There are only a few clubs, like Wallsend and New Lambton, that are actually giving women a chance to play at the highest level locally. It is a shame then that these same clubs hit brick walls when trying to develop their dated facilities or share grounds to cater for a diverse membership while neighbours lock the gates.

Maybe the council and Northern NSW football should be taking a similar stance as they have with the tennis dinosaurs? Time to change the sporting landscape.

AS a 90-year-old, I am one of the 3.8 million Australians over 65 dependent, in some way, on the government having enough funds to provide the urgent services.

I am one of the 497,000 over-85s whose care is increasingly becoming urgent and becoming part of the 129,000 on the waiting list for aged care packages to provide basic care in our final years. For these reasons, I am appalled that the federal opposition is reported to be falling in line with the Coalition government to reduce public funds by giving obscene tax cuts to the rich and multinationals ('Labor keen to negotiate on proposed tax cuts', Newcastle Herald 26/6).

As the aged join the list of those waiting for care together with the disabled, I believe that has contributed to the over-85 male demographic having the highest rate of suicide (ABC 31/5/17).

The only thing I can be pleased about is that I will not be alive in 2047, when it is projected that there will be some 1.5 million over-85s in the country and an estimated 500,000 aged persons waiting for aged care.

I believe that I have lived through the best of times in this country that allowed me and my brother and sister to go from an orphanage through primary school to my brother becoming a specialist doctor, my sister being awarded two major Orders of Australia awards and me receiving an Order of Australia because there were government services to pick up those who were disadvantaged. Now, as I prepare to leave this society, I am appalled that the party whose policies enabled my family to survive and contribute to community life is prepared to allow this heartless Coalition government to cater to the greed of the rich as those of us waiting for care services are offered no relief.

WITH Victoria finally coming of age and passing a law for voluntary assisted dying and the Israel Folau debacle, a good example of why these debates continue in Australia arrived on Monday's Q&A. Both topics were discussed, there was no defining answer given by any of the panel. They only created more questions.

We already have freedom of speech and religion, but with an open-ended understanding of what they actually mean, which is why these problems keep reoccurring.

An example of why is in the responses given. The biggest problem comes from the misunderstanding of what freedom of religion actually means. It does not mean as some claim, that you have the right to say or practice everything that your religion might say. We have a law that prohibits discrimination, and a law that prohibits causing harm to others, yet there are those that claim someone of a certain religion should be allowed to say something that could (and has) led to great harm simply because they were raised to believe it through their religion.

MICHAEL Gormley (Letters, 20/6) seems to think I am a climate denier, which I believe is the typical response along with invective of those who cannot argue with the facts. Climate has changed and always will.

What has not been discussed, and in my opinion cannot be discussed because of the many vested interests feeding at the public trough: is climate change real? What is man's contribution? Is it a good or bad thing? What can or should we do about it?

All those matters should be openly discussed and varied opinions sought before we make decisions. I believe the left and the Greens cannot and will not allow it. Why not, what are they afraid of? Could it be they are wrong? What is the accuracy of climate models to predict the climate in 100 years? The models require, amongst other wild speculation, estimates for each of the 190-odd nations' populations and their standards of living for the next 100 years, needless to say calculated by those with a vested interest in the outcome in terms of continued employment and a firm belief in climate change.

WHAT goes up must come down, and when infrastructure is fast-tracked in one place must be slowed down in other places.

This is a lesson I believe Newcastle ratepayers need to apply to the Supercars legacy. It has been, and remains, very costly. Since council has never released these costs in full, here's what ratepayers do know: $8.8 million was budgeted for the council road works. This was "already planned and budgeted for", just "fast tracked" in time for the race and to take advantage of other work that had to be done.

I believe the cost of these roadworks blew out. The council is required by the terms of the services deed to do maintenance and repairs to roads on the circuit at Supercars bequest, at least yearly. This has proved very costly. Zaara Street was dug up and resurfaced three times in 18 months for what council described as "routine maintenance and renewal of road infrastructure" ('Maintenance is on track', Newcastle Herald 4/3).

Ratepayers only know all this because the East End residents' group doggedly pursued information about the deeds signed with Supercars through the court system ('Council's race roles pile up', Newcastle Herald 24/8).

Unlike Supercars events held in other cities, Newcastle ratepayers have been left in the dark about the costs of this event. City of Newcastle no longer informs the public about the costs of particular projects. Rather, in my opinion the budgeting system has been re-structured into one which swallows up all those particulars which help ratepayers make sense of where their money goes.

THE pen goes to Jocelyn Cleary for her letter on gender equity in sport.