WHILE Christine Holgate has received praise for establishing banking facilities at post offices, especially where the banks have stopped trading, has anyone considered the consequences regarding security arrangements, especially at one person post offices? Banks have expensive security and public risk insurance against armed hold ups, to protect staff and customers, to expect small post offices to do the same is insane. Rather than closing banks because they no longer are profitable, why not sublease part of the bank to Australia Post and share the costs, especially for us oldies who still use post offices and would rather still do over the counter banking. I fear for the small operators who can't afford security, but can't afford to refuse banking for fear of losing their business. Surely Australia Post and the banking industry can help subsidise the cost of sharing premises and expenses, as a duty of civic responsibility. They should be ashamed of themselves when putting profit before people's safety.

IT'S not the vaccine that will save us here in Australia. It's what we have been doing over the past year. Border closures, lockdowns, hand sanitation and keeping our distance, not touching and staying at home when we are sick and getting tested for COVID-19, self isolation and the many restrictions the federal and state governments have implemented to save us from this horrible pandemic. Well done Australia. Now back to vaccination against COVID-19. Come on Australia, let's get vaccinated. I am vaccinated, as is my wife, and the rest of my family will be vaccinated shortly. I know that some of you are hesitant especially concerning the AstraZeneca vaccine. Supplies of Pfizer are on the increase so get that one. We need at least 85-90 per cent of the population to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity. There are a lot of people who are anti-vaccine. Okay, I understand that but we can still achieve the 85-90 per cent needed. Unfortunately, like the influenza vaccine, we will need follow up injections to overcome the variants of COVID-19. All of this is achievable for our lives to have some normality. It's a whole new world out there, something that I have said before. But to achieve some sort of normality we have to do everything I have just mentioned.

TO justify his $600 million, taxpayer-funded gas peaking plant energy and emissions minister, Angus Taylor, claimed there had been a "dress rehearsal, of post-Liddell operation in the previous week, when a number of coal plant failures led to Tomago Aluminium having to shut down three times due to a lack of power. To add more drama he further suggested that if the shutdown had been an hour longer it would have cost hundreds of millions of dollars to fix and the plant may never have reopened. What he neglected to say was that Tomago had actually stopped running due to high power prices which had spiked from $50 to between $2000 and $7000 per megawatt hour. And he should have added the proposed builders of his pet project, Snowy Hydro, could have intervened to reduce these prices by starting their 667 megawatt Colongra gas plant, which only operates about 1 per cent of the time, but chose not to unless prices rose to $15,000 per megawatt hour. This is typically how "cheap" gas plants make their money. Perhaps he forgot, perhaps not.

IT would appear that Mr John Davies (Letters, 27/6) couldn't give a fig about things like climate change and greenhouse gases, and the future of our planet. While the rest of the world is moving as quickly as possible to phase out burning coal, he encourages the continuing use of coal-fired power stations and the removal of renewable energy. I wonder what he would say if he came face to face with some of the people across the world who right now are being impacted by climate change. Bad luck? By the way, the coal-fired power station that shut down most of Queensland recently is one of the new, you beaut, 'supercritical' coal burners that pollute the atmosphere, but not as much as the old ones. Broke down eight times last year. Super.

IT is important to correct the public record over the Port of Newcastle container penalty now that the Prime Minister's support for a container terminal ("PM backs vision for containers", Herald, March 5) was given with an eye to winning the federal seats of Shortland and Paterson from Labor. Port of Newcastle Investments Pty Ltd (PoN) is not penalised for container traffic. The state government is penalised. There is a penalty clause in the government's lease contracts for Port Botany and Port Kembla with NSW Ports dated May 2013. The government breaches this penalty clause if container traffic exceeds a threshold level at the Port of Newcastle. PoN agreed to pay the penalty on the government's behalf when it leased the Port of Newcastle in May 2014. PoN has a contractual right to develop a container terminal. PoN wants to develop a container terminal. But PoN no longer wants to pay the penalty on the government's behalf. The penalty is not legislated. It was illegal for the government to penalise taxpayers for container traffic at the Port of Newcastle. The government's purpose in leasing the Port of Newcastle was to fund an illegal penalty.

JACK de Belin is now free to play in the NRL,after his rape case was dropped; not cleared, but dropped, and ready to go at the weekend games. Then we have Israel Folau being still being blocked and ostracised,for quoting the Bible. What am I missing here?

THE PM is right about vaccine hesitancy. This is the most hesitant vaccine roll-out I've ever witnessed. But I'm OK, Jack, I've just found an available slot in July. I do feel a little guilty about jumping in ahead of the phase 1a people.

LOVE the idea of Sam Arnaout building the Stairway to Heaven in Newcastle. How about including a funicular to one side of the stairs to enable all abilities? Funicular could be solar powered. And City of Newcastle Council how about replacing the empty Queens Wharf building with a stunning Maritime Museum for our 7000 plus maritime artifacts? What a view from Cathedral to Maritime Museum at wharf terminal and vice versa.

WE are told by some that fossil fuel is in decline. Some are calling on the government to start the transition away from such. Should this be reality; corporations profiting from our resources will soon shift their focus to profits elsewhere. The government will do as it has always done: follow the money.

GREG Hunt apparently doesn't like "big" words, (Joel's 'elitism' comments spot on, Letters, 20/5). Has he considered the possibility of hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia? He should, because this can be a seriously debilitating condition. The world is agathokakological. Throttlebottoms and ninnyhammers abound. In such a world, language is our friend.

PLEASE Knights; for once do what your slogan says 'Come Out Charging'; you'll need to against Turbo Tom.

WHAT is it all about; a political party that seems hell bent on self destruction. On one hand we have, God forbid, jolly Jodi, and on the other, angry Albo'. What an easy street the Libs find themselves, nothing to worry about federally or NSW. When is the party going to wake up and choose people that are creditable, not some boring party faithful that is clueless?

IS it true that the new Sydney Harbour ferries, that couldn't fit under the bridges on the Parramatta River, now had to have their windows reversed because the captains can't see out of them at night? Another example of state government stupidity.