Short-term gain for owners puts a long-term strain on rental market

GRAEME Kime ("Chopper should be sacrosanct", Letters, 7/2). You are calling for government funding of the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service. I would suggest that an even bigger organisation called the Royal Flying Doctor Service also needs to be funded by the government - it is an essential service for the medical needs of remote Australians. They could even combine the two services to make them more efficient.

ANTHONY Albanese and Grim Jim Chalmers are congratulating themselves for relieving the cost of living burden with a $15 a week tax break. Give us a real break. It will do nothing, especially when it's months away. The "tax break" will have gone on increased energy bills, home insurance, groceries, petrol, etc. The real cost of living pressure is being driven by Labor's renewables push and expenditure in concert with the demonisation of coal-fired power stations, resulting in power supply shortages, unreliability and price rises. Electricity is like food; when it is scarce the price goes up.

WIND turbines operate between 10 and 90 kilometres per hour, far more than the 30 percent of a day Carl Stevenson ("Windy waste of time", Letters, 6/2), suggests. Turbine generation varies continuously with wind strength, and long-term performance is measured by a capacity factor which expresses actual generation as a percent of the turbine's design capacity. Turbine capacity factors are expected to be 44 per cent for onshore wind and 54 per cent for offshore by 2050. Onshore wind and offshore wind patterns are often complementary, reducing the need for energy storage.

IT'S time; two words famously used in the 1972 federal Labor campaign. Back then there was a perceived need for change, and right now in Newcastle I believe there is certainly a perceived need for change in our representatives in council. This dissatisfaction has been felt by ratepayers for some time, but now community-minded members within the Labor party are listening.

I applaud Dr Ross Kerridge for stepping up and listening to what the community have been saying for some time ('Why I want to be lord mayor', Newcastle Herald 3/2). To all other candidates challenging, I wish them success and hope that we might finally see an end to the Labor bloc. More independents challenging too would certainly help. Let's all hope for change, but I hope voters return John Church.

WELL said, Margaret Mitchenson ("Correcting an 'unjust' tax is forgivable", Letters, 6/2). I don't think it's the role or responsibility of our current government, or any government, to prioritise helping those who already have the means to help themselves. Dave McTaggart ("PM must own broken promises", Letters, 2/2) may feel that the "big earners" who trusted Labor's pre-election promise on tax are entitled to an apology from the PM, but I feel that they are entitled if they expect an apology.

I would like to think that everyone understands that this is all about bridging the gap and correcting an unjust tax. However, I recently read a report regarding a woman complaining about this broken promise because she and her husband, who each earn $220,000, were going to be worse off by $8000. Meanwhile, there are other Australians out there who, on occasion, have to make the choice between buying groceries or paying rent. A couple on almost $500,000 per year will be fine. I find it odd that Liberal voters are so upset about this one instance of being misled by the prime minister. Perhaps they simply forgot all about what John Howard said regarding the GST, children overboard, and weapons of mass destruction.

I RECENTLY had a conversation with someone who is sceptical about the use of batteries in cars, trucks and buses. One of his claims is that batteries cannot be recycled. Once they are finished they have to be buried. Is this true? He also said that battery powered buses are not as powerful as diesel buses. He went on to say that battery powered buses cannot be used on some bus routes as the hills are too steep. Is this true?

Another claim was that the cost of batteries was such that when the batteries were finished they were too expensive to replace and it was more cost effective to buy a new car. Is this true? Can the same be said with buses, trucks and locomotives or rail motors?

My main concern; assuming these claims are correct, is that the minerals which go into making these batteries are a finite resource. Once these minerals are gone, then what? One could be excused for thinking that we are charging into a new energy source that will allegedly solve all our problems associated with climate change without thinking of the possible consequences or even if they will last for any length of time. I like the idea of renewables and alternative fuel sources, particularly if they are sustainable, but as I have often said in the past, we need to get it right. I just hope we are right this time.

CANBERRA'S Reckless Renewables protest had a ragtag bunch of climate change denying, fossil fuel supporting politicians stirring up the crowd. Many of the sympathetic politicians receive generous donations from corporations involved in the $6.6 trillion fossil fuel industry, so I find their credibility for real concern for the environment and society is in much doubt.

If they had been joined by Australian conservation activist groups and international entities like Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd, their claims would have held credibility with me. As it is, they appear to me pawns of fossil fuel industrialists.