I've played basketball in this city for most of my life. My son now pulls on a Newcastle Falcons jersey and represents this city with everything he's got. My daughter plays soccer for New Lambton, so I'm hardly a one-eyed basketball parent. Reading yet another letter opposing the Hunter Indoor Sports Centre doesn't just frustrate me, it breaks my heart. Equally frustrating is the way this debate has been covered. Reading the Herald, you'd be forgiven for thinking the entire community is against this project. That isn't true. When the amended plans were exhibited, 69 per cent of the 1273 submissions were in support.
Over 6000 players call Newcastle Basketball home. Kids, teenagers, adults, wheelchair athletes. All of us squeezed into a stadium that was built in 1969 and hasn't had meaningful upgrades since. We already overflow into borrowed venues across the city. This is not a planning problem on paper, this is the reality we live every week. And the clock is ticking. The government has confirmed the Broadmeadow lease ends in 2028. If this project fails, Port Stephens has already put its hand up.
Those opposing the project have every right to raise concerns. But where is their alternative? Three years of searching across two council areas turned up nothing. Newcastle council manages over 150 outdoor fields, is it really too much to ask that one be used to secure the future of indoor sport? This city just watched Saffron Shiels, a kid from Newcastle, get drafted into the WNBA. My son dreams of a future like that. So do thousands of kids across this region. I know which side of history I want to be on.
Judith Delbridge is quite right (Letters, 26/5). Yes, now I'm going to invoke the good old days. Baby Health Centres were a blessing when I had small people in the '60 and '70s. Not only were you reassured that your baby was thriving but vaccinations were administered and individual records with future dates noted were given to remind you to follow up. A huge psychological benefit was meeting other mums when you were new and unsure or just needed a little sympathy. Firm friendships often began there. I still believe the impact of Baby Health Centres is sorely missed. City mums appear to be as isolated as country mums if social media posts are to be believed.
Watching the 6pm news we were astounded the second item covered the activist (funded by Australian taxpayers) returning home from yet another self-promotion whilst achieving nothing as per past outings, and complaining of abuse and inhuman treatment which will never be confirmed or observed. Surely, given the ongoing issues facing the majority of Australians with respect to employment, hardship, homelessness and many other factors in today's environment, there are more priorities that would be better served and assisted on home soil.
In saying that, we in Newcastle have the opportunity through this publication (Letters to the editor) to raise our major safety and community concerns/issues, having them highlighted to local councils that may assist. Let's seize this opportunity to voice our issues and forget the offshore problems we can't influence with words. Let's document realistic actions we need in Newcastle. The ratepayers require our issues be addressed prior to those pet projects previously centred in council. Issues around the CBD transformation from a once beautiful city, when we could view our working harbour from almost every location on a beautiful weekend drive. It is no longer possible to view our once beautiful city skyline and the cathedral in the background of an evening from the harbour. Now all that's left is an ugly concrete eyesore. Let our voices be heard.
Respectfully, I would like to make a correction to the article on the Hunter's humanitarian aid volunteers' homecoming ("Hunter activist home after detention", Herald, 26/5). It says that my son, Zack Schofield, was "arrested" twice by the Israelis. That isn't accurate. Zack's boats were intercepted two times by the Israelis, both times while sailing in international waters, where Israel has no legal authority. Israelis illegally intercepted flotilla aid boats and illegally detained Zack and his colleagues once off the coast of Crete and again off the coast of Cyprus. These are serious breaches of international maritime law. The Global Sumud Flotilla organisation has a case to bring against Israel in the International Court of Justice. Australia is a signatory to the Geneva Convention and has legal obligations to prevent genocide and help provide civilians in a war zone with the basics to sustain life. The UN reported eight months ago that Israel is committing four of the five acts of genocide against the Palestinian civilians. World governments have done little since to ensure the Gazans get the aid they need to survive. The Australian government will have to explain why they have failed to meet these humanitarian obligations; heaven knows I certainly cannot. I stress that what Zack and all the volunteers did was legal: and bringing aid to a starving civilian population is not only legal, it is required by law.
Chris Bowen announced electricity prices are down. It's time to get Status Quo for an advertising campaign; "Energy prices are down, down". In previous years, did he forget prices have gone through the roof?
A massive overhaul of the current basketball stadium at Broadmeadow would be grand. Incorporate the fast food restaurants and PCYC into it, and public transport would thrive. The new location means a three long-neck walk from the train station.
So we have a 23-day festival in Sydney featuring a six-kilometre light show, yet just recently we were told to turn off our lights for an hour to raise awareness of the supposed climate crisis. I'm confused: what messages are being conveyed here?
Labor's budget seems to be a game of snakes and ladders. Unfortunately, Australians are playing against a stacked deck as the ladders to aspiration and success have been removed, leaving us with a cesspool of toxic tax bites. Albo and Chalmers' attempts to explain the problems appear lost in a fog of incoherent waffle; in other words, they don't know what they're talking about.
Recent imbalanced reporting by this paper in relation to professional protesters, Rising Tide etc. has a tinge of pushing a certain narrative similar to that of taxpayer-funded ABC. In case you haven't been watching the polls, mainstream Australia is fed up with this woke, Green ideology.
Another batch of Isis brides and their children are about to set foot in this country. The government denies giving these people any assistance, so who is paying?
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