This heartless Coalition government believes that their surplus is more valuable than the lives of 16,000 aged people.

How cruel, as the royal commission stated, is this government?

REGARDING the front page story on the Syrian refugees ('The struggle behind smiles', Newcastle Herald, 23/11): It is very distressing, but not unexpected or unusual, for a qualified engineer being unable to find work in their field around this area.

Having studied engineering at most levels and worked in manufacture and engineering all of my working life, I find this situation to be extremely tragic. It is not so many years ago there was such a shortage of engineers in local industry many were encouraged to migrate from overseas to take up positions.

What has happened we may ask? Once Newcastle and surrounds was a major manufacturing/engineering area, but no more. Obviously the closure of the BHP steelworks grabs the attention when the manufacturing downturn is discussed; however this was the largest in a long line of closures.

Those who can cast their minds back will remember; a ship building industry; many bakeries; biscuit factories; textile factories; soft drink factories; clothing manufacture; earth moving equipment manufacture. I could go on but the list is endless and depressing. These industries employed thousands but now there are few left, the major one in my mind being the Tomago aluminium smelter.

This operation employs directly about 1000 and probably supports another 1000 to 2000 with contractors, suppliers and local trickle down and some would be happy to see it also go. If, as some among us want, the mines and power stations also close this area will become almost totally reliant on government-funded operations and coffee shops, as is almost the case now.

WHY was illegal parking allowed in Stockton over the Supercars weekend? It was totally out of control. The total disregard for no parking signs was unbelievable.

Where were the roadblocks previously used? Where were the traffic monitors and signs to direct people to legal parking?

There were near-miss accidents and impatient drivers. Where were the parking infringement officers? Stop forgetting we exist. We pay our rates.

DENNIS Hampton "It's not like it once was" (Letters, 25/11) states that he has "seen in my lifetime more severe bushfires" in reference to the recent spate of bushfires engulfing the country. The truth of the matter though is that with these bushfires, the magnitude and intensity is unprecedented for spring so we can hardly (like Andrew Bolt style) start being dismissive of the seriousness of the situation.

The "so-called" experts like former Fire Commissioner Greg Mullins - with 47 years of experience fighting bushfires - have been speaking out and trying to urge our leaders, both state and federal, for many months that action needs to be taken to not only become better prepared to combat these fires but to also seriously start addressing climate change, which is directly affecting the landscape, making it more susceptible to bushfires. I for one trust what these experts are saying and from what I can see, the evidence overwhelmingly supports them.

WHILE I admit forcing the ADF/Australian government to buy existing military equipment that works instead their current method of buying equipment off the plan/fairy tale is very nice. The idea that Australia could see a looming threat, convince voters that the threat is worth hundreds of billions of dollars in emergency spending, acquire equipment that generally has years/decades of lead time and recruit and train the necessary military formations (also years/decades of lead time) before the threat arrived is the funniest thing I have heard of today.

That is a long chain, every link of which is brittle and inclined to break.

Basically you would be putting all of Australia in a bush-surrounded house at the top of a ridge and hoping we saw the smoke (that is desperately trying to conceal itself, enemies are like that) in time to create the Rural Fire Service. We just need to pay our ADF insurance bill of 1.8-2 per cent of GDP, and this is preventative insurance, that stops the destruction from happening.

THE government wants the power to deregister unions and officials more easily. Their fixations on unions has been relentless since the John Howard era, and they will exhaust all avenues to suppress the rights of workers in this country.

Will they deregister rogue banks that have gouged millions of dollars in illegal practices? Has any CEO been made accountable? They just apologise and stand down and are well remunerated for their failures.

Will they deregister religious institutions and their heads for heinous crimes against children? I think not.

And on top of all that, the government wants to be chief editors of what the media is allowed to tell us, democratic? I think not.

DENISE Pollock (Short Takes, 26/11), I believe live music and lockout laws are linked to the demise of live music in Newcastle.

Most music venues operate on very skinny margins and those that have restricted trading hours tend to move away from live music because these bands (and there are a lot of great musicians in Newcastle) are paid, and might I say rightly so, good money for their services. If the lockout laws were relaxed, it would give the venues the opportunity to square the ledger and possibly promote more of this sort of entertainment in more venues.

So yes, people may support live music in Newcastle, but it seems to be mostly on their terms, that is, don't disturb my serenity, in particular those that live close to music venues. Most big cities in this world would find it laughable that a bunch of wowsers can control when and where they will tolerate loud noise or even ambient noise in a "vibrant city". Not in my backyard seems to be the mentality of people these days.

Congratulations Janice Jordan (Short Takes, 26/11) for your positive, intelligent view. My family and I very much respect your way of thinking.

WHY aren't senior bank officials going to jail? Senior church officials have been imprisoned for not disclosing criminal activity. Bank officials have been awarded with millions and relieved of their positions.

THAT'S right John Arnold (Short Takes, 27/11). Israel Folau exercises his right to free speech and nobody arrests or censors him. They just say you are not allowed to earn your living playing rugby. Free speech alive and well? Not really.

SCOT MacDonald, there is no backing of Newcastle by you and yours (Letters, 27/11). If throughput, like with Supercars, for Newcastle was the goal, the nation's vital Sydney - Newcastle intercity rail infrastructure would not have been further weakened, by amputation, under cover of years of neglect. Think of all the advantages, to so many, of worthy services between the two centres.

WHAT a mess this council has got Newcastle into. They have signed a secret services agreement that gives a private company the right to lock down Newcastle for three months of every year, most likely sending Newcastle broke and all for an event that I understand didn't even make the top 20 viewing figures for free to air TV. Did the lord mayor "Hail the success" after the ratepayer-funded shindig at Fort Scratchley?

AUSTRALIAN politicians are more concerned about China Change, a civilisation that has been around for 2400 years, than climate change, meanwhile Australia burns. To all those shock jocks out there in la la media land, who think the demonisation of China is a freedom of expression, be careful what you wish for.

THE Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website lists the "2018-2019 Budget at a Glance Initiatives". Items listed include $1.3bn (Pacific Forums), $17.5m (Australian Pacific Security) and $300m (Indo- Pacific Health Security Initiative). I am curious about the Indonesian Health Initiative. There is a class action under way but why is the government spending such a large amount of money around Indonesian health when the residents of Williamtown require residential, medical and social support? Perhaps our local federal MPs could comment.

ANGUS Parsons (Short Takes, 25/11) expressed disappointment that children had to witness police handcuffing offenders during the Supercars. If one could imagine the horror for millions of children in the Middle East having to watch the most unspeakable horrors being committed by Islamic State fighters as they moved from city to city, in their bid to enforce their beliefs on others, we should just give thanks for being able to enjoy life in our wonderful town.