Newcastle Herald Letters to the Editor: Tuesday, December 17, 2019

This is quite in contrast to the footpaths of the Hunter mall, Hunter Street and Scott Street. These footpaths are filthy with dirt, vomit, urine and leftover liquor. They appear to not have been cleaned for months.

If these areas were to receive the same cleaning attention and priority as the light rail receives, I'm sure it would be welcomed by the local retailers and perhaps it would encourage more of the public to walk around this area and prevent further retailers from closing their doors.

GREAT letter by Geoff Black (Letters, 11/12) highlighting the many failings of the Morrison government.

Other items to add, Geoff, would be negative gearing and capital gains, enabling wealthy landowners to purchase multiple homes to rent out at exorbitant rentals to poor individuals who cannot afford to buy their first home.

A third of the population is on part-time employment with the constant aims of Coalition governments to de-unionise the workforce and reduce wages of the lowest-paid citizens. With large numbers of major companies and banks paying no tax it leaves the government no option but to cut funding to essential services.

With blatant funding discrepancies favouring private schools and hospitals over public schools and hospitals, let us hope the next federal election will result in a change of government rectifying the ever growing imbalance between the "haves" and the "have nots".

A YOUNG Englishman becomes highly interested in cathedrals and so goes on a world tour to visit as many as he can.

He notices that in his homeland and everywhere he visits each cathedral has a golden phone and above it a notice informing people that they can call heaven for 10,000 of whatever is the local currency. He is astounded that they all have this same facility.

Finally, because he has relatives in Newcastle, he visits Christ Church Cathedral and sees the golden phone for calls to heaven but is astounded because the notice above reads, "Calls to heaven $1".

Unable to believe his eyes he approaches a member of the cathedral staff, explains his worldwide experience and asks why the calls in Newcastle are so cheap.

The reply is, "This is Newcastle. It's local call".

WITH a respite from the smoke in town, sunny Newcastle feels like its old enjoyable self again. But the fires are still burning and the government is doing nothing to protect us from this or future climate-related events.

Even if we cease all emissions tomorrow, we are locked into temperatures rising for the next decade due to the amount of carbon already in the atmosphere.

Instead of taking measures to deal with this new reality, the NSW government not only ignored the problem but seeks to make things even worse. The government is currently seeking comment on Scope 3 laws; laws that mean emissions from exported coal would not have to be factored in to Australia's carbon footprint.

It's time to let our government know that we demand action and real leadership on the climate crisis.

YES, pets do contribute to climate crisis Martin Dinneen (Letters, 16/12), but I suspect not nearly as much as humans. They also fill an important function: all the research I have seen indicates that people with a pet are more sociable, happier, healthier and more likely to live longer. Perhaps it is an indictment on humans that we have to turn to our feathered and furred friends for companionship and affection.

PETER Devey (Letters, 14/12) highlighted the bitterly cold conditions being experienced in the Northern Hemisphere. Certainly these have been a regular winter feature this century in Canada and northern USA, and one that climate scientists initially did not understand.

A scientific team studying the phenomenon established the increased warming in the Arctic, which has resulted in massive ice losses, has also affected the upper atmosphere Jetstream winds that normally blow across the Arctic region, slowing them down.

As well as slowing they now tend to wander southward of their previous paths, occasionally as far as Canada and northern US, taking their freezing Arctic upper atmosphere conditions with them.

NEWCASTLE has missed a chance to really capitalise on the motor racing and car development industry by its short sighted embrace of the Supercars event. In Victoria a new full time circuit is to be built near Pakenham and the new one at Tailem Bend in SA is up and running and doing good business. The land on the old BHP site could have been considered for such a venture given its access to the M1 and Pacific Highway and its easy access to the city.

Again we lag behind and lack both vision and ambition but allowed ourselves to be seduced by a very experienced operator with little interest in the city and region.

THE conservatives (apparently) are the only party that can be trusted with the economy and to bring down Labor's debt.

That's the Labor debt that Labor generated to spend this country from recession during the Global Financial Crisis. The same GFC that occurred due to many conservative governments (particularly in the US) taking their eye off the ball and allowing indiscriminate lending practices to run rampant.

Now, eight months on from the April budget, the economy has stalled, wages growth is stagnant, household spending is stagnant, retail spending is stagnant, and the budget will fall short of its target by $21 billion. Thank goodness we have the conservatives running the shop, imagine how bad things could have been? We could just go outside and smell the roses, but the air is so full of smoke we'd asphyxiate trying.

WHERE did the Newcastle council get that sand for Stockton beach, eBay?

THE violence against women campaign is largely against men, but the truth is some women are violent towards other women more often than thought, and violence against men, by women, is surprisingly high, especially against the frail and aged. So please when demonstrating, don't present that all men are to blame. Get the facts right, some men are violent, but most are not.

SO, Don Fraser (Short Takes, 14/12), you are concerned that Time magazine is lowering its standards by naming Greta Thunberg person of the year? Would you consider Adolph Hitler or Joseph Stalin a better class of person for they also received the title? Greta is a fine young woman and a great role model. We should be ashamed of our ignorance and lack of action regarding matters to do with the future of the planet.

HAS Don Fraser has been listening to the president of the Russian Federation? Vlad Putin describes Times person of the year Greta Thunberg as "a kind and sincere girl, but poorly informed". They say great minds think alike Don.

MAY I become the fourth member of your new society, John Beach? My trouble is apostrophes. For example, to quote a current TV advertisement Lite n' Easy, shouldn't there be an apostrophe before the n as well - Lite 'n' Easy? I also agree with Bill Snow (Short Takes, 10/12) and John McLennan (Short Takes, 13/12). By the way, John McLennan, did you ever live in Westy? If you did, I think we were school friends.

PETER Dolan: Bullying, like the Bible, is in the eye of the beholder. Neither are for me so I guess I'm going to the fictional warm place.

TO the gals in Saturday's Newcastle Herald, please explain when you became sole custodians of the beach ('Stockton's 'brown' beach', Herald, 14/12). If this is your beach I am thinking you should be negotiating with Port Stephens' former mayor for the return of your sand which has drifted to their area via natural causes. Maybe the tourists will come back if they don't get their feet dirty on clean Anna Bay sand.

THE Jets are the Dad's Army of the A-league. Who do they think they are kidding Mister? They just pretend they can play.

AUSTRALIANS perish on a volcanic island and NZ authorities reacted. Australians lose their homes and their lives in massive fires but Mr Morrison wouldn't even meet with senior fire chiefs. First Nations people knew how to manage fire hazards for thousands of years. Our government is in denial about the new normal and has no long term plan for climate change.