FOR the past 20 years I have been one of those mugs standing out the front of a polling booth handing out how to vote cards. I have done this for independents, Labor and Liberal and the call of "save the trees" is used as a very common statement as people chose not to take a how to vote card.
A clear majority of people do not take the paper and I never see people stand and look at any of the posters along the way. Most people look straight ahead for fear of having to engage someone at the entrance.
It is my opinion that having all these people standing in your face while you go to vote is intimidating behaviour that would not be allowed to happen at any other place in Australia where people go about their business, but for some reason we feel it's still acceptable on polling day.
It is time for change; the environmental waste of paper, posters, t-shirts needs to stop, along with the intimidation. People need to enjoy the day; not be scared, badgered, harassed as they approach the booth. If a workplace safety assessment was done nothing would tick the correct box.
I am hoping by writing this letter that at the very least the Greens may pick this up and push for change or you may all wish to email your local member and start with them as this needs to stop.
Aaron Buman, Carrington
Don't censor Latham's words
I AM already tired of the censorship of Mark Latham's comments about Alex Greenwich. Neither I nor anyone else needs to be told what to think by Sky News or Pauline Hanson, we can judge these things for ourselves, thank you very much.
We know why Sky and Hanson have rushed in to condemn Latham, who they usually adore. His comments about Greenwich are hidden away, but Greenwich's comment that Latham is a disgusting human being is reported everywhere. In the long run, therefore, Greenwich's comment alone will be remembered and Latham will become the martyr.
So what did Latham actually say? If he used bad language, for example, it would have to be something special to be worse than what is now accepted on stage, on TV and in movies. And if it was sexually or otherwise explicit, then how does it compare to, say, The Song of Solomon? Or to the Christian beliefs expressed by Fred Nile concerning gays and lesbians? Those things are part of religious freedom, are they not? Australians are quite grown up enough to make their own decisions.
Grant Agnew, Coopers Plains
Insurance needs a health check
I RECKON waiting times in public hospitals for elective surgery would be reduced if people with private insurance didn't jump the line and go public to save the gap payment. Maybe the government should be more into removing these gap payments than increasing public hospital doctors and staff. Most of my friends who have private medical insurance that required elective surgery were treated within a few weeks, often in a public hospital.
I don't know how the system works, but I can only imagine a public hospital with pressing budget constraints would welcome another source of income. Private hospitals are definitely the answer; they keep on growing because private health insurance covers at least half of the population. Maybe they should treat all private patients rather than using public hospitals. Remove the gap and this will happen. As for outpatient numbers; if doctors were paid more to bulk bill their patients, maybe hospital outpatient numbers would be manageable.
Carl Stevenson, Dora Creek
Nuclear's not worth the risk
IODINE tablets are issued "probably" due to the Chernobyl legacy, Peter Dolan, ("Chernobyl's shadow is too large", Letters, 31/3)? I think not.
In Switzerland a mystery package is received by people living within 50 kilometres of nuclear power stations. They are issued specifically in the event of a disaster. I have seen them. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone will be hazardous for at least 3000 years. Some experts believe 20,000. The term "nature reserve" is a euphemism for uninhabitable for humans.
In terms of Fukushima's contaminated water, 11,500 tonnes of untreated contaminated water has already been released in 2011 to "free up storage space" and radioactive particles have been discovered in tuna.
As a radiation safety officer I am well aware of the medical and industrial uses of radioactive isotopes. These are lower level and magnitude than for power generation. Supporters use the words "safe" and "modern" with respect to nuclear power stations. Chernobyl and Fukushima were "modern" once. Even if we accept the probability to be low, the consequences of an accident are catastrophic, so are they worth the risk?
Those risks are environmental damage and dangers to human health and safety, and what of the economic cost of long-term remediation, not to mention normal generation waste storage legacies?
