Politicians who leave their party should leave the Parliament

It seems, however, their principles don't extend that far and on becoming an independent they declare that they will henceforth listen to and represent the people of their state or electorate. What on earth were they doing before? Every one of these defectors knew their party's policies and procedures before standing for election.

Every one of them, especially senators, owes their election and comfortable livelihood to their party and its declared policies. None of them has the right, even on a matter of conscience (to which they are perfectly entitled) to deprive their party of a seat it, not they, won.

The only conscionable action when they disagree strongly with their party's position is to resign from the Parliament altogether and let the party choose a new senator or in the case of Reps, let the electorate decide at a byelection.

And as I said, I don't care whether they are Labor, Liberal, Nationals, One Nation, Jacqui Lambie Network, or Clive Palmer or Bob Katter's mob, whatever they call themselves from time to time.

It is to be hoped the the American electorate regains its collective senses and rejects Trump and his cronies. He is no saviour as the massive mistakes in his first term, most notably his COVID-19 response and failure to admit he lost the 2020 election, demonstrate. Just as many Brits are realising their Brexit mistake, Americans, including the Republican Party, will rue the day they abandoned principle and supported the lying narcissist.

I must correct Marguerite Castello (Letters July 1) on her statement that nuclear energy is "a gross user of water, more so than any other form of energy supplier". A nuclear power station requires about the same amount of water from a river or the ocean as a coal-fired power station of the same output.

A nuclear reactor operates with closed circuits to transfer heat from the reactor core to generate steam to drive steam turbines to produce electricity. Those closed circuits use the same treated water over and over. The steam exiting the turbine then has to be converted back to water to be reused, and that is done in a condenser by taking fresh water from a river or the ocean.

The overall amount of water required in that final phase is about the same whether in a nuclear power station or a coal-fired power station.

Triggered by the Assange and perhaps the Daniel Duggan examples, I wonder if some legal expert could explain what laws an Australian must obey when they are neither a citizen nor physically inside the country that made and enforces those laws.

If you are outside the USA, must you obey all American laws or just some?

Must you also obey the laws of other countries such as China or Russia?

If we're talking about the creeping Americanisation of Australian English, let me throw "obligated" into the mix. If I'm under an obligation to do something, then I'm obliged, not obligated, to do it.

I can't understand why Americans insist on inventing new words, or mangling existing ones, when perfectly serviceable words already exist.

Is it because they think that using a longer word makes them appear smarter?

I'm reminded of a quote from American writer George Ade: "'Whom are you?' he said, for he had been to night school."

The Democrats and all rational people are dismayed by the US Supreme Court decision to grant presidents immunity from prosecution for official acts. The Democrats have only themselves to blame, though. Anyone could see which way this broken Supreme Court was going to act from day one. Biden could have stacked the court with four more liberal justices, but he didn't.

The Democrats could have pushed the Trump prosecutions more quickly, but they didn't. This indecision has come home to roost.

If Trump were president he would immediately make full use of the new powers. Biden won't because he naively thinks if he plays nice, so will the Republicans.

They won't. They never have.

Just like their fellow travellers in Australia, the Coalition.

I noted G T W Agnew's admonishment of Senator Payman (Letters, July 2) stating that she was elected to concern herself with Western Australian and Australian matters, not foreign ones.

So, by that reckoning, Australia should not have assisted in Somalia when it experienced famine and clan warfare, ignored genocide in Rwanda, and continued to turn a blind eye to what was happening in Timor Leste.

Perhaps it should have allowed Putin to annex more and more Ukrainian land and commit barbaric acts that are as close to genocide as a room full of lawyers talking about Gaza can define it?

What goes on in the world is Australia's business and Australians' representatives have at least a moral duty to get involved.

The pile-on, dog-in-the-manger attitude, displayed by ACT groups who condone the Canberra Racing Club's intent to appropriate the, minimally utilised, racetrack to "develop" a 3200-home precinct, demonstrates profit-driven, capitalist greed that is inappropriate for publicly owned commons.

This will do nothing to help the homeless.

