Letters and short takes March 10 2023

My 90-year-old father will be watching it on TV back in Aberdeen Scotland.

It's our only truly worldwide event. When I asked if he had watched the surfing early on in the year he said he "didn't even know it was on".

So if we want to be a world player, then keep the world events.

As to the problems it causes, remember you cannot make omelettes without breaking a few eggs.

AS usual, Christine Everingham (Letters 7/3) is the well researched, measured voice of truth and reason. Other letters from Mary Stewart (Letters 4/3) and Suzanne Martin (28/2) tell the same dismal story.

Now there is also the two hour Foreshore traffic hold-up on the weekend ('Traffic not so super', Newcastle Herald 7/3). Living on Scott Street, I can testify to weeks of disruption, road closures, barricades and sight screens blocking normal views.

Just to get home each day involves a complex series of diversions.

However, compared to many we are lucky that we can still access our car. Poor local business owners remain stalwart but distressed about loss of business and we are wondering about simple pleasure like street coffees. We have been issued with passes just to get into our own apartment!

A lot of people simply flee for the race this weekend. Surely there cannot be other places in the world with so much unrequested inconvenience.

Then there will be the actual three days of insufferable car noise. Tuesday will bring clear-ups the clear ups which, once again, take several weeks and also reveal the damage done to the streets themselves and the parklands.

I repeat my question, is there another place in the world where this occurs? If you are a house owner, would you like to have a race track outside your front door? Then finally, the route has little space for cars to overtake. As well as being intrusive, it is potentially unsafe and the noise can permanently damage childrens' hearing.

Hopefully many folk will answer the council questionnaire about signing up for another five years with a resounding no.

WHILE many letters to the Herald find fault with the Newcastle 500 road race, I tend to believe that the primary fault that doesn't seem to attract attention, is the approval given for it in the first place. Now I suspect authorities may be using questionable numbers to obtain a majority of community approval. More to the point, what is the opinion of both state and federal ministers of government regarding the turning of Newcastle streets into a car racing track, with noise and air pollution potentially exceeding safety standards? Surely these ministers have concerns regarding the health, safety, and welfare for residents forced to live on a car racing track.

YOU would expect that City of Newcastle's highest priority is to serve the needs of the residents of the city, but for at least six weeks of this year residents and businesses in the city's East End have been denied normal access to their homes, offices, and recreation facilities. In his column ("Very Interested Person on transparency," Opinion 7/3) Paul Scott writes tongue-in-cheek about the VIP's selected by the council to be feted in honour of the Supercars weekend. Ratepayers who fund such celebrations were nowhere to be seen. They were stuck in the queues, described in horrific detail in this week's news: completely stationary for 90 minutes, while the workmen continued their preparations for the big event. The list of those who have been inconvenienced by this months-long, council-induced charade has been repeated ad nauseum, but we are always refused complete details of the costs we ratepayers are meeting because they are commercial-in-confidence.

While this disruption occurs in the historic East End our suburban roads, parks, signs and marked stop lines are all neglected. When will they admit that it is the wrong place for such a city destroying car race?

I REALLY don't want to be the sound of doom, but after watching the Knights game last week I thought the confusion was obvious. The prediction that Adam O'Brien's reign will last for eight games is far too generous in my eyes.

Regrettably, the Knights are starting behind the eight ball with ageing players and the continual injury potential of their superstar but it takes very little to wield the axe and trim the dead wood.

The Knights administration needs to listen to the supporters. Stop procrastinating and build a good, reliable young team from local talent, completely devoid of show ponies and actors. Stop importing has-beens and start afresh. They have tried a quick fix, but we all know it is rare that it works. You can fool the fans some of the time, but that doesn't cut it all of the time. It is time to get realistic and bite the bullet, or withdraw from the competition completely.

I RECALL during the pandemic crisis our nurses, doctors and paramedics - people devoted to their jobs looking after the rest of us - were called upon and expected to give their all. They did. I thank God for such people. Now it seems the government is throwing them on the scrap heap.

In my opinion, the current healthcare crisis is verging on criminal. Working under the stressful conditions and long hours required of these people can only lead to fatigue and burn-out. Making the important decisions they have to make under these conditions is a recipe for disaster.

All of us at some stage have made wrong and sometimes dangerous decisions when fatigued. Human health is a complex subject and its care and management requires clear and accurate decision making.

Mistakes can be fatal. Give these people the respect and fair go they deserve. It will benefit us all. Public health is a right, not a privilege. Spend the money and look after the devoted people who look after us.

IF you are in a panic about interest rates, consider this: in 1990 owner occupier standard variable home loan interest rates were almost 17 per cent. They gradually fell to about 10 per cent in 1993 and remained between 10 and 7 per cent for the next 19 years. .

How could anyone possibly be alarmed that the cash rate has risen to 3.6 per cent per cent after a cursory glance at previous history? Yes, house prices have made huge gains. Nevertheless, those giving out and taking home loans are remiss in not thinking about the past.

I've had several of these loans and was always advised to expect a 4 per cent rise.

WHERE is Newcastle's CBD, Denise Lindus Trummel asked this week (Letters, 7/3). Yes, it's sad; Supercars may have finished off the job, but it was started by the developers and pollies who worked together to destroy the railway into the heart of a noble CBD within ten minutes' walk of five naturally edged beaches, a world one-off.

I RECENTLY heard that the Supercars brought $38 million into the economy. I challenge Newcastle council to provide the details and prove it in writing. Otherwise, let's cancel this idiotic event. What a joke, and an inconvenience to the East End community, the people that want to access the beach, not to mention the environment and businesses.

NOW that our bogan Supercars event is on our doorstep in a residential area, perhaps it's time to remind all ratepayers within Newcastle local government area, wherever they live, that they collectively contribute towards a Destination NSW state government fee for the dubious privilege. It used to be $550,000. Can our council confirm the current amount?

MAC Maguire (Letters 7/3), Peter Devey asked what has changed since Mr Rudd's Apology. Go to the bottom of the class for contributing nothing except an insulting slur. It is not racist to want to know how Albo's voice will fix things such as the higher rate of domestic violence against women and children in Indigenous communities before we vote. In my opinion, those who don't ask questions before agreeing to a change in our country's most important legal document are either lazy or gullible.

HERE is something for you folks out there to ponder when you have some spare time: what caused one of the largest refrigerated transport companies in eastern states to go into liquidation when the companies they were servicing are making multi-million dollar profits? Something is not right here.

WELL, the Liberals say that they will build 500 new preschools if they are re-elected. Why don't they start with 10 now, while they're in power? I believe Malcolm Turnbull, who always was and always has been a lawyer, left the legal ramifications of Robodebt up to ... who? Who gets the blame? I shall be surprised if the Liberal party can do one thing right before the next election.

I CAN'T tell you how happy I am to read that live sheep exports by sea will be phased out. I will never forget the footage taken on the Awassi Express of hundreds of dead sheep lying in their own faeces, and others struggling to breathe. Not to mention all the ships that sink with live animals on board.