Letters and short takes June 1 2023

However, the Lake Macquarie City Council has already approved the replacement of the two golden arches nearby on the M1 at Cooranbong as part of another two twin service centres in development.

Miss one, but surely it's impossible to miss the second stop.

With unhealthy eating habits the bane of our health experts I wonder what input opportunity, if any, our health providers had with this new Cooranbong duplication exercise?

"Freight adds much to the congestion that slows passage" on the passenger rail line to Sydney, the Herald editorial rightly observes ("No end in the long wait for short trips" Opinion, 31/5).

Completed in 2016 at a cost of $1 billion, stage one of the Northern Sydney Freight Corridor, from Strathfield to Newcastle, removed some of the main freight bottlenecks impeding passenger trains.

The additional freight capacity created will be fully used by around 2026.

There are no plans to build stages two and three of the freight corridor. Freight will create an ever-increasing delay to passenger trains.

The solution is to build a new rail freight line between the Port of Newcastle, Badgerys Creek and Port Kembla to be paid for by railing all containers for all of NSW through a container terminal at the Port of Newcastle, thereby removing container trucks from Sydney's roads.

The capacity made available on the existing line will also enable faster passenger service.

Industry super funds own 80 per cent of NSW Ports and 50 per cent of Port of Newcastle Investments. These companies can merge.

Their net returns can be guaranteed by an act of parliament. Container freight pricing can be regulated by IPART.

Everyone benefits.

SINCE watching Four Corners and seeing the front page story ("Lawyer slams diocese's defence of abuse claim: is the boy Catholic?", Herald 30/5), what little portion of hope I had for justice for victims of childhood sexual assault has evaporated.

"A few bad apples" doesn't cut it. I have followed this crime against humanity for almost 30 years and attended two thirds of the royal commission hearings.

It has become apparent, as with the Voice, that this subject leads the public to believe there's nothing to see here.

Many of the most powerful institutions who profess to doing good works have blood on their hands and it has taken survivors and victims of sexual abuse to uncover this abomination.

The world is currently coming to terms with a realisation that the future looks grim.

That justice is being denied to the most vulnerable is appalling and the perpetrators and institutions who harboured them must be brought to account.

I hope Dallas Bellamy ("Dodging dogma daily", Letters 30/5), grasps the purpose of my letter and encourages others to support reparation for these victim survivors.

REFERING to John Cooper's letter regarding Lake Macquarie taking a stand to support the "yes" vote on the Voice ("Stick to rates, roads, and rubbish", Letters, 26/5), I thought it was pretty obvious that they would; the details of the council's spending for the year showed that Aboriginal, youth and aged care programs received more than $4 million.

Why do the council have to make contributions to Indigenous groups when the federal government is chipping in some $30 billion a year?

Councils are struggling at the moment to fix local roads yet it seems to me they can still find money for handouts.

While on councils, I found it noteworthy that the new mayor of Maitland has received a $40,000 wage rise - not bad for starters.

I suppose with the new Taj Mahal council building the mayor had to be upgraded, but I can see another big rise in rates ahead.

FOLLOWING their class action against the federal government, the Wreck Bay Aboriginal community will now receive a settlement of $22 million for PFAS contamination near Jervis Bay Naval Base (HMAS Creswell) ("'Bittersweet' win for community", Herald 26/5).

After lawyers' fees I estimate that amounts to $17,000 per person.

This is a pathetic sum compared to the suffering and irreparable damage to their land. Rob Williams, a Wreck Bay resident said "even if they gave me a million dollars, it's worth nothing." It's not even $1 million.

PFAS is a forever chemical. Since it does not break down in time, it just spreads in a water table plume. Surviving residents need to be resettled, I think, and the government should foot the bill for resettlement in an equally idyllic place.

The federal government is not admitting liability in its settlement because it wants the matter settled, with no future claims.

Legally, scientific proof is required rather than statistical correlation between the location of PFAS contamination and clusters of shortened lives and unusual cancers.

Per head, I calculate the Wreck Bay settlement is one tenth of the Williamtown one.

It could be argued that Williamtown residents also faced loss of property value, but the Wreck Bay residents have lost their traditional connection to their land. In my view it's fairly obvious this wasn't fully valued by the court.

Could it be that the Wreck Bay residents have been bought off with a paltry sum?

THE news of huge price rises for our electricity is certainly a big worry for both households and businesses, but there is light at the end of the tunnel if Blackout Bowen, the loopy left and the daydreaming Greens get their way.

How can this be, I hear you say?

Well, when the inevitable blackouts occur as they surely will, just as night follows day, we won't be able to turn our lights on, heat or cool our homes, charge our mobile phones, iPads, or watch TV.

When we can't use our washing machines or dryers, cook a hot meal, put fuel in cars and trucks because bowsers need power to work, traffic lights will be out and the list goes on.

When we haven't got power to run all these things we won't have to pay for it, will we?

Why people are hell bent on closing coal fired power stations before there is a suitable alternative beats me.

Oh I forgot, the true believers won't be able to drive their electric cars when the battery goes flat because there is no electricity to charge them either.

THE pools fiasco unfolding recently at Newcastle council in my view reinforces the case to keep party politics out of local government.

Repressive internal party rules can stymie free speech, and penalise members who prioritise the best interests of the constituents above the needs of the party.

If major decisions can be relegated to public servants, do we really benefit from having a group of elected counsellors?

OUR lord mayor, during a recent debate on the swimming pool contract, said she would "not compromise on the highest standards of probity and good governance that ratepayers expect".

She also noted "our community trusts that we do our due diligence, that we engage in these important considerations".

Except for the Supercars, I believe, where the council has seemed willing to see businesses close and the CBD and beaches disrupted for 10 weeks every year.

In my opinion we do not trust that the council will do due diligence, except when it suits their agenda.

WHILE the two major parties blame each other for power rises, I think privatisation and greedy companies love nothing more than ripping us off while making millions.

IF the government wanted to, it could have already introduced into the parliament an Indigenous Recognition and Voice Bill and negotiated broad bipartisan support for its approval.

Instead of this, it is pushing ahead with this constitutional recognition and forcing Australians to vote in this unnecessary, costly and highly divisive referendum. A sad and sorry day for Australia.

WELL said, Sue Boele, (Short Takes, 29/5). Once accepted, The Voice will do what it's named for... speak for Indigenous Australians in parliament. Simple.

JULIE Robinson ("No place for racism in debate", Letters, 25/5), writes that "the minority group does not have the same rights and advantages as the majority". Julie, I have previously questioned this claim by other contributors to this page but got no response. Please advise us what rights I have that my Indigenous mate doesn't.

If the British never settled in Australia I think the advent of Google Earth would have resulted in a world war to claim the great southern land.

Considering Australia would never have been discovered or settled by less adventurous countries than the British, the Aboriginal people would still be living their traditional way if Cook took a wrong turn, completely undiscovered by the rest of the world!

Is this what people really think?

I THINK the Sydney building fire is a perfect example of what happens when heritage listed buildings are left to decay amid bad planning by city officials.

Narrow streets and tall buildings likely created a chimney effect. Is Newcastle next for an incident like this?

Maybe. It's human stupidity at its finest.