I WAS amazed to hear our mayor announcing this WSL event ('Our big break', Newcastle Herald 8/2) and would love to hear more about this. This will involve a large number of people travelling here from overseas (once again, tough toenails for so many "ordinary" Australians still struggling to get home) with the risk of importing COVID-19, including its more recent dangerous strains. Yes, of course there's going to be isolation of these people after arrival but how ironclad is this? Witness today's news of a case appearing in Wollongong two days after release from 14-day quarantine.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
What sort of community consultation, or complete lack thereof, has there been prior to announcing this "coup" for Newcastle? Surely an event such as this in the present COVID environment would lead a fair-minded organisation to ask the community in general what they think of this before rushing headlong into approving it. If the people of Lennox Head could have some say in this, why aren't the community of Newcastle allowed consultation?
Even though Australia's handling of COVID has to date gone wonderfully well, many of us, even locally in Newcastle, have suffered financial hardship. Many of us have experienced separation from interstate relatives and the heartbreaking isolation from family in nursing homes. We're now finally seeing brighter days ahead of us but we're still not quite there yet. Why jeopardise all this hard work right now when we're so close?
Mark Ryan, Newcastle East
More than profit at play for cops
MANY, including some local politicians and administrators, may take for granted the courage and conviction of our front-line emergency workers whose duties require rapid and regular attendance at deadly but preventable alcohol-fuelled incidents.
Kudos to Newcastle City Police District Commander Wayne Humphrey ('Lockout 'lunacy'', Herald 3/2) for alerting us to the fact that shameful alcohol violence rates in the inner city of Newcastle, though fallen since 2008, still significantly exceed the NSW average. I believe it is simply incomprehensible that Newcastle's state Labor MP and lord mayor continue to align themselves with the AHA to support the scrapping of the Newcastle conditions.
It is time Hunter New England Health's trusted leaders support their emergency colleagues and make public their response to the powerful alcohol lobby's latest proposals to weaken or abolish the Newcastle conditions. It is a mistake to characterise our police as lobbyists in the same vein as the AHA and their supporters. Police have a solemn, sworn duty to protect and serve the community and uphold the law.
The fundamental core distinction between our emergency workers' basic duties and obligations and paid lobbyists, whose bottom line is maximising alcohol and gambling industry profits,('Hotel industry generous political donor', Herald 3/2); is the very essence why our fragile civil society must ensure the interests of public health and safety always prevails over private interests and powerful lobby groups.
Kate Elderton, Toronto
Dams don't beat alternatives
I REFER to the letter by Ross Tavener published recently regarding the demonising of dams (Letters, 3/2).
Does the statement "there can be no rainwater harvesting or recycling if there is no supply" imply that we must increase our storage if we are to increase our recycling? The generally accepted benefit of recycling and rainwater harvesting is that it reduces the need for increased storage. The reference to Lake Eyre in flood as an example of environmental health relative to a large body of water would be better if elaborated. A healthy environment will also include wetlands, groundwater and aquifers and healthy running rivers.
The character of Lake Eyre emphasises a growing concern regarding the limitations of our water storage with respect to drought. Lake Eyre disappears quickly, and the bounty for wildlife as described is intermittent, and only comes from irregular flooding rains. Like Lake Eyre, our dams also evaporate at astounding rates. Figures provided by Hunter Water states that evaporation from Grahamstown Dam averages 35 gigalitres per year, and that the water drawn from it is usually 40-45 gigalitres per year. This is a huge loss in comparison to the supply, and is one reason why desalination plants are being more favourably considered to secure the supply of water in relation to droughts.
If we want to meet the needs of water supply and also our needs for a healthy environment then the best options are increasingly viewed as something other than more dams.
Allan Rumbel, Chichester
Death debate isn't black and white
TO answer John Smith (Letters, 6/2), I have no doubt that Abbey Egan (''People should have a choice'', Herald 30/1) called it as she saw it, but often one person's perspective is not the whole story. HOPE is not a religious group but a single-issue group, focused solely on opposition to euthanasia and assisted suicide. According to their website, they welcome anyone who stands with them on this issue.
