WHEN are our so-called leaders going to understand that local manufacturing needs to be supported ('Labor calls for ferry contract to be torn up', Newcastle Herald 25/8)? We have lost ferries, coal wagons and passenger trains to name a few, all to overseas manufacturing.
If we spend, say, $100 million on an imported item, we get the item, which is usually inferior to an Australian made item. Nothing else.
If we spend $100 mill on an Australian made item we get the item, $100 million into our Australian manufacturing industry, 10 per cent of wages going to superannuation, seven per cent to payroll tax, 30 per cent of wages to income tax, support for health care and jobs that reduce the impact on the dole.
From there workers spend on fuel, food, homes, services and cars, and don't forget there are tax collections on these as well.
You don't need a masters in accounting to make this stack up. The item could be double the price of an imported product and the numbers still favor locally. It's mad.
Tony Lobb, Carrington
History shows way for quarantine
A NUMBER of years ago my wife and I first visited the Q Station on the north head near Manly, and we have returned several times to stay for weekend visits to Sydney. This was originally a quarantine centre for people arriving into Australia from overseas.
I do recognise that we do not require that all travellers from overseas to be quarantined all the time, and yet from time to time we do need such a centre. The government chose to sell this large group of various buildings to a hotel chain, who have opened it up to be a an accommodation centre that suits many varieties of people. We have enjoyed our stays there very much. As well there is the historical receiving buildings for those needing to be quarantined, including the showers and the store rooms for the luggage that came with those who needed to be housed there.
It seems to me the decision to sell this was, as often is the case, unwise and has become more unwise as we go through this COVID-19 problem. If this was owned by the government and leased to the hotel chain, that agreement could include a clause that the government could re-occupy the premises if and when a quarantine emergency arose. Just compensation could be offered to the chain during the period the premises were being re-used for the quarantine purposes, but more importantly an isolated accommodation for persons who need to be quarantine would be available as is needed during such emergencies. The rest of the time the premises could be enjoyed by the holidaying public.
I would suggest the government seek to establish other such similar facilities with leasing arrangements that would permit the government to use such a centre as is required, while a hotel chain could use the premises as a holiday destination. Such an arrangement would create a usable quarantine centre so that quarantined persons would be isolated and yet free to roam beyond their own personal room in a secure and monitored environment.
Milton Caine, Birmingham Gardens
Deliver a message on mail's fail
SO Australia Post is now only going to deliver our mail every second working day, according to a notice in our letterbox. The notice says this is because letter volumes have dropped, which is probably true and to allow posties to deliver more parcels every day, which is all well and good for parcel recipients but a backwards step for people and businesses who rely on the mail deliveries.
They say this arrangement will remain in place until June 30, 2021. In my opinion you can bet your bottom dollar that this is something that will continue forever and a day. I can't imagine they will revert to five days a week once they get away with three days a week. Let's see how right I am in June next year.
To call the present deliveries snail mail is being more than generous when it takes six or seven days for mail to get from Hamilton to Warners Bay, as regularly happens to us. Whoever allows this retrograde step to go ahead should hang their head in shame. Jacking up the prices and cutting down the service seems to be Australia Post's mission in life.
Ian King, Warners Bay
Nothing passive in smoker choice
DARRYL Thurston (Letters 22/8) it's your choice to smoke, but the question is which disease will choose you.
That day will likely come when you're fighting to breathe in a respiratory bed or having your voice box removed, getting prepared for surgery to remove your leg because your veins can't supply blood to your limbs or spending another day immobilised from a stroke sitting in your own waste until someone comes to help, let alone the risks of lung cancer.
If this happens to you and the reality of your stupidity hits home, remember the day you complained about tax that pays for all of the treatment you will need.
I know how people often think it's not going to happen to them. Well, my mum died at 63 after 10 horrible years with emphysema. Dad survived throat cancer at 42 due to working in a smoke-filled pub and was a smoker only to have a massive stroke 10 years later and now my sister who wouldn't give up was recently flown to Sydney after a COPD attack due to emphysema at the age of 48. Her outlook is maybe five years.
