I have no real issue with Kevin Rudd being appointed to the position of US Ambassador ("Global ties: Rudd appointed ambassador to the US", Newcastle Herald 21/12). Kim Beazley and Joe Hockey also occupied this role, previously, and Alexander Downer was High Commissioner (Ambassador to a Commonwealth Country) to Great Britain.
But, my issue is that they all got a very generous taxpayer-funded parliamentary superannuation pension payable immediately after they left Parliament and then accepted a well-paid employment position. I believe that ex-politicians /parliamentarians should not be able to access their parliamentary super pension until they attain the age of 60. Others cannot access super until 60 nor pensions until their mid 60s. Why should ex-parliamentarians be different?
John Pritchard, Blackalls Park
Lower Hunter is not a monolith
AFTER reading Michael Parris' recent article, ("New boss for Greater Cities Commission overseeing Lower Hunter's strategic development", Herald 21/12) I would find it helpful to know precisely what we mean by the term Lower Hunter in this context.
Our usual nomenclature for this term would exclude the City of Newcastle. If indeed Mr Parris is being inclusive of Newcastle here, can we please desist from adopting this bureaucratic impost from the cities commission? I believe by using it we are simply undermining our various distinctive regional and city identities, and for what?
Newcastle and the lower Hunter Region is part of their current remit. Their attempt to fragment and dilute our historic cities is repugnant in my opinion, and all in the name of greater cities. They don't even use the name Sydney on their online maps. All this in the name of some whack overseas apparent Holy Grail global planning obsession. Please maintain a distinction; I find it so confusing otherwise. We should be promoting our city identity and regions at every opportunity, or next it'll be our council on the chopping block.
Dayne Steggles, Merewether
Economics is trumping science
OVER recent years the growing number of conspiracy theories, including the belief of a flat earth, has given rise to the perception that people don't trust science. However, numerous polls show that while health workers generate the most trust, scientists are not far behind, with David Attenborough and David Suzuki both being voted as the most trusted person in their country.
Alarmingly the same polls show that economists and politicians are distrusted, probably because of the housing, cost of living and climate crises. Yet it is this untrustworthy, failure-prone group who are in control of our country, people who pay scant regard to scientific advice when it contravenes economic thought. We are now being subjected to a wave of economic think tank reports urging the government to increase immigration even further in order to cure the problems largely created by their economic policies. It seems that the authors of these articles are unaware of our unfolding climate disaster, and are able to ignore the many scientific papers, including the State of the Environment report that warned of the threat from population growth on our fragile nation stating that population growth is a key driver of environmental damage.
Don Owers, Dudley
Consensus no substitute for proof
THANK you to Lesley Walker, ("There's a weight of evidence", Letters, 19/12) for responding to my letter. But I never denied anyone the right to get as much interest as possible on their savings accounts.
Your point about water vapour was a good one. It is a potent greenhouse gas, far more potent and abundant in the atmosphere than CO2 ever was or could be. And you're correct, humans cannot directly control water vapour levels in air though whenever we burn gas, coal, oil, ethanol, biomass or even just farm the land and live, we are emitting lots of water vapour into the air, every day. This is not a climate problem apparently, though it's never explained why not.
Your claim that "100 per cent" of research scientists "reckon we are responsible for warming our planet" isn't true. Many thousands of scientists dispute any such claim. In any case, consensus is not a substitute for evidence and has no bearing on the truth. As for the precautionary principle, the first precaution should be to only undertake remedial actions that can be shown to actually work. As far as I know, no proposed climate action has ever been shown to change the climate in any way at any time or place.
Peter Devey, Merewether
Price capping isn't the answer
THERE have been several letters to the editor praising Mr Albanese and lambasting the LNP for not voting with the government on price capping of coal and gas. I would ask why a conservative party, or for that matter any reasonable thinking Australian, would think it's a great idea to head down the rabbit hole of socialism by wanting our federal government to start price capping.
This will lead to a drop in exploration by gas companies. It will also lead to gas shortages in the long term, which in turn will lead to electricity shortage. I would defy anyone to name one instance of price capping anywhere in the world that has been a great success, except in Russia.