About 10 years ago the Australian government of the day, as I understand it, committed approximately $1 billion in an attempt to revive a declining, if not floundering, car manufacturing industry, only to see the industry fail a few years later.

Now the current Australian government has announced its intention to spend $109 million of taxpayers' money, to shut down a perfectly legitimate and profitable industry.

Not only will the end of the live sheep trade rob the nation's treasury of significant tax receipts, but also produce a net animal welfare loss. Let's keep the sheep.

Douglas Mackenzie (Letters, July 1) accuses state forest management agencies in NSW and Victoria of "ecologically damaging logging" in native forests. It is not clear how he reaches this conclusion, but he makes it in the context of koala habitat.

Land-clearing, severe wildfire and urbanisation are clear threats to koalas but well-regulated timber harvesting in north-east NSW is not. Dr Brad Law and colleagues from NSW Department of Primary Industries have conducted many studies on koalas, including monitoring koala populations at 224 sites over a seven-year period, and concluded that well-regulated timber harvesting or low-severity fire did not reduce koala occupancy rates.

Harvesting prescriptions "provided sufficient habitat for koalas to maintain their density, both immediately after selective harvesting and five to 10 years after heavy harvesting".

Australia has a serious wood shortage that is already delaying and increasing the costs of building new houses. This will worsen given ambitious plans across the country to accelerate house construction. Shortfalls in wood supply will either be met by imports (often resulting in negative environmental outcomes overseas) or the use of materials such as steel or concrete with very high embedded carbon emissions. Claims that additional construction timber can be easily sourced from either existing or new plantations are totally unrealistic.

Sustainable harvesting of carefully selected parts of our native forests can produce many community benefits, including useful reductions in net carbon emissions. It makes no sense to further restrict wood supplies from well-managed native forests based not on science, but purely on green ideology.

I have an issue with insurance increases that are now being demanded by insurance companies.

The standard answer when asking why is a combination of left-handed braille and it's all because of inflation and COVID or some other nonsense they have dreamed up.

I believe the average citizen is being exploited and can't afford this rate of insurance increase. Any help with exposing the facts in this matter would be much appreciated.

Senator Payman is not a Manchurian candidate, but she does appear to be the Palestinian candidate. Pity about the West Australians who thought she was their candidate.

Typical Albanese and co playbook. Use the distractions of Assange and the WA senator to take the focus off the main games of security, power generation and the economy. Stick to the important stuff. And of course we also have Australian cricketers who are too busy to win cricket games but I think I am interested in their political views. Just play the game.

Senator Payman is only a senator because she was on the ALP WA Senate ticket.

Re: "Pro-Palestine protesters arrested, MPs condemn trespassing" (July 4). I trust we can soon expect the pro-Palestine anti-colonialism protesters to start fighting for China and its bloody subjection to communism.

I admire Senator Fatima Payman for having the fortitude to stand up for what she believes. How would the population, in the era of the Third Reich, have benefited from good people with a conscience in that crisis? Bring on the election and welcome to independents with compassion for others.

So Senator Payman doesn't want to follow the rules which were a condition of her acceptance as a Labor candidate (along with all her colleagues). Just another day in the life of the international rules-based order.

Clearly the time has come for the Labor caucus to abandon the old union-inspired 100 per cent of all following the ticket. Those days are gone. Imagine all issues of conscience, no matter which side of the chamber.

The ALP needs to be realistic, reconsider its position on Palestine urgently and stop vote-haemorrhaging. Doing so would also be seen as a more even-handed approach to the Israel-Gaza conflict and together with sanctions when appropriate, will go a long way towards appeasing Palestinian Australians and their supporters and result in fewer protests and less vandalism and graffiti.

It's reported that Senator Fatima Payman has said her future will be "guided by God". This, however, has apparently upset some of her Labor colleagues. But isn't that what they all do when they start each Parliamentary day with the Lord's Prayer? What's more, it's the mandatory procedure for all MPs in both houses.

Think Garden is taking legal action to extract more taxpayers' money from a contract born of corruption. Is Mr Hollingworth going back for his hat?