With the election of councillors for local government taking place on Saturday 14th September 2024 we get the opportunity to elect councillors based on their platforms that hopefully will ultimately improve the lives of the community.
So what do we get in the way of platforms? Usually the same things: less red and green tape, more housing, more parking, etc. Generally, all things which they will have very little influence in attaining and that may ultimately destroy the fragile open environment surrounding Newcastle.
What we do not hear enough about in my view is curbing the "woke" activities of the council, such as not celebrating new citizen ceremonies on Australia Day, not supporting woke campaigns like the Voice without community consultation, not destroying or changing the names of community icons like Coon Island, Captain Cook statues, etc.
We all know our living environment will always be changing but don't let councils destroy the efforts and culture of the past completely.
John Cooper, Charlestown
Don't bet against gambling reform
HEARING Bill Shorten on ABC TV's Q&A defending his government's proposal to reject a total ban on gambling advertisements on television calls into question the morality of his party in my opinion.
Again, they have chosen what is expedient over what is right. Why should the media moguls wield more influence than the millions of Australians who urgently need a total ban? The arguments he is using are the same trotted out when a ban was proposed on advertising tobacco products on TV: that the media companies would not survive.
Comparable arguments have been used through the centuries. The abolition of slavery would harm the dealers in human labour; the removal of children from working in the mines would destroy the mining economy; giving women the vote would threaten democracy - the list is endless. We are always told that the price to be paid for doing what is right would be too great.
Come on, Mr Albanese, it is time to do what most Australians are begging you to do.
Doug Hewitt, Hamilton
Time to speak up on airport
TODAY, Wednesday August 14, is the last day in which NSW residents can lodge an objection to an abrupt and deeper militarisation of the Newcastle Airport precinct.
The owners of Newcastle Airport are Newcastle and Port Stephens councils. Cr McCabe and McKenzie (Greens) lodged a notice of motion at the June 25 council meeting to ask the Greater Newcastle Aerotropolis Pty Ltd board not to support leasing to weapons companies that contradict its investment and borrowing policy in avoiding socially harmful activity.
Rather than engage directly, the remaining councillors relied on a report from the council's executive director. This claimed the policy only applied to where the council invested its money, not to anything else. It argued the airport was managed by independent directors so the council had no say in what they did. It also claimed there were no "any current direct/indirect investments in the "production or supply of armaments" and "no explosive ordnance manufacture / assembly on land owned by Newcastle Airport. Furthermore, there is no intention by the airport to seek this type of tenant."
The councillors relied on this as a "foreshadowed" motion and used it to defeat the notice of motion. The deputy lord mayor said "... it is important that this council through our partnership at the Newcastle Airport can play a role in supporting those ancillary industries".
I am not a member of the Greens, but I recommend visiting their local website for information on making a submission opposing this.
Niko Leka, Mayfield
No need for climate of fear
GARY Linnell's discussion of global warming impacts on our planet ("A warming view of our perilous future", Opinion 3/8), focuses on extremes, and not near-future realities. He does not state his source of academic information or the report he mentions.
I have been studying and teaching air pollution and climate problems for more than 50 years. Mr Linnell's perilous future is very unlikely to occur for decades, and perhaps centuries, even if the two-degree warming level is reached.
Melting of the Greenland ice sheet will continue. Considerably higher levels of warming would have to occur before the major ice pack of the globe, the East Antarctic ice sheet will collapse, causing major increases in sea level.
Mr Linnell is correct that our political leaders are fiddling about this problem. Short-term economic gain for fossil fuel exports is currently much more important to them than the much-needed reduction in greenhouse gas emissions for longer-term climate benefit.
There is a major risk of climate change stress for the young generations. I fear Linnell's extreme approachadds to this stress. It's better to focus on positive adaptation and renewable energy accomplishments.
Real global action to reduce greenhouse gases may be a long time coming.
Howard Bridgman, Callaghan
After reading Alanna Tomazin's story on Saturday ("'Nowhere for me to sit' on bus", Newcastle Herald 10/8), I was appalled. What responsibility has the bus driver got to ensure all children are seated and no child is left standing or resorted to sitting on the floor because of inadequate seating? After the horrific accident at Greta I would have thought stricter rules would apply around the safety of children on a bus. If there's too many children for one bus, then it stands to reason more buses are needed. We need to provide our children with safe transport to ensure they arrive home safely.
Karen Mitchell, Lakelands
Kamala criticisms are laughable
Your correspondent ("Harris inspires little confidence", Letters, 12/8), derides US Vice-President Kamala Harris as unqualified for the position of president of the United States, going so far as to comment on her laugh - "When faced with a serious question, she frequently laughs like a giggling hyena" - as if the way she laughs somehow disqualifies her from contention for the US presidency. I have to wonder: does he simply have a problem with Kamala Harris because she is a woman, or perhaps because she is black? Does he reveal his true preference for president - Donald Trump, with the added bonus of JD Vance as vice-president? Perhaps his letter tells us more about your correspondent than about Kamala Harris.
John Ure, Mount Hutton
Olympics should be about sport
Congratulations to all Olympic athletes who participated under the duress of the woke International Olympic Committee's zany attempt to convert them to their net zero ideology. Making them sleep on recycled cardboard, eat vegan food and exist without air-conditioning is no way to treat elite athletes. Let's hope next time they are given proper opportunities to excel and let's hope also that women are only competing against other women. I suppose also that PM Albo will take some credit for our success when a lot of it is due to the generous support of mining magnate Gina Rinehart.
