Stuart Kimball, Woolomin

One hundred and fifty years ago Australia was a very different country.

Few people travelled between states. Travelers had to change trains at borders. States had different rail gauges. Sydneysiders would holiday in the Blue Mountains or Central Coast. West Australians had to spend a week on a ship to travel to the eastern states. Tamworth people had an overnight train journey to get to Sydney. Few would travel further than to Port Macquarie or the Sydney show.

There might have been some justification then for the existence of states - certainly no forethought. There is no justification now.

Today no part of Australia is further than four hours from any other part. Communication is instantaneous. Australians are moving freely and frequently between states. Television programs are the same whether we watch them in Perth or Cairns. We all speak the same language, or try to.

There is continuous appeal and argument for nationwide uniformity. State health systems are antiquated. (Our Medibank is a national body). Each state has a different legal, police, emergency, child protection and traffic law. All are state systems and different. Most of them are duplicated to some extent, by some form of federal system, and all are in need of standardisation. At least we all buy the same postage stamps

The problems associated with the Murray-Darling river system, with tributaries flowing through four states, have been bogged down by the efforts of four bureaucracies. The time is long overdue for a new constitution acknowledging Australia as a single nation rather than a bunch of competing states.

Abolition of states, more responsibility to the 'third tier ' of government, will require the political 'suicide' of all the state politicians, but many of them are in favour of that solution now.

Bill Forrest, Tamworth

Barnaby Joyce's recent Facebook post attacking Zali Steggall and "Climate righteousness" is yet another example of how good Barnaby Joyce is at winning arguments that no-one is making and answering questions that no-one is asking; while ducking and weaving to avoid answering questions put to him.

More importantly though, is the ducking and weaving to misrepresent the real facts behind the arguments in a deliberate attempt to prey on ignorance and sway the opinions of voters, e.g: "Each tower [wind turbine] is subsidised to the tune of $600,000 a year". Simply not true. Simply repeating a silly calculation made by Matt Canavan in his Facebook posts, in attempt to convince voters that renewable energy is pushing up their electricity bills. The Renewable Energy Act 2000 creates a demand for electricity generated from renewable sources. This is done through the trading of renewable energy certificates (REC's) that demonstrate that renewable energy has been generated. Every 1 MWh of renewable energy attracts I REC which can be traded.

To meet the renewable energy target, energy companies must surrender RECs into their holding account at the end of every calendar year at an amount representative to 20 per cent of their market share. If energy companies don't put sufficient RECs into the holding account, the company is fined at a rate much higher than the REC value; in other words, without renewable energy input, electricity power bills would cost consumers more. High polluting energy providers will need to purchase more RECs which will increase the cost of the energy they produce, which will be passed on to consumers.

Furthermore, only about 39 per cent of an electricity bill is due to the cost of the energy production however the energy is produced. The remainder is due to cost of poles and wires (44 per cent), administration costs (12 per cent) and environmental costs of meeting the National renewable energy target. While voters are becoming more gullible, politicians are becoming bolder with obfuscation and misrepresentation of facts.

Jan Kleeman, Donald Creek

Pedestrian safety in the CBD and other streets mentioned is not a concern, however the pedestrians in the city are obedient (ie traffic light signals). They are conscious of their own safety. There are some dopes that neither look left/right prior to crossing a street without a pedestrian crossing. These are the cause of the new 40km rules, not the drivers of motor vehicles.

So, all this kerfuffle to lower the speed limit will have no effect on the attitude of pedestrians (has there been any pedestrians struck by motor vehicles in recent times?) The TRC want to spend your money on projects that are of no benefit to the community. It is their prodigal ethos of bureaucracy.

It is a waste of funds, the costs of labour, signage, advertisement etc. One wonders what bright spark in the TRC or the RMS thought up this insubstantial gesture. It is an epidemic, a consistent trait that happens in all bureaucracies sadly.

Greg Daly, Limbri

If you're celebrating 'a touch of the Irish' in your blood on St Patrick's Day, spare a thought for whether this means you are pumping too much iron. People of Celtic origin are more likely to have the iron overload condition haemochromatosis which is the most common genetic disorder in Australia. About one in 200 people are genetically predisposed to it and one in seven are carriers.

The good news is that early detection means haemochromatosis is no barrier to a normal life and the condition is easily managed through blood donations. But when undetected and untreated, it can cause organ/tissue damage and perhaps premature death. So as you raise a glass to your heritage this year, vow to find out more about the 'Celtic curse' from your GP or by visiting www.ha.org.au

Dr Dianne Prince, Pres. Haemochromatosis Aust