I listened to Andrew Denton's podcast interview with former Hope director Paul Russell which Mr Smith wrongly claims "debunks" my Canadian references. The April 2016 podcast barely mentions Canada, and predates, not just my references, but even the legalisation of assisted dying by Canada's parliament. Mr Smith emphasises the voluntary nature of the assisted dying he champions but, as I see it, in too many jurisdictions voluntary morphs into involuntary, no matter what safeguards are proposed. I draw Mr Smith's attention to the latest report from Belgium: Euthanasia in Belgium: Shortcomings of the Law and Its Application and of the Monitoring of Practice in The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, February 2021.
Peter Dolan, Lambton
Not absolute on palliative care
PETER Dolan (Letters, 8/2) claims that I wrote there is abundant evidence palliative care is ineffective. I did not, and I do not like being misrepresented. What I wrote, which Mr Dolan referenced so presumably must have read, was that "there is abundant evidence palliative care is not always effective" and that there is "abundant evidence that it is ineffective in many cases".
The point is simple, and obviously true. Palliative care doesn't always work.
This is not a complicated idea. It is disingenuous to pretend that stating this simple truth is the same as saying palliative care is ineffective. Mr Dolan built on his misrepresentation of my position by directing readers to evidence of palliative care being effective. I didn't say palliative care never works. On the contrary, in the same letter Mr Dolan referenced I also wrote that "I admire efforts at palliative care, and the wonderful peace it brings to many people in their last days." To falsely claim I said palliative care is ineffective, that it simply doesn't work, is in my opinion a misrepresentation requiring an apology.
Michael Jameson, New Lambton
SHORT TAKES
YOU'VE really got to hand it to Jeff Corbett ("A career with the works", Herald, 6/2), even in semi-retirement and in his twilight years, he manages to be irksome. He doesn't see the compassion of his barley sugar benefactor, nor the enormous goodwill of his fellow BHP worker. If Mr Corbett is to be believed, his intellect was so acute, his body so agile, that for him to do nothing was purgatory. Give it another go, Jeff! The Newcastle Herald reading public will thank you.
Cindy Grahame, Newcastle
IT doesn't take a Rhodes Scholar to understand that this virus has no friends. Yet, with all the protests, the sports people jumping up and down, for the sake of the God almighty dollar, we still have people whinging, protesting, complaining and thinking that they have rights over all others. They force the government to yield and open things up to suit them and there is no thought of us lesser people and their safety. Under the present situation, every and all mass gathering events, both public and private, should be banned; no options, no stretching the rules and impose a $10,000 fine per person, with no exceptions or allowances. This man-made virus, whether you like it or not, is killing far better people than that are still spruiking their rights, and it is past time that the government shuts the shop and ends this.
Dennis Crampton, Swansea
READING Monday's Herald and the concern of dam failures and the consequences; when has Australia had a dam failure as such? The only problems from dams was the mismanagement of water levels, an example being Queensland which caused the massive damage which could have been avoided if the proper mitigation practices were followed. The last drought proved beyond doubt that we have a severe shortage of dams. The governments were to build 14 dams and I think they managed to build one only. We really need to farm our water more successfully to avoid the unnecessary suffering of the previous drought.
Bruce Brander, Belmont
IF the Morrison government is serious about defending Australia, then I doubt that a few super jet fighters are the answer ('Top funds', Herald 10/2). In the event of a military move by any of our northern neighbours against Australia then our meagre population would stand little chance of defending this country. Take China: 25 million against a billion, they would swat us like an annoying fly. The only defence that Australia could depend on is a nuclear one. A string of missiles across our northern shore. Should any Asian or other nation make a move against us militarily then they would have no home to return to. It would be a return to the Cold War days but so be it. It is better to prevent a war then to become involved and try to win at the cost of thousands of lives. It could be the difference between living free or under an alien system.