We work with giant, illuminated puppets, community theatre, and visual storytelling. You may have seen our work around town. Like many arts companies, most of our funding comes from out of town - state and federal government grants, festivals, etc. But the fact remains that City of Newcastle council has invested widely across many of our projects with seed funding, allowing us to gather additional funding from elsewhere.

Recently the funding from the Special Business Rates (SBR) program has come under fire; apparently this is a waste of money. I beg to differ. This week has seen us create the Wallsend Wyldings project, with a big feature event (weather permitting) happening Friday, and engagement with local businesses. On December 11 we'll bring Gregson Park to life in a family friendly event - utilising SBR funding to make this free. All throughout this year we've been sharing our Made.In.Newcastle project (funded in part through SBR), supporting artists and businesses in and out of lockdown - the list goes on. As a small arts organisation, this funding - and vote of confidence from council in our work - has been essential. We've just been successful in securing annual program funding from Create NSW. Council's support of our work has been essential for this. Thanks Nuatali and team, please keep up the great work.

IT appears that Newcastle is consistently the poor cousin to other regional cities when it comes to any government funding. Rockhampton, a city half the size of Newcastle, has swiftly expanded its art gallery with its 2000 artworks at a cost of $31.5 million. The expansion was financed by the Queensland government's $15 million, federal government's $10 million and council's $6.5 million. The tourism benefit is substantial.

By contrast, Newcastle Art Gallery's expansion to accommodate its 7000 art works, some being a record of Australia's second oldest city, has taken so many years to get off the ground. It will cost $35.6 million with apparently no government grants. Newcastle Council has to contribute $16.2 million and an already invested $3.6 million so the balance is reliant on donations from its citizens. It is very clear Newcastle is consistently taken for granted by our governments. The only way I see it ever changing is by changing your voting preference and advising your elected representatives of your intention.

IN a move matched in its expedience only by the Abbott government appointing Bronwyn Bishop Speaker of the House to "put to the sword" the balanced, functioning of the Westminster system in Australia, the Morrison government has appointed Andrew Wallace to be House Speaker. In my opinion the body language of the now retired speaker, Tony Smith, as he watched and listened from the Back Benches to his successor Andrew Wallace allow the Coalition to run roughshod over the Standing Orders of the parliament was of extreme embarrassment.

During his tenure as Speaker Tony Smith had the respect of every member of the House of Representatives. His management of debates and parliamentary protocols was exemplary. He demonstrated neither fear nor favour to the parties involved. By contrast, I believe Andrew Wallace has shown weakness and an overwhelming bias toward the Coalition, a political bias similar to Bronwyn Bishop at her very worst. Hopefully, for the sake of restoring democratic governance to Australia, Andrew Wallace is just another nail in the coffin of this administration.

SAVING the planet is a noble cause, no question about that, but the question is how do 6 billion human beings become self-sufficient within the next decade realistically to reach net zero before the world ends in 2030 (according to the science or the hypocrites who don't or won't change a single thing in their daily lives)?

Before you attack me on that one, have a glance at your own personal scoreboard over the last week, let alone the 'climocracy' that flew their private jets to Glasgow. The question remains; how many human beings are willing to sacrifice their current existence and revert to a hunter/gatherer/ cropping lifestyle, fully off the grid?

Question yourself, could you do it? Do you have the ability and skill to survive this way because it's the only way to avoid catastrophic climate change if you don't want mining?

No matter how hard you try to live in modern society, every action you take in your daily life is detracting from the quality of life for someone else whose land and rivers and rainforest is regularly raped and destroyed in the quest for energy. Be it fossil fuels or renewables, people suffer the degradation of their land; their home clean energy simply doesn't exist. So who of you could survive the reality of life if these targets espoused by the entitled pure green washed brainwashed reality deniers are to be met, if all man-made energy is bad for the planet? Possum stew, anybody? I've got the possum recipe to die for. Cheers.

IAN Kirkwood's well-resourced explanation of requirements to replace Australia's coal fired power with wind and solar energy is staggering, almost unbelievable. Even though Mr Kirkwood was wise enough to not take sides in the energy debate his findings will raise doubt among those who wanted renewable energy to be the answer to Australia's climate change responsibility.

The magnitude of logistics and financial costs for sufficient wind, solar and batteries to power Australia, I believe, highlights the consequences of not having nuclear power stations. Considering Australia and New Zealand are the last two developed countries not having nuclear power, that when managed professionally has proven to be safe and reliable, plus 100 per cent carbon free, and knowing coal-fired power produces up to 30 per cent of Australia's carbon emissions, it doesn't make sense why Australia didn't build nuclear power stations over a decade ago. Over a decade of money, time and effort spent on inferior part time substitutes that are now clearly not up to the job, or affordable for the full-time task of running Australia, or is it too late to change people's beliefs and change direction?

Surely any Australian government should have seen and recognised that the rest of the world was using nuclear energy to reduce their carbon emission and keep ahead of power demand. Have we missed the boat of opportunity? Will Australia continue sliding down the same path to economic suicide and national insecurity? Will Australia's resistance to keep with the times and follow the world be the start of becoming a third world country?

THE COVID vaccine whingers in your letters and short takes need to take a breath from their rants about "freedom" and look at the statistics. Well over 5 million people have died from COVID around the world, and the COVID deaths per million population make sobering reading. The US, so called "land of the free", has 2393, Italy 2212, UK 2122 and France 1813. The world average is 666. And Australia, with our lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and masks? Only 76. The anti-vaxxers can have their "freedom" to die an agonising death, but don't put the rest of us at risk. Getting vaccinated is a ticket to the freedom of life itself.

WHITEHAVEN Coal takes a billion litres of water during a drought. A local farmer says "crops and stock were dying ... (and that water) would have been a lifesaver for lots of farms and businesses". The company's $200,000 fine is equivalent to less than an hour's production of coal. It was previously fined $30,000 for polluting a creek with "high levels of metal and bicarbonates". No personal fines or jail time for those responsible. Meanwhile in the Hunter, a climate activist is jailed for a year for halting a coal train for five hours.

AMAZING to think that The Kent was established in 1924, ("Walking the streets of Hamilton history", Topics, 27/11), and despite the fact that "it's been known for pubs feeds and nightlife for almost a century", a small amount of people still see fit to make noise complaints against it.

GOOD old ScoMo's reputation as a mendacious faineant continues to grow. When spruiking his new religious discrimination bill, Mr Morrison claimed Australia was settled by people who were fleeing religious persecution. One of many novel ideas brought to you by Scotty from marketing.

WHAT is the difference between December 15 and Monday, November 29? Answer: absolutely nothing. Why cannot we stop wearing these ridiculous masks that protect us from nothing as of now?

IF ScoMo plans on ushering Gladys into the federal parliament he will need to employ the Wiggles to explain evacuation procedures to members. Apparently your boyfriend MP receiving a $1.5 million commission from developers didn't ring any alarm bells for our Ms Berejiklian.

I SEE that the miracle believer is grooming Gladys to take over the federal seat lost by Abbott. She already has the coalition qualifications, including arrogance and pork barreling.