People sleeping in Japanese trains is not usual because the custom in Japan is to be quiet (“The curious case of people who fall asleep in public”,March 23). In Mumbai,on local trains,passengers often nap until their destination,without missing their disembarking station every day. It is calculated in part of their total daily sleep hours as some of them travel for as long as two hours each way. Someone leaning on your shoulder for a nap in a Sydney train is no big deal.

Mukul Desai,Hunters Hill

Fobbed off

So,taxpayer handouts to taxpayers to help with cost of living issues are “pocket money” relief that actually waste taxpayers’ money (“The era of pocket money politics”,March 23). Does Parnell Palme McGuinness have an issue with shovelling billions of dollars in subsidies to the mining and fossil fuel industries?

Ross Hudson,Mount Martha (Vic)

Reef reprise

To quote Joni Mitchell,“Don’t it always seem to go,that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”. It would be a tragedy if this were the case with the Great Barrier Reef (“The fight to save the reef”,March 23). But when you hear prominent people saying that the reef has never been healthier,you start to despair. We should listen to experts for advice on the state of the reef,not unscrupulous politicians and uninformed media commentators. And the scientific advice is that it is facing an existential threat unless we can stop the planet from heating up. Certainly,we need to do everything thing we can to help the reef adapt,but that is just a Band-Aid solution. The real answer is to cut our greenhouse gas emissions and to get other nations to do the same. Meanwhile,we should take our children to see it while it’s still a spectacle worth seeing.

Ken Enderby,Concord

Teal salute

What a refreshing change to see an acknowledgment by a major party minister of the power of community independents (“Choke point on key road north set for fix at last”,March 23). The federal Transport and Infrastructure Minister,Catherine King,rightly commends Pittwater MP Jacqui Scruby and the federal MP for Mackellar,Sophie Scamps,for their constructive advocacy,commenting that instead of being blockers like their predecessors,they’d worked on outcomes for their communities. Supporters of community independents are well-used to the tired old question,“What have the teals done for us?” In the northern beaches,there is an obvious answer,not only the win of $250m for the long-overdue widening of Mona Vale Road,but also wins for a hospital audit,hospital parliamentary inquiry,stopping PEP11 and a new urgent care clinic in Dee Why to name a few. Northern beaches constituents were on to winners when they voted for change and elected community independents as their representatives in the last state and federal elections. Joy Nason,Mona Vale

Stale policy

I’m with you,Victoria Devine,on Matt Canavan’s proposal to “incentivise women’s reproductive rights” (“Birth incentives’ reality check”,March 23):“What in the Handmaid’s Tale?” indeed. This smug,small-minded,populist Queensland senator,who wants to support a lottery that reduces a couple’s housing loan repayments in direct proportion to the number of children they have,lacks the wisdom,humility and basic common sense required to see that it is,in part,his own reluctance to listen to climate scientists here and around the world that is having a big effect on birth rates in the first place. Honestly,Canavan and those like him have passed their use-by dates regarding what is needed in Australian politics today.

Kerrie Wehbe,Blacktown

• To submit a letter toThe Sydney Morning Herald,email letters@smh.com.au. Clickhere for tips on how to submit letters.

• The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge,champion and inform. Sign up here.