STEVEN Busch seems to think they can't be serious when it comes to getting a booster jab. Health advice is a very serious matter to help stop the spread of COVID. I've had my booster jab because I believe I am doing my part to help my family, friends and the community. My message is get vaccinated so we all can at least get some of our life back.
Phil Payne, Gateshead
'Judicious' matter of opinion
CRAIG Helpdew, (Short Takes, 26/11), certainly got wound up about his support for the anti-lockdown, anti-mandatory vaccination protesters fighting for their freedom, constitutional rights etc. for themselves and all Australians. He is, of course, quite entitled to his opinion, but to call these protesters "judicious members of our society" is to me really stretching the friendship.
The word judicious means "possessing sound judgment and being discreet" - hardly an accurate description of most of these protesters.
Craig then goes on to say that anyone who opposes the thoughts and actions of the protesters is an anti-freedom, pro-lockdown totalitarian goon. I think the protesters are goons and in most peoples' opinion just a disruptive nuisance.
Ian King, Warners Bay
The greatest gift is connection
There is no doubt that 2021 has been a tough year for most Australians and with the arrival of Omicron things continue to look uncertain. Our latest festive season survey has found that for many this time of year is particularly stressful and lonely.
Australian Red Cross' annual loneliness data shows significantly more women and younger people are feeling lonelier this festive season. People reported the pandemic has changed their relationships with others and the way they see the world.
Our team of volunteers will be making calls throughout the festive period to those who are vulnerable and isolated, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank our volunteers for their work this year.
I would also encourage people to check in on your neighbours and friends to see how they are going or pick up the phone to someone you have lost touch with.
Let them know that people do care and put a smile on their faces. A simple, yet thoughtful gesture could really make their holiday. To support our everyday work, including building community connections, go to our website, where you will also find tips on the small things you can do to change the world.
Poppy Brown, Australian Red Cross director NSW and ACT
Repairs on road too regular
ON Tuesday night City of Newcastle council was again resurfacing Scott Street for the fourth time since 2017. No road in Newcastle has received such attention in living memory that I know of. The council claims this is to create a "stronger, longer lasting and safer road".
I believe the reason the road is being milled and replaced is because the temporary speed humps installed as part of the race track construction produce so much vibration they damage the race track surface underneath as well as the surrounding buildings. Measurements by professional acoustic engineers have shown the extent of vibrations since 2017, but my understanding is the council has ignored the reports that residents have supplied. Now it is replacing the temporary speed humps with permanent speed humps (the first on the corner of Watt and Hunter Street about a month ago). Apparently these speed humps will then be milled out prior to the race at even more cost to ratepayers only to be replaced after the race. I believe the council is unlikely to come clean on the real total cost of the Supercars fiasco but ratepayers are paying big time for this folly.
John Davies, Newcastle East
Tricky path to fix pavement
PAUL Scott ("Hazard rights: Just trippin' on the mean streets of Newy", Opinion, 13/12), has eloquently expressed my experience about some streets in Wickham. I haven't noticed if there are any "old men" who might fall in the street where I live. There is an "old woman" - me.
According to Paul, "in 2002 the NSW Government and council was, in most cases, no longer responsible for a trip and fall on a footpath. However, if the council was aware of a hazard and had failed to act and rectify the problem, that might result in a different outcome".
If that "old woman" falls or trips and is injured, the council will be held responsible because I advised them online about four months ago of what are in my opinion several hazards causing dangerous, unsafe footpaths on Fleming Street in Wickham. Wickham would have been one of the earliest suburbs to be subdivided for general housing. That's a long time ago.
Pat Garnet, Wickham
Wealth increases a bit rich
DON Fraser, (Short Takes, 15/12), where have you been for the last two years? Australia's 10 wealthiest billionaires increased their combined wealth by $68 billion during the pandemic at last count.
That largesse includes tens of millions of taxpayer dollars through the LNP's mismanaged JobKeeper program - money that should have gone to keeping the "thousands of Aussies (that) lost their jobs" in a job.
