Last Post: Barnaby Joyce, negative gearing, where is Mrs Trump?

I find it ironic that in a city that collectively prides itself on civic kindness and fair-mindedness, a bystander can, apparently without rendering assistance, shoot and publish that video of Barnaby Joyce lying on a pavement (“Joyce cabinet role safe after night out fall”, 12/2). As a Canberran, I’m ashamed.

Helen Jackson, Higgins, ACT

Good to see Barnaby Joyce resist the right to disconnect.

Les Shearman, Darlington, NSW

Jim Chalmers says the government is not considering changes to negative gearing. Is his word his bond?

Bryan Welsh, Tea Gardens, NSW

I can’t understand the opposition of the Greens, Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock to negative gearing. Negative gearing occurs only if the landlord is losing money to rent a home to tenants. To make it clear: negative gearing happens only if the rental income is less than the costs of renting out the rental property. Restricting negative gearing will further reduce rental stock and amplify homelessness.

Nils Marchant, Ocean Reef, WA

Quelle surprise – negative gearing is back on the agenda. That the Greens and Labor describe negative gearing as a tax break for investors merely displays their ignorance. The ability to offset losses against other income is not a tax break. When investors in residential property run at a loss and cannot offset that loss they have two choices – raise the rent or sell up. What we are seeing in Victoria with the extra land tax imposition is investors selling up.

Mary Hackshaw, Northwood, Vic

Imagine the ridicule and scorn if an Australian politician had said last year that he or she suspected there were Hamas tunnels directly connected beneath the main UNRWA offices in Gaza.

Peter J. Burke, Mosman, NSW

Maybe this current plague of anti-Semites is just ordinary people with a chip on the shoulder. It helps to hate someone and here are the Jews. You don’t need balaclavas and swastikas; just a placard, a raised fist and a chip on the shoulder. Jews have been and always will be scapegoats; that is, people on to whom you project that resentment or fault, or whatever it is you have yet to acknowledge.

Elizabeth Moser, Highton, Vic

Donald Trump questions the whereabouts of Nikki Haley’s husband Michael again and again, as he has not seen him on the campaign trail. Michael is on a long deployment in Africa. But Mr Trump, where is Mrs Trump?

Wendy Andrews, Adelaide