Australia's largest coal generator, AGL Energy, has teamed up with solar installer SunDrive to mass produce solar panels at Liddell in the Hunter Valley (First of its kind: solar tech company explores Hunter manufacturing, Herald 28/3).
It's an adventurous visionary project, a "First of its kind" as of now only 1 per cent of solar panels are made domestically.
The Prime Minister has pledged $1 billion to this development. It is to be facilitated in the form of subsidies, grants and production costs.
This contribution was announced on the decommissioned power site. Liddell implying that coal workers could seek work in the renewables industry.
My concern is that some private enterprises in the future might mismanage government expenses in order to make a quick profit, and thereby leaving taxpayers with the expense (recall Pink Batts, car parks and NDIS?).
"Subsidies", "grants", and "production costs" are vague terms.
What systems does the government have in place to prevent potential rorts?
Could the government provide details on how they would be administered and supervised?
Helen Douglas, Stockton
Hillsborough road debacle
At last someone has been appointed to design the Crockett Street corner on Hillsborough Road.
While this is good news, the residents of Hillsborough have nothing to be pleased about.
The Hillsborough Road/ Chadwick Street corner has been altered to cope with drivers doing the wrong thing near Chadwick Street. Buses carrying school children, and trucks and cars cannot enter the suburb safely. Residents cannot exit Hillsborough safely.
Mistakes in the work at Chadwick Street corner have been noted by people trying to fix the problem. Their opinion has been overruled by TfNSW because, in years to come, the problem will be corrected.
Residents of Hillsborough cannot put up with the current situation for years to come.
Lives of children on buses and residents trying to exit Hillsborough are all at risk with the latest work at Chadwick Street corner. We need changes now, not in a few years.
Wendy Marr, Hillsborough
Build stadium where it is
In relation to the new basketball stadium to be built on the beautiful open area grassland at Wallarah Oval, which also doubles for Lambton High School as playing and sporting fields.
What is wrong with its existing site, with parking underneath and a stadium on top?
All because our Labor premier wants to build houses near railway stations. Maybe he should come to the Hunter, where the majority of his budget money comes from but doesn't return. It goes to the state of Sydney.
The NSW Government classifies Newcastle as metropolitan, so we don't have the benefits of regional NSW.
Maybe he should get onto Google Maps to find out where Newcastle is as it is one of the safest Labor seats in NSW.
Maybe our safe Labor local council can tell him but they will go with the flow, maybe build another skate park near the ocean?
Maybe another white elephant, for which I am sure they will be remembered?
Ian Bartrop, Birmingham Gardens
Children left to weather anxiety
We have always been governed, thus controlled, by fear "it's the way of the world".
But fear of climate change takes on a whole new meaning with consequences never seen before.
Most older people just take it with a grain of salt, but the youngsters are having it drummed into their way of thinking by people who should know better, causing anxiety they simply cannot handle.
I suggest letting children be children and not groom them into believing their world will come to an end if they don't contribute to reducing carbon emission.
Maybe instead they should be taught the benefits of carbon emission, how the world would not exist without it, and that it's crucial to every living thing on our planet?
This teaching would have them being better prepared to understand that climate change is just a change in the weather, always has been and always will be.
Instead, they are being taught to be afraid of the weather.
Surely parents can teach their children what should have been taught at schools, to stop anxiety from destroying their childhood.
No person, or any amount of money, will control the weather. The best our children can be taught is to be better prepared for a change in weather.
Carl Stevenson, Dora Creek
SHORT TAKES
Support for Warabrook road 'solution'
Bradley Perrett ("Seven kilometres of convenience", Opinion, 29/3), where have you been? People of Maud and Lorna streets Waratah West have been crying out for the Warabrook solution for many years. If it had been done in the planning stages for the suburb of Warabrook, we would all be a lot happier. But now? Watch the pollies and the residents come up with more reasons not to do it than the practicality of actually doing it in the planning stages.
Tony Morley, Waratah
Power comments 'hypocritical'
It amazes me that people such as Anne O'Hara ("Indifference not the answer", Letters, 1/4) complain about burning fossil fuels to generate electricity while still enjoying the benefits of it. Or did she send her letter to the Herald via carrier pigeon? The hypocrisy never ceases to amaze me.
Matt Ophir, Charlestown
All evidence needs examining
Thank you Donna Page for your superb investigative reporting, keeping us updated on the saga of the Scott Neylon/Jeremy Bath letter writing ("Probe slammed as sham", Herald, 30/3). Indeed it was a sham. Nuatali Nelmes refuses to comment, and is therefore, I believe, not performing her duties as lord mayor. What is being hidden from the ratepayers? Why all the secrecy? We deserve answers. Do we really have to wait until September and a change of council before a thorough investigation is carried out covering all evidence?
Denise Lindus Trummel, Newcastle
Double standards
Ban Israel from the Eurovision song contest. Russia was banned from the contest for invading Ukraine. Double standards, so America supplies arms to Israel to commit genocide against the Palestinians, genocide is OK as long as America is supplying the weapons.
Richard Ryan, Summerland Point
Australia Card re-branded
On March 27, 2024, the Australian Senate renamed the Australia Card, which was rejected in 1958 and called it "the Digital ID Act". Debate was gagged and the coalition of the ABC and the Greens passed it. Considering how all pervading this law is, it is odd that I find it not mentioned in any mainstream media. This unconscionable law is yet to be adopted by the lower house before our lives will be radically changed forever.