Marvyn Smith, Heddon Greta
Ban is policy, not prudence
MICHAEL Hinchey, (Short Takes, 1/4), just saying renewable energy is superior to nuclear power doesn't make it so. And there's no "ABR" factor (anything but renewables) from this letter writer. I've had solar panels for over a decade, more to save the hip pocket than the planet, although I suspect I've done neither.
From both sides of politics, mostly it's been "ABN" (anything but nuclear). The Howard government originally imposed a ban on nuclear energy, which subsequent governments of both stripes never lifted. For the current Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, nuclear energy is a "complete joke", while ACTU President, Michele O'Neil, recently reaffirmed the unions' long standing opposition to nuclear power.
Peter Dolan, Lambton
Stage is set, but is it worthwhile?
THE recent editorial ('A number of questions to be asked', Editorial 30/3) stated "like it or loathe it, there is no question the Newcastle 500 puts our city on the national, and even international stage". That's a nice throwaway line, but is there any evidence that the "stage" has led to any increase in people visiting the city?
Also, I don't get the international bit. It's barely of national importance, and Supercars often doesn't even make the Sydney papers. The top attraction in Newcastle, according to Lonely Planet, is Newcastle Beach and the surrounding scene. Supercars closes the beach and ruins that scene for nine weeks of the year, that's a big whack of the summer gone. If there's evidence to back up these kind of claims I'd like to see it, because it's not evident from where I sit.
David Turner, Newcastle
SHORT TAKES
VALE Doug Mulray; talented broadcaster and jester of infinite mirth who made Sydney FM radio worth listening to. Uncle Doug made every work day morning an event of unbridled hilarity. Who could forget Jack Africa or Roland Roll-a-door from Roland Roll-a-door's Roll-a-doors or the classic hit, I'm a Punk? Uncle Doug will be mourned by many, but mostly by his family, to whom we offer our deepest sympathy. I can't possibly think of another DJ more admired and loved by so many than Uncle Doug.
John Lawton, Belmont
IN regards to Yvonne Tebay's Short Take (1/4), and the extract from Captain Watkin Tench's diaries, I'd like to know, in Yvonne's opinion, what the "natives" were supposed to eat. As for the birds not being "abound" because of burning of "grass and bushes", just look today at the amount of introduced bird species that flock everywhere you can see. Bring back the BB guns.
Bryn Roberts, New Lambton
THE 2016 United States Presidential Election had an approximate cost of $1,500,000,000 USD and we now find that President Trump has been found by the Democrats in New York to have tax rorted $138,000 USD from his campaign to pay Stormy Daniels hush money. This is a rounding up error at best and not a felony.
Alan Hamilton, Hamilton East
PETER Dutton is on a hiding to nothing as to whether he'll support the Indigenous Voice to parliament or not. Perhaps that was why he was in hiding last week rather than in the chamber listening to Linda Burney presenting the wording to the proposal. Poor, poor Peter.
Mac Maguire, Charlestown
SWEET Poison, we miss you and wish you well. Customers are devastated since you closed your doors. Little Margaret is beyond consoling, missing her pumpkin salad. So we would all like to know when you will be popping up somewhere in the future. We will be on the doorstep.
Kathy Hancock, Newcastle
ALL the parking meters that City of Newcastle removed for the last two months, including those at the Foreshore parking lot, must be deemed unnecessary. In my opinion they should not be replaced if they are all in the inner city. Workers who had to find alternative parking during this period should continue to do so, as apparently the revenue from them is not needed.
Graeme Galvin, Warabrook
DAVID Stuart, (Short Takes,31/03), Slobodan Milosevic was exonerated for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia in the Hague.
Dennis Petrovic, Rutherford
WHEN is a bank not a bank? When you are not able to take your own money out of your own bank account in cash. Surely this couldn't be true, I hear you say. My sentiments exactly. However I heard on the radio that some ANZ bank branches this is, or is going to be, the case. With hundreds of bank branches and thousands of ATMs closed already, just where will this end?
