Darwin is in the middle of the wet season. Everything is growing and green, much like Newcastle at this time.. But in Darwin everything is maintained to look tidy especially on the main transport corridors.

Before we left home a few weeks ago Newcastle and Lake Macquarie public spaces looked like a sad welcome to an unwanted pair of cities. We want visitors, we want tourists, but we also need a welcoming road in. Nothing says go away than a welcome road that is overgrown and neglected.

We have pride in our wonderful cities of Newcastle and Lake Macquarie so dear Councils please mow the verges and the medium strips, tidy up the torn and ugly fake grass and make the road tidy and welcoming to our cities visitors and tourists. Darwin does it very regularly. Why can't we?

OPINIONS 2/2 had three letters and two short takes on voluntary assisted dying.

For those against such a move on the basis of belief, note the first word - voluntary - nobody would be forced to do anything that does not comply with personal wishes or beliefs. It would be just like drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, eating meat, same-sex marriage - legal but not compulsory. It is unjust to have the beliefs of the minority infringe on the choices of the majority.

I note with interest some assertions that the number of people who have opted for VAD, in other places where it is legal, has been higher than predicted. It could be that many families and individuals that have opted in would previously have been treated for "pain" in their last days - such treatment is not necessary where VAD is permitted. In 2017 my father passed away at age 94. He had instructions in place for the cessation of life-prolonging treatment, documented and presented to the medical staff at the hospital where he was a patient. He had all his mental faculties, but his body had failed him, and it was quite obvious he would never return home or have any mobility or quality of life at all, which for a person with full mental awareness would have been tragic and distressing, and in my view, and his, immoral. Yet, because of the laws in place, he had to beg with the doctors and forcefully have his wishes and instructions adhered to, which they ultimately did do with compassion and care.

MORE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:

If anyone believes that unnecessary suffering and anguish, forcing loved ones into prolonged agony and misery for their remaining days, is "God's will", well, that's OK and is for that person's conscience to deal with, and I wouldn't dream of taking that choice away. However, it is very selfish to promote that view and force the whole of the community to abide by a doctrine that is not upheld by the majority. It is also undemocratic for a parliament to allow the personal beliefs of the MPs to override the wishes of the electorate they serve.

It wasn't long ago that we had the plebiscite re: same-sex marriage, and people were criticising and suggesting it was a waste of money, etc. Personally, I thought it was essential, because it showed beyond doubt the feeling of the people, which was overwhelming in favour of the proposal. The parliament had to take note and honour the wishes of the electorate. Maybe a plebiscite re: VAD would show the real wishes of the NSW people and put it beyond doubt.

I REFER to the letter on the critical topic of water sustainability published on 1/2.

The writer proposed no new water storage or expansion to existing storage but instead an exclusive focus on recycling, stormwater harvesting, and reducing demand and desal.

All of those proposals are meritorious. But we need to stop demonising increased storage capability. We live on the driest continent on earth and in sustained periods of drought which we regularly experience we need stored capability to support our needs. There can be no rainwater harvesting or recycling if there is no supply.

Storages are not environmentally damaging. Go visit Lake Eyre in flood - the wildlife sustained there is truly amazing and if we chose to look beyond the changes to a landscape that construction of a storage facility creates we will see abundant new and diverse life - fish, birds, diverse marine life, more flora and fauna that need supply to sustain them and these storages can also support important recreation needs especially in remote dry rural communities.

I am a supporter of more sustainability and better management of what we have but not to the exclusion of sensible expanded storage capability. It's not either or - the solution is the whole.

CARL Stevenson seems to have a rosy view of coal-fired power stations. In Queensland, there were 93 unplanned outages in just one year.

Their most modern plant, the high efficiency low emission at Kogan Creek was the worst performer with 19 unplanned outages. Victoria's ageing fleet of brown coal power stations continues to rank as Australia's least reliable power stations, with the Energy Australia's 1480MW Yallourn power station reporting 37 outages over the last two years. This was followed by AGL Energy's Loy Yang A power station, which suffered an additional 30 outages and was out of service for most of 2019. In NSW the Liddell power station, scheduled to close within the next few years, ranked as NSW's least reliable thermal generator, with 16 unplanned outages over the last two years, followed by the Eraring power station, scheduled to close by 2032, which suffered a further 11 outages.

MY son says we live in a corrupt democracy. The way the Australian media cycle is manipulated to Trump style frenzy over selective material makes me agree. The mob occupation of the White House reminded me of the axe the tax convoy, Tony Abbot standing in front of a "witch" banner in reference to our democratically elected prime minister Julia Gillard. More recently the AFP, raiding unions, the ABC and providing opaque findings to Coalition ministers wrongdoing preventing proper scrutiny.

The media cycle is again persecuting another democratically elected leader, Annastacia Palaszczuk, whilst carefully protecting the Coalition from any real accountability for their shortcomings and length of time in office. The headlines being published paint the premier of Queensland in a negative light whilst omitting any of her Liberal-sided contemporaries' mistakes.

I have been frustrated with Coalition climate change actions all the way back to John Howard's refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol and am likewise frustrated that the Coalition have been in for 19 of the last 25 years. Almost two decades of future-proofing our society against known challenges lost. What bothers me more is the media's apparent refusal to hold the Coalition's actions to account, and instead focus on the negatives of the opposition, even though they have not been in power for roughly 80 per cent of the past 25 years. I do believe we live in a corrupt democracy.

THE responsible lending law was passed in Federal Parliament after it was a key recommendation after the Banking Royal Commission. Now the Coalition Government wishes to scrap the law. Why you may ask, the answer is simple, to let banks lend money to people who they know cannot pay it back, the reason is to keep people up to their eyeballs in debt which makes it easier to scare people with a false campaign during the run up to an election. A Coalition strategy that has worked well in the past.

I READ with interest and amazement the article "Uni grant for health pilot program", (Herald, 1/2), which is expected to be delivered by classroom teachers, who are already stretched to their limits with an overcrowded curriculum. Have your children put away their smartphones, have them walk to school, if possible and send them outside to the nearest park or backyard to run around, making up their own fun and games in the open air. This should help develop their muscular fitness as it did to kids 30 years ago.

IF solar power and wind power are so viable, why does the government have to put a tax on it, in other words subsidising it? You Greens, have a look at how much diesel fuel is used to make these wind turbines. To make solar panels and wind turbines puts a bigger carbon footprint on the earth than it does to use coal-fired power stations. All you Greens, go and look this up; you may get a huge surprise.

SO it's time for mistakenly overpaid welfare recipients to start repaying their debt. When will Morrison and Roberts start repaying the $1.2 billion of taxpayers' money for their illegal Robodebt debacle?

CAN someone please tell Gladys and co most taxpayers would prefer Australian built even if it costs more? Everything this government does seems to be from overseas.

IT'S a shame that we have to import fruit pickers from overseas countries that don't have the economic reliability that mining provides. The people who come from these countries I'm sure are hardworking people with self-respect, who look after their family first as they don't get a free ride in their homelands. The opportunity to better themselves and provide for their family is a blessing.

I SEE the grim reaper is at it again with his doom and gloom forecast into climate change with all his mumbo jumbo scientific facts, he informs us the paper should not waste oxygen on climate deniers as they disregard scientific facts. The deniers are entitled to their opinion, just as he is.