Letters and short takes July 11 2023

PM Albanese claimed that the expansion of Newcastle Airport was a "vote of confidence" in the Hunter overall, and that the region would become a "powerhouse" of (green) energy production, tourism and manufacturing.

He added that federal investment in the region "would mean thousands and thousands of sustainable jobs".

Since Williamtown runways have been lengthened and reinforced for the RAAF's F35s, Newcastle Airport can now take big international passenger jets. Plans are afoot for year-round flights to NZ, Singapore and elsewhere. If the federal government was fair dinkum about its "vote of confidence" in the region, it would build a fast train between Sydney and Newcastle. This would complete the picture. Newcastle Airport could take some of the heavy air traffic from Sydney Airport and Badgerys Creek.

With a fast train, the Hunter really would become a "powerhouse" in the way that Albanese mentions. Will Newcastle get its fast train? Not until flying pigs land at Newcastle Airport.

AND lo, out of the ashes of the Cambridge Hotel's closure comes the announcement that the owners have grand plans to turn the King Street Hotel into Newcastle's new music hub ("King Street ready to take live music crown", Herald 6/7). There are also plans for the Cross Keys Hotel in Tighes Hill to be refurbished ("Cross Keys set for revival", Herald 6/7).

I find all of this to be great news, but I predict that Newcastle's NIMBYs will work overtime to try to get in the way. To any nearby residents who are considering complaining though, I'd just offer a friendly reminder that the King Street Hotel has been operating since 2004 (and many decades previously under different names, including The Castle) and the Cross Keys Hotel has been present since the 1920s.

ADZ Carter must not have taken his pub crawl to Canberra as it had 24-hour trading for licensed premises from 1975 until about 2004 ("Newcastle solution a costly one", Letters, 8/7). I had the privilege of regulating the industry for 18 years during that time.

But Mr Carter's general points are correct, and my namesake's research simply wrong, when it comes to the benefits of lockouts. Reduced trading hours and lockouts in the ACT had no discernible effect on the level of late night violence.

However, any worsening of violence was probably for reasons largely unrelated to alcohol and the activities of licensees. There was a clear deterioration of conduct in and around licensed premises, irrespective of their trading hours, with the increased, and increasing, prevalence of drug use associated with almost all bars and clubs that trade when it's dark. The solutions to the societal problems of alcohol use lies elsewhere than the simplistic option of curtaining hours.

SOME writers on this page, who are supportive of the Voice, almost invariably fail to give practical and substantial reasons for enshrining the Voice into our constitution and how it will, in practice, improve Indigenous lives. For those of us who have had to work hard for what we have, the stark reality is that for some people their life problems are self-inflicted and can essentially only be solved by themselves. The continual infliction of blame and shame on non-supporters of the Voice for past inhumanity in which they had no involvement and for which they find abhorrent only creates social and community division and racism.

Most societies recognise and have learnt from their past indiscretions, as Australia has, so looking in the rear view mirror does not help us going forward.

CONCERNING the Voice debate, the Bible has some helpful and unhelpful analogies. All the years of Christian teaching in western cultures has coloured the way we see black and white. White has always stood for purity, cleanness and sinlessness, while black has always stood for impurity, uncleanness and sinfulness.

This teaching, no doubt, has impacted the way we view our brothers and sisters in humanity and has contributed to racism throughout the world.

A helpful analogy is found in 1 Corinthians 12-26; "When one member suffers, all members suffer with it, or when one member is honoured all the members rejoice with it".

Groups including Fair Australia and Advance Australia, whose members include Jacinta Price and Warren Mundine, would have us all move forward as equals while pushing the 'no' vote in the upcoming referendum. As in any relationship until there is acknowledgement of pain and wrongdoing including past and present crime and reparation begins, there can never be a true coming together and advancement in this country. In other words, wrongs must be acknowledged and righted otherwise our nation as a whole will continue to suffer.

Respect together with a Voice to Parliament is a way we can begin to repair wrongs and inequalities. Many are putting unhelpful and downright untruthful spokes in the wheel. From what I hear, Fair Australia is playing unfair and Advance Australia should be renamed Advance Australia Scare.

I'D be interested to know if John Ure ("Tradition no backward step", Letters, 7/7), has any facts to back his claim that the "vast majority" of our Indigenous population live in "appalling conditions", as it's a view I disagree with. My job has me working daily in a wide range of suburbs; from the affluent to the poverty stricken, those latter suburbs fill me with despair for the residents and wondering what the future holds for them, all of them, whether Indigenous or not.

I'd be interested to know how the crime, suicide and life expectancy rates etc of those non-Indigenous Australians living in those areas compares with Indigenous Australians. Imagine living in those communities and knowing that a large percentage of your better-off Australians care more about your Indigenous neighbour than they do about you.

IS Australia the only country in the world that has three flags as our national emblem? In hospitals, police stations, bridges, government buildings, every Labor press conference you see it, and all of this for just over 3 per cent of the population. I find it absolutely ridiculous. The government has gone bonkers.

IT'S been really disappointing to see Liberal Party and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton whining that the robodebt royal commission findings are being "politicised". In my opinion, his political party's representatives acted on their political ideology as justification for the political policy they pursued when in political power; of course it's political.

THE royal commission's findings confirmed a disgraceful, shocking chapter in our Parliament. If it occurred in the corporate world I believe shareholders would demand that heads roll for the $1.8 billion cost, not mentioning prison sentences.

FROM the party that brought you robodebt to punish Australians for being poor now comes the new and improved vote 'no'' to punish Australians for being Indigenous.

GREG Hunt ("Trump name gets a bad deal", Letters, 7/7), I reckon most things "Trump" are absurd.

BRIAN Measday comments coal and natural gas is "a prime cause of human-induced climate change" (Short Takes, 7/7). I would like to be enlightened to the proof.

ON a recent train trip to Sydney we noticed the shunting area near Broadmeadow and Cardiff is part of the new fleet of trains. These have been there for quite a few months. Why not give them over to the homeless to use during the winter months? Seems a waste to see them not being used. Obviously there are still issues with using them on the train network.

BRIAN Measday (Short Takes, 7/7), coal has improved the lives of billions of humans. Coal is king, and I say long live the king, the saviour of humanity.

UKRAINE is calling on Australia to donate unwanted trucks, 4WDs and utilities to support their front-line defence against Russia. While this may be a worthy cause, I suggest you don't give a vehicle you wouldn't take into outback Australia because it's unreliable or unsafe to drive. Maybe the MTA can get involved? Surely there are trade-in vehicles they can give that are rather shabby, but mechanically and structurally sound, preferably diesel powered because it's less volatile than petrol. Maybe a battery manufacturer can give batteries? A motor vehicle is only as good as the battery. I wouldn't want to be dodging bullets with a dead battery in an unreliable vehicle. As for ancient APC vehicles, yes they are old, but, if reliable, they are better than nothing.