I WAS shocked, appalled, angered to read about the proposed development of the Showground/Broadmeadow site ('Time is right for the next big thing', Newcastle Herald 20/6). I am sure I was not alone, it is wrong in so many ways.
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I believe it is a complete over-development of a community site. Once this is sold off and developed, there is no going back. Is the showground to go the way of the Corlette Street cricket pitch? Who are the other parties to the confidentiality agreement with the government? The mayor may support the idea, but do the current users of the site agree? Aren't all residents of the Newcastle local government area a stakeholder? Where are the 11 catalyst areas and what is proposed? There are so many unanswered questions.
All the comments in the article allude to the money-making potential of the development, but why do we want to put millions of dollars into the pockets of developers? Progress should not be measured in terms of the tonnes of concrete that can be poured onto a site.
Stephen Blacktop, Cooks Hill
Oh, the humanity of fee hike
THE Australian government's decision to double the fees for humanities degrees whilst subsidising "useful" degrees such as STEM ('Concerns over uni funding shake-up', Herald 20/6) is a disgrace.
The government has no right to decide what degrees they think it is useful for citizens to have. Just because a degree doesn't make the nation's economy grow doesn't mean it is not useful.
Making the humanities now the most expensive degree to study simply helps to create a mindless society only focused on making money. We deserve accessible and affordable opportunities to challenge the society we live in, and to learn truth rather than government propaganda.
It's a stretch, but one of the very first things that Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany did in the early 1900s was discouraging and banning the humanities. They wanted uneducated societies that didn't question the government, and I believe Scott Morrison is sending the same message.
I find it insulting that the prime minister of my country thinks he has the right to tell me what I should be learning about rather than encouraging the intellectual freedom to challenge the status quo. The humanities are the core of a democratic society.
The economy is a tool we can use to create a better society, not the purpose of society itself. As Einstein said, "It is not enough to teach a man a specialty. Through it he may become a kind of useful machine but not a harmoniously developed personality."
Adam Mitchell, University of Newcastle humanities scholar and student
Trading places no solution
I READ with shock the letter from Raymond Stewart (Letters, 20/6). He is obviously against a container terminal, but wants a focus on manufacturing. What Mr Stewart fails to address in his letter is why we do not have a vibrant manufacturing industry. It's not hard, is it? Look no further than the free trade agreements that we sign at will at the expense of jobs and manufacturing in this country.
Coming from a wool processing industry that no longer exists in any real significance anymore, I can assure Mr Stewart that free trade agreements have a major influence on our now near non-existent manufacturing. Yes, in Germany they still export and Australia does not. Both countries are high-wage countries, but one manufactures quality goods and one imports questionable quality goods.
We need to address manufacturing in a proper way. We killed off the wool processing and car industries and many rural industries, including fruit growing, that affected a secure, skilled workforce all for that mighty word capitalism.
As for the container terminal, if Mr Stewart gets his increased manufacturing up and going, why send the containers to Sydney or Wollongong to prop up their economies? Why not Newcastle and the Hunter? The container terminal itself will encourage manufacturing as businesses would have access to a local port.
But whatever happens post-pandemic, we need to address our lack of manufacturing, the real effect that free trade agreements are having on our economy and industry in general.
Just to mention all the subsidies that were mentioned in this letter, who pays for all these subsidies? While I agree we should assist in getting manufacturing up and running, the discounts have to be paid for somewhere.
That somewhere will be the hip pocket of the general public, the taxpayer, at increased costs.
Glenn Jones, Weston
Pell shouldn't profit on diary
GEORGE Pell is seeking donations to fund the publication of his 1000-page prison diary ('George Pell to publish his prison diary', Herald 21/6).
If he succeeds in publishing, I believe this will be a further slap in the face for the Church's child victims of sexual abuse.
I understand that the Catholic Church paid Pell's legal fees. Any profits Pell gains from his publication will presumably go, in the first instance, to himself and not to the Church.