It will have next to zero effect on our energy prices, as my understanding is there is only one power generator in the country that pays spot price for their coal. All the others have long-term contracts in place. This is just smoke and mirrors by Mr Albanese.
Andrew Hirst, Beresfield
Bike comparison not so far off
THE writer who questions the role of e-bikes in London isn't entirely correct herself ("London and Lake Mac don't match", Letters, 21/12). Four main hire companies provide e-bikes for hire at Tube stations and shopping centres. The bikes are e-bikes and not push bikes. To hire one, as with the Lake Macquarie e-bikes, a person uses a downloaded phone app. Late at night the e-bikes are picked up by trucks, recharged and placed back on racks. Your writer was right in some respects, however. Not unreasonably, I assumed that e-bike-motor vehicle collisions were more frequent in London since the e-bikes are used on busy roads and some of the riders must be inexperienced.
Geoff Black, Caves Beach
Bonk ban may have some merit
INDONESIA passing a law banning sex outside of marriage seems to have caused some concern. However, I've noticed that most cultures around the world have had strict controls on sex and adultery is a crime. There may be a valid reason for this.
Many years ago I was talking with a work mate who told me of a casual relationship that resulted in him fathering a son. Later, after that relationship ended, he met another woman, they got married and now have two daughters. I asked him what was the possibility of his son and one of his daughters getting together? He scoffed at my question. There may be some method in the Indonesian madness.
Peter Sansom, Kahibah
SHORT TAKES
PETER Devey, your analysis of Trump's dubious achievements smacks of your ultra right-wing ramblings, ("Judge by his actions, not his words", Letters, 19/12). Let's analyse Trump the man, accused rapist, liar, denying the existence of COVID, resulting in many deaths in his country, refusing to accept defeat in an election and enabling a bunch of rabble, in an attempted armed coup of the USA government. I believe Donald Trump is a cancer on the USA and the world.
Daryl Frost, Eleebana
ANOMALIES are a normal part of newspaper reporting, and Wednesday's Newcastle Herald has two glaring anomalies. Firstly, the 'pettiness' of Newcastle city council in holding its 'citizenship events' on January 25th, whereas the majority of councils will hold theirs on January 26th, ("Ceremony won't be held on Australia Day", Newcastle Herald 21/12). Secondly, regular contributor Mac Maguire, of Charlestown, who states that he 'tries to remain unbiased', (Short Takes 21/12). I thought that when our federal government changed in May 2022 that he would have let ScoMo go; if Mac is not careful, Peter Dutton will make a break and it may prove hard for Mac to 'reign him in'. Just a thought.
Richard Devon, Fishing Point
GO get 'em Robbo, I worry about all the sleep you must be missing over the CoN, all the punters out here love ya.
Mark Eastham, Belmont
I AGREE Mac Maguire, but why did you stop at the Coalition members? What about Andrews and the "Mean Girls" to mention a few? It does not matter which side of the divide, they all should be held to account.
Bruce Brander, Belmont
HERE'S food for thought; what did they do with all of those chicken heads and feet before chicken nuggets were invented?
Steve Barnett, Fingal Bay
MICHAEL Gormly, (Short Takes, 19/12), I believe the reason no action has been taken against Hunter Biden is the collusion between the FBI, a government agency, and Twitter to censor and suppress the laptop story, thus ensuring Trump didn't win. I'm also not defending Trump's morals but merely asking for balanced debate instead of one side shutting down any dissenting views. But I guess that's the woke way, eh?
Greg Hunt, Newcastle West
I HAVE to admit to having a Scott Morrison level of smugness since Scomo was grilled during the Robodebt royal commission. Interestingly, though, Mr Morrison was rather quick to tell the royal commission that he was "more focused" on the bushfires. That's funny, because I recall that during one of the worst periods of this national emergency, he left the country in favour of a holiday in Hawaii. It's ironic given the fact that at the time he stated that focusing on the fires was "not his job".
