I LOOK forward to the appointment of experienced utilities, energy, resources and financial services chief executive and company director, Greg Martin as the independent chair of Hunter Water. Perhaps he will lure Hunter Water away from their lust for dams and into more sustainable solutions to secure the Lower Hunter's water supply. Dams are dinosaur technology and go against innovative practices happening elsewhere in Australia and overseas.
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A unique 2014 report on the trends and insights of water sector professionals about their own industry indicated the three most important things that could be done to meet water supply requirements are: (1) using innovative sources such as recycling and storm-water harvesting (2) lowering the demand for water through education and (3) raising the price of water to reflect its scarcity.
Water conservation, demand management, recycling/reuse, and stormwater harvesting need to be principal strategies for water security - not new dams or dam extensions, which are unnecessary, expensive to ratepayers (the World Commission on Dams found that dam overruns are generally around 50 per cent) and environmentally destructive.
Linda Bowden, Munni
Make support conditional
IT has been an interesting year and included are substantial government assistance packages to provide companies help to survive the pandemic. However not all assistance has been consistent. Further, it is clear that while financial assistance is requested and provided, the government does not appear to impose any conditions on the recipients.
Firstly, REX airlines was provided with $81 million in assistance packages. This included the COVID-19 Regional Airlines Funding assistance support, Australian Airline Financial Relief Package and JobKeeper. Prior to 2019 the company was incurring massive losses but after assistance it now shows a reported profit. The assistance is provided even though the company is majority owned by foreign shareholders. Didn't Virgin request financial assistance but were denied because they were foreign owned? The answer of course is that the assistance was necessary to maintain regional aviation services. Good cause. However REX then announced it would compete on the Melbourne-Sydney-Brisbane triangle. So is the assistance to maintain regional services or to assist expansion for a substantially foreign-owned company?
It had been reported that REX intended to employ foreign pilots to fly the Melbourne-Sydney-Brisbane routes. This has been denied by the company. However the company has received substantial JobKeeper payments. Shouldn't the receipt of JobKeeper payments make the company employ Australians where possible?
Qantas has also received JobKeeper support, but has still offshored 2000 jobs, carried out massive redundancies and contracted services rather than to continue employing its own people. Sure, JobKeeper stops when companies no longer pay their employees but we want a future as well.
These companies - and I am sure many more - have received substantial government assistance but with no conditions attached. A prudent provider of assistance would have given the support subject to at least some conditions being met for which the assistance is provided. That is, to employ as many Australians as possible in these very difficult times.
Scott Lucas, Hamilton
Climate change
I WOULD respond to the continued commentary made by climate change deniers who are given oxygen by the Herald to spruik their non-scientific views. Recent studies have found that Earth lost 28 trillion tonnes of ice between 1994 and 2017. The data for this dramatic loss of ice was provided by scientists from Edinburgh University, Leeds University and University College, London.
NASA Glaciologist Mike Wood states, inter alia, that Greenland's huge loss of ice is occurring because of warming seas eating away at the bottom of that country's glaciers.
Twila Moon, a research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Boulder, Colorado, states: "We humans are the ones with our hands on the climate control knob". But what would they know, eh chaps?
Mike Sargent, Cootamundra
Building for renewables
TOO many people become confused between the difference in producing renewable energy and building renewable energy when talking comparison to power stations.
It's an accepted fact that solar farms produce one MW per acre of land and wind farms produce between two and 10 MW per turbine, both work on average six hours a day.
Eraring Power Station produces 3000 MW all day. To equal this output, solar would require 3000 acres or wind 500 turbines at six MW. Considering this all happening in six hours, the other 18 hours would require three times as much being an additional 9000 acres or an additional 1500 turbines.
Now comes the tricky bit: placing 9000 MW in batteries during six hours (if ever possible) to last 18 hours. As far as cost, it's accepted that one MW of renewable energy costs $2 million in construction; 3000 MW $6 billion; and this is just one power station. There are at least another dozen or more.
