I have a question which is driving me crazy: "What do the coal workers/unions who are supporting Joel's stance really believe?"

Do they believe Joel can reinvigorate the coal industry or stop coal companies closing mines? Sorry he can't. The thermal coal industry is in terminal decline and coal companies will close mines when it suits their financial situation. It is already happening.

Do they believe he can wish away climate change by downplaying it? Sorry, I wish he could do that. As a grandfather I would back him 100 per cent but he can't.

Do they believe that climate change is not happening and it is all a plot? I believe the majority of people in Australia are smarter than that.

So please tell me what do the unions and people who support Joel's stance really believe he is offering?

THE NSW Premier must be forced to answer all the questions related to the sorry situation that she has allowed herself to be embroiled in by having a close and personal relationship with former MP who has been involved in many questionable matters.

The very fact that she stated that she did not need to know things he was telling her meant she had to report him to the authorities as she was suspicious that he was involved in inappropriate things.

To fail to report a suspicious act is to attempt to cover up a suspicious act and if the act is established as illegal then the cover up equates to covering up an illegal act.

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While many of her colleagues may rally around her a millstone is forming around the political future of both her and her supporters.

It is wisest for them to climb out of the mire that is being created and find the moral high ground and encourage her to face the music for her actions and lack of actions.

Each political party is bigger than any political leader and when the leader stumbles the recovery of any political party is how smoothly that transition to a new leader if the stumble is significant enough to require a replacement. I contend that this stumble is very significant and worthy of consideration of a leader replacement at this stage.

CARL Stevenson (Letters, 9/11) curiously tries to equate renewable energy to the public service.

Investors are funding the building of new renewable plants by private companies because they are profitable at electricity prices coal and gas plants can't match, are simple and inherently reliable processes, and their fuel is free and infinite.

Consequently lack of profit will continue to reduce coal and gas plant generation, and lead ultimately to closures of these forms of generation.

The Australian Energy Market Operator, manager of Australia's extensive main electricity grid, has developed plans for the grid's future that include up to 94 per cent renewable generation by 2040.

Doesn't leave much for gas or coal.

It is simply market forces at work, lowering power prices and remaining profitable.

Not a public servant in sight.

I CAN only hope that those educated people who work at the council have been watching the news and reading the papers.

Do they not see the destructive pictures shown where houses, cars and people are in terrible danger due to the urban planting program, where trees are coming down in storms?

I protested to the council stating that I did not want trees planted on my footpath area.

They went to great lengths to say that they look after the trees for the first six years from planting.

When I asked them about ongoing insurance due to their negligence they shut down saying they only plant selective trees.

Apparently they plant trees that don't come down.

I like trees and as a ratepayer I should be able to tell the council that I don't want the trees near my property.

This fell on deaf ears and they planted anyway. Go figure.

REPORTS in Saturday's Newcastle Herald highlight the drug pandemic in our society.

One report tells of the road rage of a woman who seeks revenge against a thieving drug addict. Another tells of a drug trafficker who is seeking a reduction in his sentence. Both reports highlight the drug epidemic in our society.

Whilst we have all worked together to prevent the spread of COVID-19, we seem to be incapable of coping with the much more insidious and deadly epidemic of drugs.

Part of the problem is that we do not cope properly with either addicts (victims) or traffickers (super-spreaders).

We are loath to confront or report either, since they could be our friends or relatives, or we might get hurt.

Meanwhile, the true victims of our drug epidemic are the front-line workers, such as ambos, nurses and police, who are assaulted and threatened every day.

In the long term many of these workers give up with PTSD.

Obviously, these workers need better training and equipment, especially to cope with out-of-control ice addicts.

But such an allocation of resources is wasted unless the rest of us decide that the drug epidemic has to cease.

We have done it with the COVID-19. We can do it with drugs.

I'VE learnt through the Newcastle Herald that any business not extracting the contents of their patrons' phones via a QR code, (generously donated by the government) will be facing heavy fines.

George Orwell warned us about this in his book '1984'

Originally we thought George had a great imagination, but we never believed it could get this bad.

The conspirator theorists, facial recognition, Godwin's Law and Save Our Rail were all ahead of their time.

To pretend that the government will prosecute criminals for extracting more than they are permitted to is fantasy.

If that is true, why don't they make a law to stop thieves hacking computers and demanding ransom to return them to service?

Why don't they pass a law making it illegal to copy passwords at an ATM so thieves can empty one's bank account?

Perhaps we could make a law to stop impostors from emptying lonely old ladies' bank accounts?

There hasn't been any COVID-19 reported within the region I live in and the entire state risk is reportedly 'under control'.

So why are we now required to provide our intimate information to the government?

Name, phone number and rank will do me.

QUEENSLAND has the highest number of bankruptcies (even before COVID-19) of any state in Australia. It has the highest unemployment (around 8 per cent) and highest youth unemployment (up to 20 per cent in some areas). The state itself owes near $100 million dollars and may be close to bankruptcy itself. People still vote for the premier. Myself and many others will stay in NSW for our holidays. I note a number of Queensland number plated trade cars in Newcastle. They may be trying to get out already.

2020 has shown all the city people what country living is like. Out here, retail is mostly at supermarkets and a hardware store. Public transport isn't easily available. You can't go see family unless they live close by. The only work opportunities are fruit picking or other farm seasonal work. Health services are only available by teleconferencing. Seriously, I don't know what all city people have been complaining about. In the country, 2020 has been business as usual.

ONE of your correspondents the other day mentioned "American voters having to hold their nose" to vote for Trump and I realised that that must have been what it was like for some of the electors in the Sydney seat of Wahroonga before the advent of Zali Stegall.

JULIE Robinson (Letters, 14/11), Jesus did not run for President, just two white, successful males. And what is virtuous about being Middle Eastern, Jewish and poor anyhow? Abraham Lincoln said "That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise". For Ms Robinson, Jesus is a socialist, but in the Parable of the Talents (Mt. 25:14-30), the master takes the money from the lowest paid man and gives it to the man with the most money, because the man with the least made poor use of his gift. Jesus advocated voluntary charity and service, not forced redistribution.

PETER Dolan (Short Takes, 14/11), it is quite reasonable that anyone would jump to conclusions on the character of large groups of "supporters" marching in formation with guns at the ready, or a householder threatening protesters with his semi-automatic weapon to stop them walking on his grass. The conclusion I jump to is that when (if?) the US situation subsides, those supporters will jump in their pick-ups with their guns and go home to resume playing their banjos.

IN the words of the great Ted Bullpit, "somebody should blow The Block up". If that show isn't the most contrived piece of bull dust I'll give up! I pity the poor fools that watch that drivel. I can barely watch the ads for it.