Newcastle Herald letters to the editor, Saturday June 20, 2020: Bin the spin and make what we waste clear

The subject was bought sharply into focus after watching Australia's Ocean Odyssey on the ABC earlier this week where I was horrified to witness the effect of plastic ingestion on sea birdlife on Lord Howe Island.

These birds aren't blessed with the intelligence of us humans, and as a consequence thousands die as their stomachs become overwhelmed by pieces of plastic up to 40mm in diameter that the parents feed them. I witnessed a dead bird cut open to reveal a large handful of plastic pieces.

Taxes on garbage landfill have resulted in councils propagating this myth of recycling to reduce landfill and costs. It's about time we humans used our intelligence to force councils and governments to find a better way. No plastic in yellow bins.

SEEING the big picture and how everything is related is essential if we are going to survive on this planet as a species. For example, Graeme Kime (Letters, 19/6) appears to be focussing on domestic violence and alcohol abuse in Indigenous communities as if they were exclusive to those communities.

Domestic violence and alcohol abuse have no race. social or class barriers but are more often found in areas of socioeconomic disadvantage. The fact that many Indigenous people live in such conditions is because of the past 232 years of European occupation. That is, Mr Kime, our mob forced them into such conditions through a whole range of racist and paternalistic political and social actions. We created the problem, Mr Kime, not them. They just have to live it.

If we want action in these areas, well the Uluru Statement from the Heart would give Indigenous Australians a say in law and policy affecting them. In typical paternalistic fashion, though, it has been rejected by our conservative government. If you look at the big picture, you'll see that the Black Lives Matter protests are not simply about deaths in custody.

AS a resident (and ratepayer) of Newcastle, I am obliged by council to pay additionally for my parking ($80) as well as for visitors ($130). Permits expired on December 31 last year and I was informed by City of Newcastle they were moving to digital permits and we were to use 2019 permit until new system was up and running.

After several attempted phone calls (without the promised call-backs) I was advised that digital permits were to come into effect from June 2-24, when the old ones would expire.

This now means I am required to go online each time I have a visitor to record their registration number. Apparently there is an app on its way.

As I do not have an iPhone and only a small iPad with limited data and knowledge, I asked for an alternative and was informed that council staff could assist if I phoned between 8.30am and 5pm Monday to Friday. It appears visitors would have to use meters after hours and at weekends. Thinking a visit to council might help, I was advised while outside the office that they are still closed although some libraries are now open.

Surely there is an alternative solution for elderly residents and the non-digital.

ONCE again our esteemed representative is out of hibernation; this time pushing the idea of a container handling facility at our port ('Port revamp a plum post-pandemic project', Opinion 18/6).

Although this in itself may sound like a good idea, I believe if this were to go ahead it would be a massive opportunity lost. Think on it for a while: whilst in construction, it would employ many people of various trades and professions for two or three years. Then what, a facility such as this would employ a few hundred with a trickle down of maybe a thousand. Would it not be much better to try to encourage large-scale manufacturing on this magnificent industrial site? Possibly electronics, white goods, electric powered motor vehicles. The list is endless.

Offer long-term, low-cost leasing for the site, tax breaks and subsidised power to help recover costs. Ease the way by cutting some red and green tape and whatever other colour gets in the way. With some clever thinking I believe it is possible.

When many around our country are suggesting we should be more sufficient in manufacture, I find it odd that an elected representative is promoting an idea that would further hinder manufacturing resurgence. Whilst our city and our state would gain some benefit if the facility were to go ahead, I believe there is far more benefit in other thinking. Standing on the riverside in Hamburg one sees huge container ships coming and going, however they are not exporting empty containers. We are.

ONCE again Carl Stevenson (Letters,13/6), I refer you to the websites of the CSIRO and the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) if you want facts rather than propaganda.

The CSIRO, Australia's principal scientific organisation, and AEMO, responsible for the reliable operation of our entire national energy grid now and into the future, have developed plans for the grid's future up to 2050.

They see no technological reason why that grid cannot be 94 per cent renewable energy, firmed mainly by batteries and traditional and pumped hydro by 2040, and are confident it will provide the cheapest, most reliable power.

That leaves little room for gas or coal, and definitely no nuclear which is estimated to take 10 years to build, require three times the price of renewables, and is proving incompatible overseas with a grid dominated by renewables.

While we should not ignore the dangers of nuclear energy, economics is its principal disadvantage. Our national energy grid is one of the most extensive grids in the world, ensuring the wind is almost always blowing somewhere, and Australia has sufficient renewable resource potential to supply our predicted needs many times over.

MICHAEL Hinchey (Letters, 19/6), I don't find it offensive and outlandish when a politician says that humans don't have the right to determine "what human life is more important than another" ('Protest post creates storm', Herald 18/6). I might find it offensive and outlandish if a politician did claim such a right.

THERE is so much loss in Margaret Badger's words, ("Jeff, you've just stirred up a hornet's nest", Opinion 18/6). They show how far Newcastle fell short of Joy Cummings' great vision for a remarkable destination. Growing up only a stone throw's from Sydney Harbour, I know only too well the loss when natural amenity is locked up and excludes community. Unlike Alice Springs, Newcastle did not need gimmicks. It was so marketable in itself. The removal of direct trains to the coast, based on Sydney's wealth, shows just how bad the loss is. The modern rail line, on single stanchion viaduct, to Sydney's airport, just about invisible, shows such vital infrastructure does not get in the way.

KERAN Davis and Cate Turner (Letters, 18/6) say that Mr Corbett's opinion column ('Supercars backlash unfair', Opinion 13/6) serves "only to further divide and separate a community from the truth". I fear blind faith in people like Christine Everingham (Letters, 16/6), who has had a number of opinion pieces published along with countless letters, would equally only serve only to further divide and separate a community. Just because she writes on behalf of the Newcastle East Residents Group does not make her contributions right or the voice of Newcastle.

THE container terminal mess in Newcastle is one of government failure, where government intervention to favour a market deal for the taxpayer ends up as a loss-maker while real efficiencies are lost on the wider scale. In Sydney's southwest rest two freight intermodal developments to service the freight container movement using Port Botany. One is a private investment initiated by Mr Chris Corrigan; it is partially operational. The other is what could be labelled as a counter-initiative promoted by NSW and federal Labor governments since 2005. It served well to block Mr Corrigan's interests for four years, but it stands today as a vacant and undeveloped 220 hectares that cost taxpayers over $1.5 billion to deliver, with further demand of $1 billion of public road and rail works. Government failure indeed.

NOW we apparently can't even have a laugh (although Anthony Albanese's popularity gives me a chuckle) because of double standards from the political correctness pirates again. Yet comedians like Eddie Murphy has made a career out of mockery, especially of white men, and it's funny stuff. They regularly taunt white males for the way they walk. I'm not offended, even though I do walk funny.

I FOUND it hard to understand why people would attend mass protest rallies in spite of warnings about the spread of coronavirus ('Stay home from rallies, police urge', Newcastle Herald 12/6). Browsing through a recent copy of The Herald, I noticed a quote from Proverbs 12:15. "The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice". That sort of cleared it up for me.