Please note, this is the cost of construction not to be confused with the cost of supply. What also must be taken into consideration is that power stations will last twice as long as renewable products.
Carl Stevenson, Dora Creek
Apathy is dangerous
BY chance, on the same day I had watched the program 'Auschwitz: untold' which revealed the horrors of Hitler's final solution strategy, I read about the activities in Victoria's Grampians region of The Antipodean Resistance.
Both 'Auschwitz; untold' and the recent nonsense in the Grampians should remind us of the dangers national apathy creates. Apparently, Victoria police decided members of the Antipodean Resistance found prancing around a campfire dressed in Nazi uniforms and chanting anti-Semitic hate speak were not breaking any law. Seriously? Section 18c of the Racial Discrimination ACT 1975 as amended clearly indicates they were. While it is unlikely the antics of a few in the Grampians will lead to a replication of Hitler's final solution, it does demonstrate a need for the law to be applied.
Right wing extremism has been part of the Australian scene since the 1930s without any obvious concern to our governments. What began with the 'New Guard' has morphed into various forms the 'Australian National Socialist', 'Australia First', 'United Patriots Front' and now the 'Antipodean Resistance'. Besides the commonality of their extremist ideals none of them apparently have broken the law!
Barry Swan, Balgownie
SHORT TAKES
I HAVE been wondering if the Premier of Sydney knows anything about Newcastle. She says we are not a regional area, so we miss out on the travel card that was given to residents of Lake Macquarie. Then they say that the COVID-19 vaccine will be rolled out to major Sydney hospitals and also regional hospitals including the John Hunter. I must have missed the changeover. I was also wondering if anyone in the Newcastle area has yet received the "promised" restaurant card that is supposed to help out the cafe scene. I thought it was to be rolled out in January. Well, January is gone. I don't have a card yet. Perhaps the elected leaders in this town could take these issues up with the Sydney Premier.
Greg Lowe, New Lambton
SHIRLEY McHugh (Short Takes, 29/1), Margaret Court has not played tennis for decades, her only claim to fame recently is her vitriolic words about issues that she has absolutely no understanding about. Her role as a preacher is a joke. She preaches hate and vitriol, then claims to only quote the bible. Why doesn't she quote sex slaves, the owning of woman, stoning people to death. She may have been a good tennis player decades ago, but that does not justify her receiving Australia's highest civilian medal. As far as Kerry O'Brien handing his medal back, well done. Kerry has done so much more for Australia than a washed-up sportsperson.
Ryan Adamson, Hamilton South
I GUESS, Pat Garnet (Letters, 29/1) you must be mowing your lawns every other day at the moment. The council just can't keep up. That is my point. Not easy to get people these days to do menial tasks like fruit picking. The parks and gardens staff do a fantastic job of keeping the immense green space in Stockton maintained. People don't understand. It's like painting the Harbour Bridge; once you finish, you start all over again. Criticism is just another word for whinging.
Tony Morley, Waratah
ONCE again we have had the debates regarding Australia Day. I agree that it is a big ask to expect Indigenous Australians to celebrate a date that commemorates a foreign nation claiming ownership of their ancestors' lands. So let's change the date ... to say May 13. No ... hang on that's the date the First Fleet left England. What about June 4. No, that's King George III's birthday. October 11? Arthur Phillip's birthday! We could play that game all day! So what if we don't have a date? What if we celebrate Australia Day without a date? Just like Good Friday. So let's make Australia Day the last Monday in January, regardless of the date. Let us celebrate a day not a date. A guaranteed long weekend! What Aussie won't love that?
Shayne Curtis, Lambton
THE New Zealand Prime Minister has gone against the Anzus treaty and abandoned the democratic ideals set by the five nations to protect these ideals. It's obvious that she has her own agenda towards how to handle the heavy-handed tactics of China, but I don't believe that ignoring all the allies around the Pacific is a smart move.