Letters: Hunter Valley coal mine void remediation has no simple fix

Assuming a decent quantity of coal has been dug out, the only way to fill in the voids with rock and soil is to source this material from quarries in local hills. On the other hand, left alone, the pit voids will naturally fill with water to form lakes. All that is required is to shape the lake shoreline. Then the housing estate developers can put in a few roads, the required services, subdivide the land and sell it off as lakeside blocks.

But is it that simple? Are there problems, and can these be addressed without incurring huge costs? The short answers seem to be no, it is not that simple, and yes, huge costs will need to be incurred.

The existing pit void water is extremely saline. It contains high levels of poisonous heavy metals. Sure, we can have lakes, and even connect them with canals, but they will be biologically dead. Furthermore, unless the lakesides are lined with, say, impervious clay, the local water table will continue to be contaminated, and good surrounding farmland will continue to be ruined. Surface run-off will also need to be treated.

All the Upper Hunter pit voids are likely to have the same problems since they have all been dug out of the same geological formation. The legacy of flooded, contaminated pit voids is therefore set to continue for many generations.

I'M no advocate for electric cars or petrol cars, I just want to get from point A to point B cheaply. But I am a bit dubious about some of the claims made that electric cars (charged by coal fired power stations) are cleaner. So I did some maths.

It apparently takes 149-166 kilowatt hours per 1000 kilometres to drive a Tesla Model 3. By my calculations each kilowatt takes 0.51 kilograms of coal to produce, and burning a kilogram of bituminous coal will produce 2.42 kilograms of carbon dioxide.

Therefore, over 1000 kilometres, a Tesla Model 3 will emit between 184 and 204 kilograms of carbon dioxide.

A similar internal combustion engine car will burn 60 litres of fuel over the same distance, and each litre of petrol produces 2.31 kilograms of carbon dioxide. Therefore, over 1000 km, 139 kilograms of carbon dioxide is produced by an internal combustion engine car. Factoring in the additional energy needed to build an electric car, I would have to say until our power generation capacity is upgraded to nuclear or another reliable base load generator, moving Australia towards electric vehicles actually will increase our carbon emissions.

REGARDING Kalyn Ponga and his $1 million a season (or thereabouts), have any of you long-suffering, hard-working average Joes who support rugby league ever sat down with pen, paper and a calculator and worked out what he, or any other millionaire player, has to do for their money?

Work on 20 games per year for Ponga to play for the Knights. The actual competition number is 24 games per club. I have deducted a few games for injury (already happened) and Origin duties. I reckon I'm probably being generous, more like 18, but say 20, a couple more if they make the eight.

Calculate 20 games at 80 minutes each (1600 minutes). Divide $1 million by that minute figure, and Ponga's rate per minute, not hourly, clocks in at $625 a minute. Good coin, if you can get it.

Being unkind and stating that the Knights captain actually participates in an attack or defence for half that time, well the lucky lad earns $1250 a minute for effort given. It sort of makes the average person doing an average job envious.

I hope someone, somewhere, will find a cure for cancer, bet he won't be receiving a similar rate of pay.

DROPPING into a well-known West Gosford camping and fishing store on Saturday, our Prime Minister tried his multi-talented hand at reeling in voters when he tossed a few lures into the air and stoked the campfire, casually throwing around a cool $20 million worth of bait for "upgrading boat ramps and camping facilities".

There is a saying about fishing lures: they are designed to catch fish persons as well as fish. As a long-time fisherman and camper, I won't snatch the bait and be captured hook, line and sinker by this blatant pork barrelling just four weeks from an election.

The gift - if ever delivered - will no doubt be appreciated by those struggling oldies in grossly under-resourced aged care facilities, which are seemingly, largely overlooked in the LNP's election mantra.

FRED McInerney has some good points in regard to the first home owners assistance on offer; yet he does not address the real elephant in the room.

The reduction of the required deposit may seem to assist the first home buyer, yet as Mr McInerney points out the interest on the up to 98 per cent borrowed against the purchase will be a steep slope to clear as interest rates rise and as such may cause huge financial pain for a long time to the first home buyer.

The assistance to the first home buyer ought not to cause pressure that may cause rises in house prices, or it could become a millstone that may drown the first home buyer. Wise directions of the government must see the reduction of the gap between cost of housing and the average wages; however this gap is increasing at a rapid rate, with no relief in sight.

Some of the things that our government must consider are to remove unnecessary government charges at both state and federal levels; to decrease competition on the housing stock by restricting or removing the right for foreign ownership of housing stock; as well as expanding housing stock by wise development expansions. Any assistance given to first home buyers must be at a point after purchase so that the assistance cannot be factored into the price offered on the house (there are ways to do that).

There are many developer fees and other charges that need examination as it seems that there is a continual inflating of the costs along the way. While any current homeowner will not like it; it is fair to say the goal should be to see, relatively speaking, that the price of housing needs to be reduced by at least 60 per cent over time.

The high price increases drive the market of rental properties as the capital gains are currently very large, but if the prices do not increase or even fall then the investors will consider leaving the market.

I am saying that there are many levers that can be pulled but no major party will pull a set that will prevent the distortion of the market in its current form as they fear the electoral backlash.

SOFT Knights, soft. Sorry Wal Remington, I am a Knights supporter just like you, but my time spent at the game Sunday arvo is time I can never get back.

HAVE you ever seen anything so cynically hypocritical than Putin attending a church service and making the sign of the cross? His actions would be about as un-Christian as one could possibly get.

FORMER Prime Minister John Howard says the federal election campaign boils down to who Australians want to lead the country for the next three years. Wow, what staggeringly wise insight. In other news, water is wet and fire is hot.

ADZ Carter ("Leaders are drawing even", Letters, 23/4), my comment was aimed at Pope, who I see as hopelessly biased. I have no issue with Broelman, in fact his drawing on April 18 having a shot at the empty promises of fed elec campaigns, plural, speaks for many like myself. Glenda Evans, (Short Takes, 23/4), my point was that when Labor was last in power the cartoons were more balanced, both the Lab and Lib were ridiculed, with Pope it's all anti Lib.

I WAS watching Sky News this morning and they were talking about another debate between the leaders, I say what's the point with their limited audience? Much better to have it on free to air television and get to a bigger audience.

I NOTED in recent advertising for cruises that the Port of Newcastle doesn't get a mention, but the village of Eden does.

I SEE the USA is opening an embassy in the Solomon Islands. Apparently that fella from down under can't handle it.

THE Knights' poor form is down to three factors; a lack of intimidation in the pack due to suspension and injury, climate change, and bloody ScoMo.

PEOPLE are saying the performance by the Knights last Sunday against the Eels disappointed the 24,000 fans. Correction, just like when some of the more traditional teams play up here, the crowd is sometimes more than 30 per cent opposing fans.

NEIL Allen, I agree with your comments, but you left out the marvellous Anzac ceremony before the game. The Last Post was excellent. Then at half time the Army Band was brilliant. Maybe next week we have 80 minutes of entertainment. At half time Storm can play Knights so they can't score 100 points.