I think most of us were disgusted by the running down of 20 kangaroos in Tura last Saturday night and rightly so. Sad to say though, that the perpetrator of this incident will probably only receive a minor penalty, because they were, after all, only animals.

Now put this into perspective when you sit down to your bacon and eggs on Sunday mornings, your chicken and cheese wrap for lunch, and your steak or leg of lamb for dinner. All these animals live lives of suffering from the day they are born. Mostly confined in sheds (chickens and pigs), sheep and cattle with none or very little shade or weather protection in paddocks. We have all seen these animals crowding under the odd tree in the heat of the day.

I was showing my mum the kangaroos at Pambula Beach one day when it started to rain and many of them came through the fence in the paddock, crossed the road and stood under a small tree outside a house. The others went into the bushland. See my point? The animals and their secretions that you consume daily have not had the wild freedom to express their most basic instincts. So I would ask you to consider the plight of all farmed animals and show the same outrage for their suffering as you have for the kangaroos at Tura. They enjoyed a life of freedom which billions of animals worldwide will never know, only daily suffering, then slaughter.

Regarding the swimming pool strategy proposal, it only shows how conniving the council can be. How many times have they doubled dipped and we the public been kept in the dark?

I am surprised and dismayed to hear that the accommodation services at Canberra Hospital may be removed entirely. Other hospitals, in contrast, have been responding to this need by creating new accommodation.

My husband had kidney cancer last year and we needed to use the accommodation several times. It is difficult and expensive to rely on motels, Canberra can be booked out. The IPTAAS program is helpful but does not solve the problem, indeed it is another bureaucratic process to manage when patient and family are extremely stressed.

Anther friend needed the accommodation for weeks while undergoing radiotherapy.

Please do not remove the accommodation. Indeed, if necessary, an upgrade would be appropriate and welcome!

Under previous management at Magic Mountain, supervising adults not using the slides and equipment had complementary entry. Not so now.

Despite the ability to tell who has paid to use the attractions via the issuing of wrist bands I was required to pay the full price of entry. Seems a bit rough as I would have been happy to pay a simple entry fee of say $10 to sit on the grass and use their toilets.

The issue of pools not paying their way is nothing new. Having spent 40 years in local government finance at a senior level I saw time and time again this issue being raised. The reality is either close pools or accept that they are a service to the public that will always be subsidised from general revenue.