 per cent of the 25,500 additional dwellings required in the inner north by 2050. The Greens' proposal includes important community infrastructure needed for a rapidly growing population such as public housing, a school and health facilities.

Why is the Labor Party against reclaiming this site on behalf of the community? The redevelopment of such a critical site should be the responsibility of the government. This responsibility should not be gifted to a venue hire organisation to help them change their business model to property developer, with additional subsidies and rezoning.

Over the years I have received many parcels. Until a few years ago, if no one was at home, these would be delivered to the nearest post office. For me this is Kippax Post Office which is open six days a week, which is great for all of us who work.

Then they started taking some of them to Belconnen Parcel and POB Centre. This is not open at all on the weekends, nor even additional hours on weekdays.

I asked why they went there. It depended if the postie delivered the parcel or parcel delivery. So same size parcels - random choice, really.

There was no slip in the door when I got home today at 9.15am! When I opened the door later, a slip fell out.

No one knocked, as usual. Occasionally, if they do, it is really quiet.

I would like my parcel but, of course there is no tracking number on the slip, so the Australia Post phone service can't help (and has long queues which time out after 17 mins 34 secs). As I don't drive and taking the bus affects my sciatica, the Belconnen place or any of their parcel delivery boxes may as well be on the other side of the planet. They are certainly not accessible to anyone with any sort of issues with mobility.

Yes, I did try changing to get everything delivered to Kippax on the website, but there is no option for this, so I gave up.

One cannot help but compare the approach of the current federal government to the cases of Collaery and McBride and that of Assange. In essence they were both about exposing wrongdoing which had been covered up in the sacrosanct name of security. Both cases clearly had caused great angst among the security establishment in Australia and America. But our government hounded Collaery and McBride for their acts of exposing wrongdoing by Australians, yet provided top level support to Assange for his exposure of similar acts by Americans.

Regardless of the rights or wrongs of either Collaery, McBride or Assange, our government's approach to these cases can only be seen as highly hypocritical.

After watching a steely-eyed, square-jawed Julian Assange walk briskly and purposefully up and down the stairs to his private jet, we must wonder where his stooped, shuffling, stunt double has gone. Hopefully he has been well paid as he enjoys life back in Belmarsh Prison, or was he released as well?

Not all fairytales begin with "once upon a time". They often begin with "if elected I ..."

The ACT is a small jurisdiction within the larger Australian economy. Australia, in turn, is impacted by world events, everything from wars to pandemics.

All political parties standing in the coming ACT election would like to see rates as low as possible. However, to promise to cap rate increases to 2.2 per cent, well below the current rate of inflation and well below the 6.25 per cent inflation under the Morrison government, is impossible - especially for an entire four-year term.

The biggest impost on the ACT government is the wages of essential public servants - the teachers, the nurses, the policemen, the firefighters and the paramedics. Keeping wages low is in the DNA of Liberal governments, but state governments are recruiting skilled essential workers from the same pool of talent. NSW is to build low-cost housing for its essential workers in Sydney.

How will we keep our workers denied a living wage but forced to pay the high rents in the ACT rental market? Our rates must increase in line with wage increases, even if pennies are saved through management efficiencies. The 2.2 per cent rates cap is as believable as magic bean seeds or talking bears who eat porridge.

Recent correspondence about the use of "gotten" reminds me that at primary school in the late '40s the nuns forbade us to use even "got". They taught that it was not needed at all (e.g. "I have it" rather than "I've got it") or that a more elegant alternative was available (e.g. "He rose to be Prime Minister" rather than "He got to be Prime Minister").

As for "gotten", it was even less acceptable perhaps because it was perilously close to "begotten", which along with "begat" (despite their biblical use), won a rap across the knuckles. We never did understand why.

Methinks (it seems to me) belongs to the 12th century but can be used in 2024 if Felicity Chivas knows it and decides to use it (Letters, June 28). For some of us it can even be exciting!

But it is a "fait accompli" that globalisation (with an 's' or a 'z', from the French precursor "mondialisation"), has permitted borrowed words from other languages. However, grammar is another matter and should always be taught at school including verb conjugation.

During my first year of English in a French college I used to sleep, eat, go to the toilets with a list of irregular English verbs to learn and most of all remember them such as to get, got, gotten!

Yes, languages are alive and do change, some more quickly than others; Michael Hall said, the linguistic fashion is decided by the 'current users' who are also the ones that push new words, or rather new entries into the dictionary.

Today the user has a choice it seems for the present, future and past perfect between got and gotten. I'll keep my 'gotten' that I haven't forgotten. No choice there for the poor past participle "forgotten".

Various correspondents on the issue of the Governor-General's remuneration have proffered different solutions to the problem of how or why the pay rise should or should not granted. The solution is quite simple: President Albanese should delete the Governor-General role from our political system.