THE 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference is scheduled to be held in late October and early November. Australia will need to crank up some real and positive climate change action to avoid considerable embarrassment, but is it at all possible for our federal Coalition to act on climate change? The combination of the Liberals and the Nationals has resulted in any real action in relation to climate change, being near impossible. Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, pictured, has openly stated that he could lose his leadership role if he is involved in any move to set a 2050 date for net zero greenhouse emissions. The status quo of no real climate action is untenable.
Brian Measday, Myrtle Bank
We can't wait to act on freight
ARMED with my rudimentary knowledge of Australian common law, I have always believed that two parties cannot sign a contract that forces a third party to pay a penalty.
The container terminal must be a case in point. Surely the simplest solution would be to split NSW's containers business in half; Botany Bay would handle all freight for Sydney and south, and Newcastle would handle all freight north to our border. It's not rocket science.
Yes, NSW coffers would be liable for the compensation for cancelling the contract, but it would be a vote winner. You never know, Newcastle might go rogue and vote in a Liberal government.
On a related freight matter, it's about time NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance had another hard look at the price differential between road and rail transport. The income that the state treasury would lose would be covered by the greater volume.
Currently 8.166 million people are receiving the vast majority of their goods by road. That means double bogies chortling north, south & west over 801,000 square kilometres, spewing pollution all the way.
Of course increased goods trains would create more havoc at places like Adamstown gates, but that's an argument for another day. Pollies of all persuasion created these stumbling blocks, they are the people to remove those blocks now.
Maureen Dearing, Newcastle West
Without ring of steel, cases bled
I AM absolutely dumbfounded that a COVID checkpoint was not put at the Hawkesbury bridge stopping the so-called isolated Sydney people who have been continually coming to our area. At my business we have turned away over a dozen people from Sydney. They also deliver up here and do real estate home inspections, to name a few reasons to come here.
I have 60 staff who are now out of work and stock to throw out which was bought for a booked-out weekend. When is the government going to get tough on these rule breakers who have put Newcastle in this position? And please, get the shot. People are not worried about getting hit by a car, with odds of 600 to one, but are instead more worried about the vaccine odds of a million to one.
Stephen Smyth, Merewether
The COVID rules exist for a reason
WE can blame the governments for major mistakes like the Ruby Princess fiasco, hotel quarantine management and the blame for slow vaccine rollout is mostly state responsibility which due to the Delta variant caught them and everybody else off guard, but we are getting there.
The main blame however, can be put right at the feet of those intransigent citizens who put themselves first and the rest of us last by their irresponsible failure to follow the rules. Unfortunately, we will never be totally free but we can minimise the worst effects by simply following the common sense rules.
Garry Robinson, Mannering Park
Trees can go if we get silo artwork
REGARDING Bradley Perrett's article ("We must stop growing a 50-metre harbour hedge", Weekender, 31/7), suggesting that we have too many Norfolk Island pine trees, he has a point in respect to certain locations around the foreshore area however, I am sure that current and future residents of some high rise apartments would appreciate suitable trees, including Norfolk Island pines, placed so as to hide those eternally ugly wheat silos across the harbour.
In respect to the silos, Newcastle should follow the examples seen in numerous country areas and cover the silos with some attractive artwork.
John Pearson, Newcastle West
The nitty gritty of sewage testing
RECENT reports by Matt Carr and Gabriel Fowler say COVID-19 has been reported in sewerage around Newcastle.
I understand the samples are taken from the sewerage works at the lower end of the system. Why can't the system be sampled at various points up the line? The systems are well documented, and all run downhill. (or are pumped out of low areas)
If samples are taken up stream at various points, we will have a reverse contract tracing. Narrow down isolate and test. Second question. Is COVID traceable in the gas bled off the sewerage system?
Ian MacCormick, North Sydney
Lecturing China gets us nowhere
I AM not sure just how helpful or effective are the anti-China views expressed by Bradley Perrett in your recently published series of articles. Presenting things in such black and white categories is rarely representative of reality. Being a frequent visitor to China I find it difficult to understand how a resident in China for 16 years fails to understand the nuances of that emerging superpower.
To be so negative concerning China, lecturing it from a Western standpoint, gets us nowhere. A nation suffering a century of humiliation, as they understand it, at the hands of the West from 1840 to 1949, is not likely to change its behaviour when lectured by those who perpetrated that exploitation. That should be obvious.
China's growth has been astonishing, changing the geo-politics of our world, and lifting some 800 million of its own people out of poverty. It has achieved this without aggressive military means and is unlikely to risk destroying such success by military adventurism. We should understand the rise, not only of China, but of the whole Asian region as presenting a great opportunity, rather than a threat, for Australia.
Unfortunately much of our political leadership and commentariat seems to be blind to that, being instead caught up in an antiquated Cold War way of thinking.
John Queripel, Kotara
Rescheduled jab missed the point
FURTHER to my earlier letter regarding the delay to get a jab. My appointment was cancelled. I took it on myself to get an AstraZeneca injection from the clinic at Toronto which I was able to do the day after getting an appointment. Today I got an email that I have been issued a new appointment. Too little too late, the state government could not run a chook raffle.
David Reynolds, Charlestown
SHORT TAKES
A FRIEND, self employed in home maintenance, asked the police if he can keep working. The answer was if you get pulled over by the police and get booked you'll have to pay it. If you don't get fined you won't have to worry about it. Can you believe it? Surely we all deserve more clarity.
Ian King, Warners Bay
ON the back page of the census, it says that the data will be used for services such as the allocation of national funding for education,health and infrastructure. I thought that was allocated from the spreadsheet of marginal electorates.
Chris Peters, Newcastle
I AGREE with Peter Selmeci (Short Takes, 6/8). Surely not dying or getting seriously unwell from COVID-19 is enough incentive rather than getting cash payments. I'm very grateful for my two jabs and the protection they are giving me.
Adrienne Roberts, Kahibah
HEY ANTHONY Albanese, if you ever get back in power how about you give the $300 to the businesses and people, who are really struggling, not to people who don't want to get sick or die or help us get out of these lockdowns. Is Labor Party policies now what is ever popular with the sensationalising media? If the Morrison government spent this money, the first thing Labor would do is whine about our country's debt. Wake up Albo, your best work was on Today.
David Bennett, Nelson Bay
WE congratulate Will Ryan from Lake Macquarie and his crewmate Mat Belcher for their well-earned gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. Well done, good job. Novocastrians are inspired by your achievements and of those who represented Australia and their hometown. Also a big well done to our up and coming skate boarder Poppy Olsen.
Graeme Kime, Cameron Park
IF not for the lockdown I would not have read the great article by Michael Shellenberger in Saturday's Aurora. In my opinion it is a must read for this page's climate change alarmists who, unlike Mr Shellenberger, continue to deny the damage their distortion of the facts is doing to the mental health of our young people.
Dave McTaggart, Edgeworth
ONE of the benefits lockdown in Newcastle is we do not have the petrol heads hooning around our streets in their modified cars like a pack of show ponies. They are obviously home behind their front doors rather than behind their steering wheels. It was a lovely quiet weekend on our streets.
John Fear, Newcastle East
THE old saying that many a true word said in jest rings very true in a cartoon on Insiders. It depicts the PM dismissing the $300 payment for people being vaccinated. The finance minister also has his say with the words "why waste all that money on people who will never vote for you?"
Darryl Tuckwell, Eleebana
THE POLL
DO you expect the Hunter's lockdown to end on Thursday?
