The voters elected to have your team, and it appeared to comprise intelligent people who committed themselves during the campaign to represent their constituents and get the best for all.

It would appear that what once was left to a minister and support staff, to look after a portfolio, can no longer be done by just one minister. Why oh why do we need a parliamentary secretary beneath the minister in some of their portfolios?

Are those ministers not capable? Why oh why do we need parliamentary secretaries for so many areas within your government, Gladys? Hang on, maybe I get it. While telling everyone to tighten their financial belts, I believe this effectively gives more of your team a pay rise. Fair pay is already there for politicians. In my opinion it would seem that this is another way of having noses in the financial trough of NSW.

I FOUND it disturbing to read the opinion piece by Wes Hain, Lake Macquarie City Council's manager of integrated planning, who blithely exposes his views on the future of growth in this city ('Public, private investment a strategic mix', Newcastle Herald 26/6).

He declares that when it comes to providing infrastructure for a growing city, it doesn't matter which comes first as "Lake Macquarie City Council can partner with government and investors to deliver the right infrastructure at the right time to support growth."

You would like to think that a person in such a responsible position would be aware that retrofitting transport infrastructure into a developed area is more complex, extremely expensive, damaging to residents and business and is often forced into less than ideal locations.

The WestConnex in Sydney has become a disaster with the cost rising from $10 billion in 2012 to $16.8 billion, with City of Sydney analysis claiming the final cost at $45 billion ('New motorways and road upgrades take WestConnex bill beyond $45 billion: council', SMH 14/4/17).

Even Lucy Turnbull, the chief commissioner of the Greater Sydney Commission responsible for drawing up plans to shape the city, was unaware of the destruction of 50 houses in the heritage suburb of Haberfield (SMH 16/8/16), nor that earthworks uncovered an old rubbish dump which emitted noxious fumes.

Growth in Lake Macquarie has always been contentious as transport depends on cars, with congestion increasing and little prospect of providing the essential services which are already in short supply. I believe having a gung-ho planner in charge means we risk suffering from mistakes in the future.

THERE are very few good things about being 80 years old, but the one thing that is good is our memory of things planned and then shelved as too hard, such as Malcolm Fraser's dream of the drought-proofing pipeline from north to south and east to west that water could be pumped both ways from river systems in flood.

This is, and has always been, a country of extremes and it always will be, so it is our moral obligation to provide the future generations a country with plenty of water. We spend, without much effort, millions on sport stadiums, ghost railway and transport facilities and God knows what else, yet the very most important commodity is H2O.

We as Australians will have to bite the bullet and take another long, hard look at this type of venture. It will be too late when the dams go dry.

Water restrictions are already being talked about for the umpteenth time in my lifetime, and yet very little imagination is deployed in the solving the supply problems that arise in this area every year or so.

With our population growing as it is, we have to start to do something positive and now is the time to do it.

Forget immigration, forget stadiums, roads, desalination plants and the multitude of unnecessaries and start looking at our future as a country with plenty of water.

I AM just wondering if Newcastle could be improved by council removing parking meters and just have two-hour parking in the streets.

My husband and I believe City of Newcastle council would assist business owners by trying this option for a period of time, say six months.

Perhaps the Newcastle Herald could investigate cafe closures over the last year to see if owners felt parking availability and cost would have impacted adversely.

I THINK are all chasing the wrong issues. Global warming is undoubtedly a major concern but we need to understand the brassy before we can control and tame it.

Why have we got global warming? I believe it's due to world overpopulation. Past history has shown us that this is the main contributor to the demise of various civilisations, so our biggest threat to human existence is overpopulation.

We all need to realise that all these ads on TV asking us to help children all over the world is due to this, not global warming. Many children are dying because they were brought into a world in which their parents cannot sustain them.

We are at 7.7 billion now, and due to hit 10.9 billion by 2100. I believe China had the right idea when they introduced the one-child methodology, but unfortunately it went by the way. We shouldn't rely on conflict to reduce our population, which has been the case over the centuries.

Drastic birth control can be the only answer to save our world from imploding. Religion and fossil fuel mining are not the answer, common sense is.

You do the maths.

I GAVE the newspaper editors a bagging last week about the response and coverage that Israel Folau received for his worthless comments about his personal views (Letters, 19/6). Maybe my article heading has kept me from fame, fortune and the GoFundMe site. Israel who? Sorry, Israel. I've reassessed your title with the Saturday arvo drunks, and it is now Israel Millionaire.

I've sure got some homework to do on homophobia to make a living out of it too.