Keep smoking if you want, but it's your choice to pay the tax.
Steve Barnett, Fingal Bay
Gas won't be economic panacea
WHILE the Australian gas lobby is campaigning for government subsidies and the federal government is promoting a gas-led post-COVID-19 recovery, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)'s Gas Enquiry 2017-2025 Interim Report is delivering a damning assessment of the Australian gas market.
It notes Australian customers are paying almost double the price of overseas customers, and the gap is widening. It adds the ACCC are "yet to hear a compelling reason from liquid natural gas (LNG) producers as to why domestic users are paying substantially higher prices", but makes it clear they don't think lack of supply is one of them, stating "there will be sufficient gas supply for the Australian market in 2021".
Federal government claims of increasing demand for gas appear inaccurate and unnecessary. Cheaper, cleaner wind and solar energy have increased by 70 per cent in our national energy grid since 2014, forcing gas use down by 29 per cent. The Australian Energy Market Operator's (AEMO), operators of the national grid, have prepared detailed plans for the transition of the grid to 94 per cent renewables that will provide cheaper wholesale power prices and require less gas in the electricity market. And these lower prices will also see electricity compete with gas for heating applications.
Richard Mallaby, Wangi Wangi
SHARE YOUR OPINION
Email letters@newcastleherald.com.au or send a text message to 0427 154 176 (include name and suburb). Letters should be fewer than 200 words. Short Takes should be fewer than 50 words. Correspondence may be edited and reproduced in any form.
SHORT TAKES
MICHAEL Gormly (Short Takes, 24/8) can in my opinion claim first prize for his observation that sometimes it rains, sometimes it's dry, sometimes the dams are full and sometimes not. I wonder whether Mr Gormly has observed that this phenomenon has been occurring for eternity and I'd assume will continue for eternity, or does Mr Gormly know more than he's letting on?
Brad Hill, Singleton
REGARDING the ferry contract ('Labor calls for ferry contract to be torn up', NewcastleHerald 25/8), I just wanted to make a note of what politicians are not talking about. If we build them here, and this includes rail, we benefit the whole economy as parts, manufacturing and follow up servicing is all provided by the workers of Australia. Government gets the benefits of less unemployed, a more skilled workforce and taxes paid by these workers. This government has a history of ordering trains out of gauge and now ferries that are too high in my opinion just shows that they have no idea on how to ensure proper specs are followed.
Glenn Jones, Weston
I NOTE that several church leaders have come out against the proposed Oxford vaccine for ethical reasons. The same basic process to produce this vaccine is already used in many other successful vaccines that have saved millions of their followers from terrible diseases in the past. It is a shame that they don't seem to be able to muster the same ethical reasons to prevent the terrible child abuse and cruelty that has gone on for decades in the past in their churches and institutions. Maybe this is why people are leaving their institutions in flocks. No pun intended.
Sandy Buchanan, Largs
ACCORDING to my cherry-picked statistics, Darryl Thurston (Opinion 22/08), is buying tickets in a lottery whereby about 15,500 Aussies die each year from tobacco-related diseases. If you continue to buy tickets you'll go in the draw again year after year. Remember, there are about 15,500 "winners" each year.
John Mackenzie, Hamilton South
UNIONS have found asbestos in the new ferries sourced from Asia and will not allow their use until rectified ('Asbestos found in ferries', Herald 24/8). Unions have also recently forced the state government to seriously inspect construction sites for adherence to safe workplace laws. While some wealthy, powerful people see workplace safety laws and asbestos bans as costly red tape preventing progress, unions rightly see them as protection of workers and society from needless deaths through dangerous activity. Thank your god of choice for unions because we can't trust the ruling class to protect us.
John Arnold, Anna Bay
WHILE I fully support the development of a container terminal, I believe most of the state 15,000 jobs will be in construction. The terminal will most probably be fully automated and controlled from a centre. That centre could easily be located somewhere in the Philippines.
