NSW brought their carriages from Spain for Sydney and Newcastle. The Victorian government proudly label their trams "Built in Melbourne for Melbourne" because they supported local manufacturing. Hunter manufacturing has a long and sound history of railway production and maintenance but has not been supported by our governments. Whatever people think of the light rail, we need rolling stock built by and for Australians where an industry already exists.

A WORD of advice for Stan Keifer (Letters, 24/2), or anyone else calling for taxpayer money to be thrown at electric cars made in Australia: try presenting your business case for such an enterprise and see how many venture capitalists rush to invest in it.

We have some of the world's highest labour and energy costs - the two major inputs for car manufacturing. Electric vehicles currently make up less than 1 per cent of all vehicles sold in Australia, and total car sales are declining consistently.

Taxpayers wasted enough money subsidising inflated wages for people who built cars that nobody wanted to buy. Allow industries to rise and fall on their own merits and let taxpayers keep their hard-earned to spend as they see fit.

MY wife and I are Blackalls Park residents and visit the Toronto Boulevarde almost daily to enjoy a cup of coffee at our favourite cafe. In mid 2019 I spoke to a representative of Lake Macquarie council regarding the newly added street furniture along The Boulevarde. I pointed out that on the top side of The Boulevarde they had placed timber benches with bar stools outside a lawyer's office, a bank and two retail shops. However, on the bottom side of the street there are five cafes and vacant spaces where street furniture such as this would be much more appropriate.

Outside one café there are five cement blocks for seating which I think are totally unsuitable. Only two of these blocks are used for seating; the other three blocks are a waste of space and this area would be much better utilised with benches and bar stools.

I acknowledge the millions the council has spent on the Warners Bay and Speers Point foreshores, and I appreciate that the Council have recently "beautified" The Boulevarde. However, its gardeners are rarely seen attending to the new plants and many are dying or have been vandalised.

On speaking to the council I was informed the budget meant such things could not be rectified in the foreseeable future. Once again, the west side of the Lake seems forgotten.

I AM sick and tired of all the talk about coal fired power stations. The greatest resource we have is wave and tide, and yet it is rarely discussed.

How effective is wave power? While solar energy might yield 150 watts per square metre on a sunny midday and wind power could produce 300 watts during a similar time period, wave energy has the potential to create 30,000 watts per square metre.

It has been estimated that improving technology and economies of scale will allow wave generators to produce electricity at a cost comparable to wind-driven turbines, which produce energy at about 4.5 cents per kilowatt hour. The most common environmental impacts of wave energy are coastal erosion, but onshore and near-shore schemes may have an effect on coastal erosion due to alteration of currents and waves. Tidal velocities, wave amplitude and water flow may be altered in proportion to the scale of the array. Let's talk about it.

JOHN Arnold (Letters, 25/2), what's your evidence that just three percent of climatologists believe in warming but still question how fast it's happening?

I agree that it is getting hotter, but it's been hot before for humans, and I don't believe that human activity is the sole explanation, or that we can really control the climate.

During the Medieval Warm Period the Vikings colonised Greenland and established farms there. Almost half of 20th century warming occurred in the first half of the century, before carbon-dioxide emissions became significant. The year 2016 was the hottest in the last decade partly because of a strong El Nino event.

Climatologist Judith Curry says in the unlikely event that all nations respect the 2016 Paris Climate Accord, the temperature reduction in 2100 would be an insignificant two-tenths of a degree, even assuming climate model predictions are correct. Some actually argue the benefits of some warming, for instance the fact that cold weather kills 20 times as many people as hot weather, according to a 2015 study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

I THINK Lennie Anderson ('Worimi seek order as deadline shifts', Herald 24/2) should have a careful look at the old maps of Stockton and Pirate Point. These maps show that the caravan park cabins are temporarily stored on reclaimed land on a line below the original low tide mark.

If the traditional owners reclaimed this land then they should have the right to control and maintain it. However, as the land was originally beyond the low tide mark, in my opinion their claim is vague as the land was probably reclaimed by council or others on the cessation of coal mining in the area.

I URGE everyone who has been involved in any capacity during the recent bushfires to make a submission to the NSW Bushfire Inquiry. Your stories, concerns and suggestions need to be heard.

It is a shame the task force will not be holding public hearings. I would have thought that to get a real sense of people's feelings you would hold public forums in their communities, and I urge the task force to hold public forums.

Submissions close on March 27 and can be delivered in person to any Service NSW centre. People really need to make a submission so that their views can be given the appropriate consideration.

IT appears the coronavirus is getting worse, especially in countries outside of China ('Coronavirus taking hold across the globe', Newcastle Herald 28/2). With the real possibility of Australian citizens having to spend two weeks in quarantine after returning from overseas, it's not such a bad idea to spend your holidays here in Australia. My wife and I have been visiting fire-ravaged Tenterfield recently and find it has a lot of festivities going on all year round. So, why not spend your money in the places that need it? I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised.

BRAVO, Michael Hinchey (Letters, 26/2). Your letter on relations with indigenous Australia is absolutely correct.

THE more we learn of the sports rorts ('Roller derby pain after sports rorts', Herald 27/2), the more obvious I believe it becomes that the LNP govern exclusively for the minority, with not even the slightest intention of helping those who don't vote conservatively.

I WAS interested in the lord mayor's comment in Thursday's article ('Mayor lashes office 'spin'', Herald 27/2) when she said "I won't be here forever, thank god." Maybe, just maybe she could occupy her new top floor office suite in May for just a few months?

I HAVE to ask why we are letting the School of Arts (with a stage and theatre Henry Lawson was known to frequent) go to ruin instead of developing this historic building into a public space to complement the Tree of Knowledge park environs. I believe the authorities are letting it crumble so they can justify demolition, as in my opinion they did with The Store building. I'm also wondering what our councillors' thoughts are.

DAVE McTaggart (Short Takes, 27/2), Bill Shorten went to the May 2019 election with a commitment to establish an integrity commission, or if you like, a federal ICAC. He had already had a royal commission investigate him and come out of it with nothing more than innuendo. It might be true that enough of the voters didn't trust him, but I believe that was due to hostile media and millions spent on advertising against him. The fact is, though, that he did commit to establishing an integrity commission and that a bill was introduced to Parliament from opposition but defeated by the government during the term leading up to the May 2019 election. I believe you are correct in writing that the current government will never support a federal ICAC.

I WONDER if the proposed religious discrimination laws address what is the most important part of religious rights and freedoms; namely that all religions should be free from government subsidies and have the right to pay tax. How religions interpret the entrails of their sacrificial animals is their own business, but it should not be at taxpayers' expense.