• SEPTEMBER 2

The state government has jumped the shark. Having half built one rail line, it is drawing lines on maps like they are spaghetti strings.

• SEPTEMBER 1

The revelation and subsequent admission by Senator Sam Dastyari makes it quite clear he has no moral authority to remain in the Senate.

• AUGUST 31

The announcement of the same-sex marriage plebiscite brought Tim Wilson to tears. Now he's pushing for it. This neatly encapsulates the mess that is Australian political leadership.

• AUGUST 30

I would have expected that someone with the political experience of Vanstone would know that "lost" in the context of politics, is a relative term, like "promise" and "mandate". Perhaps she should have indicated whether or not the loss was core, or non-core.

• AUGUST 29

It's no wonder Mike Baird has seen his popularity slip ("Baird crashes back to Earth", August 27-28). Since he won the election he has ridden roughshod over not only the voters of NSW but his own party. 

• AUGUST 28

It is glaringly obvious that not only have the Olympic Games failed in their mission ("Games must chart a fresh path", August 21) but the obsession of elevating sporting individuals to hero status is clearly counter-productive and dishonest.

• AUGUST 27

The French approach to banning burkinis on beaches raises a few issues. Let me deal with just one. I am offended by the sight of Tony Abbott parading in his budgy smugglers but I have no desire to infringe upon his right to look like an idiot.

• AUGUST 26

I was thrilled to hear that in Scott Morrison's "economic headland" speech he will address the problem of the "taxed and taxed-nots".

• AUGUST 25

Should two people of the same gender who love each other be legally permitted to marry?

• AUGUST 24

If it's right to hold a plebiscite on gay marriage, why not hold plebiscites on other issues that upset people, like the niqab, circumcision, abortion or the right to die?

• AUGUST 23

Sports and playing games may not be the cake, but they are the icing.

• AUGUST 22

Chloe Esposito has gone against the mantra that has prevailed in these games where administrators, coaches and commentators have built up expectations to such a level that too often we have been disappointed.

• August 21

I feel for the wife in the $200 million marriage break-up ("The wife, mistress and the $200m break-up", August 14). I don't know how she can possibly manage on a mere $15,000 a month.

• AUGUST 20

Congratulations on publishing some well reasoned letters giving a different perspective to the Vietnam conflict in general and Long Tan in particular (Letters, August 19).

Sure, in Rio there was Usain Bolt v Justin Gatlin, but on the Letters page this week, we had Malcolm Roberts v Lucy Turnbull.

• AUGUST 19

May I respectfully point out that the emphasis of the Long Tan anniversary should not be on the 18 Australians who lost their lives, but on the hundreds and hundreds of Vietnamese who were destroyed by the unbelievable violence.

• AUGUST 18

To be fair, even on a clear day it would be difficult from Point Piper to see the dust rising from the demolitions at Haberfield.

• AUGUST 17

Olympic finger-pointing and the lack of e-cigarette research.

• AUGUST 16

New Zealand Labour's David Shearer is right. Our treatment of refugees is disgraceful.

• AUGUST 15

For whatever reasons Scott Morrison may have had for rejecting the Chinese bids for control of Ausgrid, ("Treasurer raises China fears in Ausgrid rebuff", August 13-14) his decision was the right one.

• AUGUST 14

Guy and Jules Sebastian's charitable donation to women's refuges is inspirational ("Refuge refit plan keeps families together", August 7).

If Peter Dutton believes that some of the incident reports from immigration detention centres are trivial and/or false ("Refugees accused of false abuse complaints", August 12) may I be so bold as to offer a simple solution: transparency of information - allow press scrutiny of the centres (currently denied) and remove the threat of jail for centre staff who speak out.

• AUGUST 13

I'm with Scott Morrison on blocking the sale of Ausgrid to Chinese interests.

Sense and Census-ability seemed to be lacking this week as the botched attempt to gather statistical information during the first week of the Olympics did not win the government any medals. Letter writers were outraged at not just the Australian Bureau of Statistics but also IBM, the company hired to provide IT expertise for the census. As Naomi Wulff of North Wahroonga put it: "If our new innovative (jobs and growth) Prime Minister was aware that IBM Australia had retrenched many of its most loyal and experienced employees to send their jobs offshore, leaving many of them no option but to live on unemployment benefits, maybe he would have thought twice about whom he should contract to provide the IT expertise for the census. Why would our government want to pay Australian taxpayers' money to a company included in the list of the world's top 10 corporate tax dodgers, which shows contempt for its employees and causes unemployment and financial hardship for many? Also on the receiving end of the wrath from letter writers by week's end was the NSW government for paying $220 million worth of taxpayers money to buy back BHP Billiton's Caroona exploration licence. While the decision to stop coal mining on the Liverpool Plains was welcomed, the payout to BHP was not. Letters echoed the sentiments of Gavin Gatenby of Turrella about Deputy Premier Troy Grant's arithmetic at the value of the licence in today's dollars. "According to the Reserve Bank's inflation calculator, the $100 million BHP payed in 2006 would be worth $125.3 million today. Is the deputy premier innumerate, or is the public paying BHP, on some dubious grounds, $95 million compensation?"

• AUGUST 12

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, in which case the three pictures on the front page of the Herald are alone worth the entire day's edition.

• AUGUST 11

So, despite assurances that it couldn't possibly happen, the ABS census website crashed badly when called upon to 'do its part for Australia'.  ("Malicious hackers behind website collapse", smh.com.au, August 10). I suggest that 'generation snowflake' management didn't think to call on their statisticians to calculate the probability of a crash. How hard can that be? I mean, if 'x' is the population of interest and 'y' is the capacity of server 'A' and … Stephen Fox Kenmore (Qld)  

• August 10

Mack Horton's swipe at his Chinese rival wasn't so much a principled stand for sportsmanship as a deliberately disruptive ploy.

• August 10

Steven Münchenberg's list of promises by the banks would not be happening without the threat of a royal commission.

• August 10

It's about now you start hearing Kiwis using the term "per capita" quite frequently.