Letters and short takes February 2 2023

New research shows 13 per cent of child asthma cases in the US can be directly attributed to gas stove use, prompting lawmakers to step towards regulating methane-gas stoves. Findings from Yale University show higher rates of childhood cancer in communities living near unconventional gasfields in North America.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen said, "The rain doesn't always fall, but we still store water - we can store renewable energy." Renewable energy is undeniably safer, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly than the gas projects the Perrottet government and Santos have planned for our state. I believe the health and environmental threats gas poses should be enough for any politicians with a skerrick of common sense to realise its just not worth the risk.

Proposed projects like the Hunter Gas Pipeline, which Treasurer Matt Kean recently granted a survey licence to, will have serious direct impacts on the local environment and water beneath us. If this pipeline is built, it will impact my property, and if we experience another flood event, serious erosion will occur, just as it did at the APA owned Central Ranges Pipeline near Bundella. Landholders and farmers shouldnt be forced to give up sections of their land just because the government or a giant company like Santos say so.

But to be forced to give up our land for an outdated gas project that would threaten our health, our climate, and our farmers ability to produce food and fibre, when there are readily available alternatives in the form of renewable energy and storage, really is backwards. As we near an election in NSW, this will be on voters' minds. It's my hope the majority will understand just how backwards support of gas fossil fuels is, and vote for candidates who represent a cleaner, healthier future for everyone.

THEY are deep analytical thinkers, those Greens. They have revealed a plan to legalise cannabis, potentially funding a dole increase through the tax. They want to close coal mines and fossil fuel power stations and stop current and future gas production. Without mining and gas supplies we will have no money, no jobs, no electricity and little manufacturing. The obvious outcome of course is that we will all be in the dark, potentially smoking pot but happy. The most worrying thing is that some of us voted for the people who come up with this stuff.

IT was good to see former Newcastle Knights and Canterbury Bulldogs rugby league player Nick Meaney extend his contract with the Melbourne Storm ('Nick Meaney re-signs with NRL's Storm', Herald 27/1). In my view he's yet another of our Knights players who were let go and have shown their potential under other coaches.

I played junior football until age 15. I have no coaching background at all. But, even at age 79-and-a-third I reckon I can see that something is wrong at Broadmeadow. Is there too much pushing and shoving within the Newcastle Knights camp? Are the problems all our coach's fault, or does Wests have too much input? As in past years we will be told the top eight or even six will be a possibility for the season ahead.

I don't go to home or away games now as old age has caught up with me but I'm a member and I watch all Knights games played. I don't watch any other games, only one game every weekend. As the season is played out I will see if we, the Knights players and assorted sundry coaching assistants can pull your socks up and do what the 1988 team did: play to win.

The One Nation candidate for Wallsend in the soon-coming NSW election says that his party's focus would be on lifting school results by "eliminating woke teaching" ('Pull, Di Girolamo take on Labor in Wallsend', Herald 1/2). I really do wonder exactly what he means. Is it really his intention to denigrate local schools, teachers and students?

What is he talking about? Whether it's termed being aware, being awake or being 'woke', surely our schools should want students to be thoughtful, considerate and concerned about their peers - and their environment. Don't we want teaching to emphasise equality, end neglect and call out violence and abuse? Being aware enough of issues to have the courage to address them should always be considered a positive. Certainly, being 'woke' gives a clear advantage to students entering our troubled society.

GARRY Linnell writes about the stuff that matters and he does it so well. This time it was regarding working longer before retirement, ("Who knows what life holds", Herald 28/1). You were spot on, Mr Linnell.

I left school at age 14 and worked for around 50 years. When the federal government announced just before the release of the last budget that there would be something in it for those on an age pension, many retired pensioners began to get excited. Then we found out that the good news was that we could go back to work, and work longer hours. Many of my generation were denied further education and so returned to study like me at night too. I've worked on factory floors too like your grandfather, Mr Linnell, as well as many and various other jobs and I was certainly ready to retire in my sixties. I have earned that right.

Rick Pointon, ("City should make a big deal of link to legend", Letters, 27/1), it certainly seems like your book captures the definitive version of events regarding Little Richard's trip across Newcastle Harbour in 1957. It's sad that there are not more accounts of rock royalty Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent and Johnny O'Keefe even being on this tour. But sadder still is this story being attributed to Sydney Harbour.

It reminds me of the story about Adolf Hitler supposedly snubbing track and field gold medallist Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics, when it was actually lesser known high jump athlete Cornelius Johnson who Hitler snubbed. But apparently the true story became distorted because Owens was a household name at the time, so therefore the fabrication made the tale more accessible. It's not too late though, for the Newcastle Maritime Museum and Newcastle council to set the record straight on Little Richard's visit to Newcastle by commissioning a plaque, or statue, as you suggested.

A tribute to Australia's own rock n' roll pioneer Johnny O'Keefe is a great idea too, and if you ever needed a volunteer to help get that off the ground, then I'd very happily put my hand up.

WHY is there no passenger train on the track from the Hunter to Gulgong? A once a day Newcastle-Gulgong return service could be used to draw backpackers and other tourists from the coast to the inland. The extra train would also augment the present meagre service to Singleton and Muswellbrook.

I RECKON the price of power will go up when electric cars are being recharged from industrial storage batteries because these batteries are not cheap to purchase. They are not there as a service, they are there to make money with a return on investment over a very limited working life. A recent motoring report on charging an electric Tesla during a long distance trip in Britain; stopping at public charging stations cost twice as much as a petrol car and took twice as long because the battery had to be recharged every 150 kilometres. It appears long trip driving doesn't recharge batteries with energy from electric motor braking and normal braking as usually happens with city driving. Yes, electricity is expensive in Britain because it is scarce, but who is to say it won't be the same in Australia when we are following the same path as Britain by relying on renewable energy and storage batteries?

A SURPLUS of RAT kits in storage, and the government are in a quandary on what to do with these kits. These kits used to be freely available to pensioners, but this was stopped. Apparently if you go to Service NSW centres you can ask for a kit for free. Here's an idea; why doesn't the government give the surplus to nursing homes, resume free kits to all that want them before these kits pass their use by date? Otherwise 14 million test kits will be discarded. It's not rocket science. Surely giving these kits away for free may save someone from contracting COVID has got to be a plus.

A RECENT report from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) will add greatly to the growing confidence of many Australians that the prime cause of climate change in Australia, coal, can be eliminated within a reasonable time frame. The AEMO report includes references to energy provided from coal-fired plant generation hitting new lows, with energy generation usage from renewable sources reaching new highs. Thus making it possible for cheaper wholesale electricity pricing and also bringing greenhouse emissions noticeably down.

IS Julie Robinson, ("We should embrace Taryn and her message", Letters 1/2), blaming magazines and advertising for Tony Mansfield's disgruntled opinion ("A different body of work deserves honour", Letters 30/1), on Taryn Brumfitt's award? I say real women go outside, speak to people and thrive on communication and socialising; not reading and scrolling through garbage.