The 2002 Commonwealth Proceeds of Crimes Act makes it illegal for someone to profit from publications in relation to their crime.
A court may confiscate Pell's profits if it is satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that he has committed an offence.
This is a lower standard than reasonable doubt under which Pell won his appeal case. In that appeal of his initial conviction, the High Court didn't expressly declare Pell to be innocent.
Therefore, in my opinion we should expect Pell's victims to mount court challenges which seek to confiscate any profits Pell makes.
Geoff Black, Caves Beach
MP's representations off base
WELL, Peter Dolan (Short Takes, 20/6), if you'd find it offensive if politicians claimed we had the right to determine what human life is more important than another, you no doubt spend a lot of time in an offended state over what this country has done to Aboriginal people over the last 230 years.
But let's leave the semantics aside and stick to the real issue. Bereft of any rational basis to do so, a member of our state parliament, Michael Johnsen, resorts to the utterly irrelevant, emotive and for many people highly personal issue of abortion to try to smear the motives of Black Lives Matter protestors. That's offensive.
In doing so he claimed that the aim of those protesters is to make black lives matter more than others, which is outlandish. And, for good measure, let's throw in patently absurd as well.
It's really quite straightforward.
Michael Hinchey, New Lambton
SHARE YOUR OPINION
Email letters@newcastleherald.com.au or send a text message to 0427 154 176 (include name, suburb). Letters should be fewer than 200 words and Short Takes fewer than 50 words. Correspondence may be edited and reproduced in any form.
SHORT TAKES
IT is so good to see our town history on a beautiful mural such as one at Lynch's Hub. Well done artist Daniel Joyce and Blake Forrester for commissioning it. How wonderful would it be if our silos on the harbour had murals painted on them depicting our history. Newcastle has such a story to tell. The completed silos could then be on the Silo Art Trail which would bring in tourists and help the local economy. Come on Grain Corp, Port of Newcastle and whoever else has authority on this, make our silos beautiful.
Kris Eyre, Cardiff
DONALD Trump's logic that if you do less testing then you'll have less cases or coronavirus ('Trump goes ahead with comeback rally', Newcastle Herald 22/6) is bizarre, but the really scary part of that is, a lot of people believe him.
Fred McInerney, Karuah
MORE funding for police please, not less. We need to combat the rise of domestic socialist terrorists and their violent bullying and extremism which I believe intends to destroy freedom and democracy.
Paul Brossmann, Warners Bay
TAKE example from the Swakopmund beach in Namibia: only a sea wall 90 degrees to the shore will stop erosion ('Stockton plan on council's agenda', Herald 20/6).
Ditar Eish, Merewether
IN response to Peter Marsh's recent article (Letters, 19/8), regarding "the camera didn't miss" comment. Could the game you remember many years ago in fact be the 1988 Manly v Broncos Round 1 game played at Lang Park? An incident similar to one you mention made headlines at the time, however the player caught on camera was not Bill Hamilton, although like Bill the player did play for both North Sydney and Manly clubs during his career.
Doug Thornton, Adamstown Heights
DOUBLING university fees for students studying humanities ('Concerns over uni funding shake-up', Herald 20/6) is sadly true to the DNA in Prime Minister Morrison's government. Who needs arts and culture anyway? Let's encumber those who study these disciplines with lifelong debt. As author Ray Bradbury observed, you don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
Martin Frohlich, Adamstown Heights
I WAS sorry to read that Steve Barnett walks funny. Maybe a repositioning of his head would help.
Bob Salter, Stockton
IN his letter about Black Lives Matter, Graeme Kime (Letters, 19/6) has argued that the attention should be on correcting the problems of domestic violence and drug abuse. These are indeed very important issues, but are ones caused by the terrible economic conditions of Indigenous people who suffer the highest level of unemployment and exploitation. Mr Kime might note that any group caught in similar conditions, and that's almost one in seven Australians living below the official poverty line, are more likely to self harm than those fortunate enough to have a secure income.