My dad is 82, and has also featured as a good news story in the Newcastle Herald for still being active at his age ('Don't act your age, it'll keep you young', Newcastle Herald Topics 27/4/18). He is one of those men. I can assure you that when Dad started playing tennis there the courts looked nothing like they do today.

How is this any different to men's shed, a group of men working together and pursuing a healthy lifestyle?

As far as I am aware, the Men's Shed at Elermore Vale is on City of Newcastle land.

As quoted in the Newcastle Herald article, Ms Pollock has been offered court hire at a discounted rate. In my opinion she is choosing not to accept the offer, preferring to pursue becoming a member of a men-only club. Women players use these courts every day of the week and are not members of the club.

I guess if this group of elderly men get evicted over this, they will have nowhere to go to get their exercise for the week. Maybe they can go and stir up any of the women-only gyms in the area. They are not on council land, you may say, but it is still physical activity made available to only women. Go figure.

INTEREST rate cuts from the Reserve Bank are not stimulating the economy, so why do they continue with them? All they are doing is making it harder for the many more depositors who rely on high interest on their deposits to spend as they, if like me, have had their interest paid from the bank more than halved in the last few years. How does that help spending in the economy?

Will it get to the point of negative rates and depositors will have to pay the bank to mind their money?

PEOPLE remain loyal to political parties only when they feel heard. When they feel ignored or railroaded, a community will make other political choices. This willingness to change was starkly shown at the federal election when there was a savage swing against the Labor Party in Hunter electorate.

We have six Labor councillors in Lake Macquarie. This council seems determined to develop a multi-storey building on the Toronto foreshore. This is in the face of consistent community resistance and the strong expression that this area be used as an open public space.

The message we receive is that development trumps public foreshore space and the expressed desires of the community are ignored. In my opinion Lake Macquarie council is not listening and is not representing our needs. It is particularly galling that several of the councillors supporting this project, and by extension not supporting the community, are doing so under the Labor banner. Labor is a party which signals that it is progressive about environmental issues, wants to listen to the community and that seeks grassroot consensus. The Labor party platform proudly states states "A fair go for all Australians". Does that statement include the protection of our precious foreshore spaces for the benefit of everyone? I believe from the actions, or maybe the lack of action, from our councillors it appears that it does not.

ONCE again Jeremy Bath ('Newcastle Now didn't deliver for the city', Opinion 20/6) states Newcastle Now spent too much of the special rates funding on administration. This is despite the fact that we have given him a breakdown of expenditure indicating no more than 20 per cent of salaries and wages was expended on administration. The remaining 80 per cent paid staff to implement projects. In principle, I believe it's the same as council paying a driver of a council truck whose wages are lumped in under staff salaries and wages.

Mr Bath also accused Newcastle Now of spending paltry sums for place-making. The dollar amounts quoted by Bath were amounts given to individual precincts for local place making projects. This initiative sought to involve the stakeholders and thereby have them work more closely with us. With the Supercars install by council and light rail install by government, I believe it was clear a disaster of tsunami proportions was occurring. As a result, the precinct members in my view decided they needed to concentrate on their business and the initiative stalled, hence the small amount. In contrast, the council did nothing but offer rate rebates amounting to $4 a week to the average trader.

There are two lessons to be learned from this most recent attack on a group of volunteers who are respected business people and dedicated staff. Firstly, in my opinion if any group is considering serving as a business improvement association they should be aware that any criticism of council will likely end your tenure. Should business ratepayers or council decide on where their resources are spent? Secondly, I believe the model Mr Bath is proposing mirrors the Newcastle Now initiative. The precinct model we initiated that unfortunately lapsed has similarities to the proposed contestable model.

Our experience indicates the model will fail. What then will council do with the ratepayers' money?

OUR Prime Minister, our Treasurer and our Finance Minister are harmoniously using the word mandate, which is supposed to be authority given by electors to the Parliament. The emphasis is on the word "supposed".

By design, our Parliament is intended to protect all electors from being disenfranchised by sheep in wolves clothing who intentionally mislead fellow Australians. Our Parliament has an Opposition within the House of Representatives that our government of the day must convince.

Once agreement is reached, our House of Representatives must put the case to our Senate for review where they accept, decline or recommend amendment.

It is absolute rubbish for any politician to claim they have authority from the electors to do anything without it being adequately and properly scrutinised by our Parliament.

No prime minister or political party has a mandate to simply do as it pleases.