Letters and short takes April 26 2023

Every day I hear people from the suburbs say the city looks terrible so they rarely go there any more. It will never be the same as it was. No, it will never look the same again because nothing ever stays the same (the suburban shopping complexes haven't stayed the same), but what we can expect is that it can be as good as it was or even better. It will certainly be different.

I have great hopes for this city that I have loved all of my life, and like the great job Maitland has done in blending the new with the old I see great promise in Newcastle. I see the great old buildings like the T&G building, the AMP and the old post office and the City Arcade as well as the School of Arts hold our history, just to name a few. When buildings become impractical for current use then facades can be retained. We need to think positively and get the job done sooner rather than later and bring Newcastle alive again. We need new stores, a movie theatre and a variety of businesses.

Hopefully we have left Supercars behind us, so here is our council's opportunity to build something beautiful along with the foreshore, something to come into town for.

I remember as a child walking with my mum and sister from Marcus Clarke's all the way to Pacific Street and enjoying every minute of it. Let's think positive, Novocastrians, and get the job done soon.

JASMINE Stuart ("Why I helped stop a loaded coal train", Opinion, 18/4), gave a heart-felt explanation of why she and her friends invaded private property and stopped a perfectly legal coal train from entering the Port of Newcastle. A student in renewable energy engineering (but not other forms of energy engineering?), she allegedly broke the law to "change society and address the climate crisis". She has already done her bit by voting "for parties with the best climate policies", becoming vegan, riding a bike and other minimal things.

Ms Stuart talks of floods, droughts, storms and bushfires as evidence of climate change even though they are all known to be common, normal regular events. Further she exclaims about climate collapse/crisis and the IPCC's "final warning" though no climate scientists ever use those unscientific emotive terms. I'd argue her claim that the "past eight years have been the warmest eight years on record" isn't correct. That claim derives from a World Meteorological Organisation statement: "2022 was the eighth consecutive year (2015-2022) that annual global temperatures have reached at least 1°C above pre-industrial levels". That's quite different to the former claim. and "at least 1°C above pre-industrial levels" isn't saying much as pre-industrial levels were at the end of the mini ice age.

I believe claiming the last eight years as the hottest on record is wrong in Australia and elsewhere and could be taken as just spin by activist groups.

Ms Stuart's concern with being on "the right side of history" is misplaced. There is no right or wrong side of history, it's just history. Being on the right side of the facts is a much more desirable goal and many of the claims of climate activists just do not stack up factually. I'm sure that Ms Stuart is earnest in her climate advocacy, but I'd venture a lot of her ideology comes from misinformation.

GRAEME Kime believes protests against fossil fuel extraction in Australia are pointless ("Halting a coal train won't make a difference", Letters, 20/4). Clearly he forgets that burning coal is the single largest source of global temperature rise and Australia the second largest coal exporter. Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University, found that civil disobedience is both the moral choice and "the most powerful way of shaping world politics."

Young Australians have the most at stake. Their frustration with governments and fossil fuel companies who ignore science is totally understandable. Given what we know, continuing to profit from fossil fuels is at best negligent.

I HAVE some sympathy for the Rising Tide protesters who stopped a coal train going to the harbour ('Rising tensions', Newcastle Herald 17/4). However, when the day comes it will be more than the trains which are stopped. I have far more sympathy for the workers in France who have been protesting for months to keep their entitlements. It is embarrassing that Australian workers have stood by idly while bourgeois thieves have robbed them of years of retirement income. Where are the protesters? Where are the activists? We know where the Labor Party is.

IT is wonderful to see how technology, such as mobility scooters has improved the ability for people with a disability to function to their fullest potential. Unfortunately, problems can exist and do with the use of mobility scooters. Not the least being, when mobility scooter operators fail to consider the safety of the general public.

One need not be a trauma surgeon to appreciate the effect upon the human body of it being unexpectedly impacted and then run over by a 100-kilogram-plus mobile scooter travelling at 10km/h. Clearly there are many examples where modern technology, correctly used, can assist the disabled. Conversely, the ill-considered use of technology can and has resulted in an increased pool of disabled, the victims of mobility scooter mishandling being an example.

What regulations, if any, cover the use of mobility scooters in terms of operator ability and public risk liability?

JOHN Cooper claims that "We got rid of racism in the constitution in 1967", ("Voice alone won't close the gap", Letters, 20/4). If Mr Cooper re-read the constitution he would see that Section 51 states that the parliament can make laws with regard to "the people of any race for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws".

This allowed for the government to pass the White Australia policy. It also permitted governments, state and federal, to regulate the daily lives of Aboriginal people. Look up how the Bjelke Petersen government up until the 1980s, regulated the rights of Indigenous people to travel and marry whereby they had to ask permission of the government to do both.

So enough of this nonsense about the Voice enshrining race in the constitution. It's already enshrined there! The Voice will recognise not only the special place that our original inhabitants occupy as custodians of the land and the nation's 65,000 years of history, but it will go some way to redressing the racism that has been used to oppress and regulate them since 1788, and constitutionally since 1901.

From a recent backyard accident resulting in a dislocated and compound fracture of my right ankle, I would like to thank the four paramedics and also the many nurses that looked after me in a very professional and cheerful manner while I was in John Hunter Hospital for three weeks. Now we have a change in state government, these heroes of our society may get the decent pay rise that they deserve and the community nurse program won't be scrapped as the previous government was thinking about doing. They also have been a great service for myself while not being able to walk.

I COULDN'T believe Peter Dolan, (Short Takes, 21/4), saying he is circumspect about trusting 99 per cent of medical opinion. In my opinion it sounds about as wild as many of his (and others') raving right-wing opinions. Straight out of the Trump handbook. Mr Dolan, I hope you never get sick.

I COULDN'T agree more with Olga Parkes regarding the bull riding being cruel and violent, ("No bull: it's time to keep the buck out of city", Letters, 21/4). I don't understand how anyone could enjoy watching this barbaric "sport".

JOHN Cooper, ("Voice alone won't close the gap", Letters, 20/4), points out the number of Indigenous MPs and Indigenous agencies and the billions of dollars spent yearly on Indigenous affairs. Exactly. All those efforts have not resulted in significant improvements in "Closing the Gap". Why would you expect improved outcomes by continuing to do the same things? Surely that's optimistic beyond reason. This is why a different idea is being proposed - the Voice to Parliament.

JUST a general observation in regards to some regular contributors to this page; quite a few are very biased in their political views. Having a blinkered/rusted on view of politics certainly doesn't help contribute to good governance of our country.

ORIGIN Energy will replace Eraring's 2800 megawatts with a 460-megawatt battery that will only be capable of powering 60,000 for two hours. To replace a facility that supplies 25 per cent of NSW's electricity with one far smaller is indicative of the stupidity of our political class. As Einstein said, "the difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits".

OVERHEARD at a recent Williamtown RAAF family day after witnessing the awesome display of power, might, speed and acceleration of an F-35 fighter aircraft going through its paces: "I just can't wait to see how that goes on electrics".