The government refuses to recoup any undeserved JobKeeper funds from the billionaires or place higher taxes on them. Yet you blame essential workers demanding a pay rise as the cause of Aussie job losses?
The top 1 per cent of wealth owners in this country have got people who think like you right where they want you, ready to vote against your own best interests in preference to what's good for theirs.
John Arnold, Anna Bay
Taxing questions need answer
TAX reform is hard and unpopular. Neither major party wants to stir up voters by committing to definitive tax reform in the lead up to a federal election. Certainly, after the last federal election's debacle, Labor doesn't want to commit to any definitive tax reform.
But Australia's tax system has long needed serious reform. Taxes should be efficient and equitable- whatever 'equitable' means. Efficient taxes are simple, hard to avoid, cheap and easy to collect and easy to pay.
Various tax reforms have been proposed, such as the replacement of inefficient transaction taxes with an increase in GST. Another proposal is the adoption of a two-tiered Nordic system in which direct personal tax is progressive, poverty traps are minimal, and all other taxes have a uniform rate.
To reduce the generational inequity that the existing tax system is causing, I propose a wealth tax. Such a tax would not be paid by individuals during their lifetimes. But their estate's liability to pay it would build up. Tax avoidance loopholes such as gifting and family trusts would be abolished.
Under any new system, there should be no tax advantage for anyone, if their income tax accountant labels their income as 'company income', 'trust income', 'dividend imputation', 'capital gain', a 'loan' or anything else. Income tax deductions would be selectively abolished. Indeed, serious tax reform should put a lot of tax accountants out of business.
Geoff Black, Caves Beach
SHORT TAKES
LOOKS like Freedom Day might be D Day for the unvaccinated. The virus is spreading faster than a rumour at the local bowling club. If it's anything like a Fingal Bay rumour it will spread to mars in a flash.
Steve Barnett, Fingal Bay
IT it possible that I am the very last of the Newcastle Herald letters to editor contributors who still thinks that ScoMo and his team are doing a reasonable job?
Alan Hamilton, Hamilton East
THANK you Peter Devey, (Short Takes, 12/10), despite not drinking, I'll drink to it too. I'm not really a gambler either, but I'd get in on it. The bar that a friend of mine works behind closes at 2am, but the pokies are open until 3.30am. They still have sober people turn up after 2am to play them. Another friend said newsagencies were selling a lot more lotto tickets during the lockdown. They also had customers buy bulk amounts of $1 scratchies, with some admitting it was because they couldn't play the pokies. If anyone says gambling can't occur without alcohol, I'd ask that they show me any newsagency that serves drinks.
Adz Carter, Newcastle
DON Fraser, (Short Takes, 15/12), the people asking for pay increase are no greedier than the people who employ them. In my opinion, less so. Most of those people would be financially unable to aspire to home ownership. Have a think about those among us who are able to afford multimillion-dollar properties. Let us not reduce ourselves to the "can't they eat cake" naivete.
Marvyn Smith, Heddon Greta
HERE in the United States of Australia, Aussies are entitled to free Assange. This political prisoner, Assange, will stand out as a symbol of Western democracy's hypocrisy for decades to come. The days of all the way with the USA are over. No more Australian politicians dancing to American war tom-toms. Why do we here in Australia not need a plebiscite to go to war, instead of following American lies to go to war? Mr Assange's Australian passport is in my opinion not worth the paper it is printed on, as he is left like a shag on a rock.
Richard Ryan,Summerland Point
COULD you, or a reader of the Herald, give me a clue as to what is all the so-called TV advertising for Black Friday sales? When I was a young fellow, working in the heavy industries, we only had Good Fridays; good because we got a holiday and we also got paid each Friday. The last Black Friday (13th) occurred in August 2021, the only one this year and the next one appears on May 13 in 2022. What should we have next? White Weekend? Because in 2020, February had all Saturdays (all five), May, August and October the same. March, May, August and November had five Sundays. In 2021, numbers were about the same, but next year, 2022, there are 5 Saturdays in January, April, June, October and December. Confusing?
