WE used to have a public holiday for the Newcastle show.
This was to be reinstated by our current lord mayor in late 2014 ('Nuatali Nelmes moves to reinstate Newcastle show holiday', Newcastle Herald, 5/12/14). This may have just been populist campaigning at the time or maybe the makeup of the former council may have blocked it.
Either way, I feel that Newcastle workers are being short-changed. The numbers have been behind the lord mayor for the last two terms of council, during which time this resolution could have been passed.
If not a show holiday, then why not another major event such as the Events NSW-endorsed Supercars race or the Newcastle Cup horse race? Our rates have massively increased over the past eight years, but there appears to be little to show for it out in the suburbs. Is there any support for this, or am I the only one feeling a little let down?
Stephen Edwards, Fletcher
Chasm between public and private
AFTER spending the day rattling between two institutions - one private, one public - I was made very aware of the yawning chasms between the two.
Walking into the private venue was the equivalent of walking into a five star hotel. It was spacious and modern with an abundance of staff who would escort their clients personally to their allocated rooms. The public venue, however, was in dire need of what could only be described as a makeover. I will not delve into the venue's condition any further. The staff were efficient and pleasant but in dire need of more numbers. The waiting rooms were filling and it was in the early morning.
The reason for the yawning chasms between them were these: one venue was being fed by credit cards while the other was being kept emaciated by a state government that was strangling funds and has a raging craving for privatisation. There's a lot of profit to be made out of the suffering of others.
The venues I'm referring to are hospitals. The NSW government should be ashamed of itself.
Nick Ryder, Booragul
Fitness in the future
HAVING my evening red and my usual 'Nostradamus moment', I was contemplating how fit many Australians are going to be, starting in the very near future.
My thoughts were being applied to the young, the old and invalid alike and especially those living in high rise buildings in the major cities of the Australian east coast.
My thoughts envisaged lifts with no power to drive this accepted mode of traversing levels within a building.
I thought how fitness will be gained climbing stairs instead of using unusable 'dead' lifts, whether it be for an hour, a day or every alternate day based on street numbers.
My thoughts then drifted to the aged or invalid citizen that if they are out they can't get in OR if they're in, they can't get out!
I just sat and sat pondering these things, finished my red and wondered who else might be also sitting pondering such a plight coming to pass!
Here endeth the lesson!
Neil Allen, Newcastle East
Workplace reform
TONY Burke, the federal employment minister, will soon introduce bills into parliament that reform the labour market and begin to fulfil some of Labor's pre-election promises.
The main thrust of this reform is a start to redressing the gender pay gap. Why should women be paid less than men when they are doing the same job with the same employer? Why shouldn't they talk about it?
A more contentious reform, cheered on by the ACTU, but raising the ire of employer organisations, is multi-employer bargaining within an industry. Do we seriously want a return to the bad old days of industry-wide strikes and industrial mayhem? Individual employers within an industry cannot be made to provide wages and conditions that they can't afford, otherwise they will start sacking employees or wind up. They must be allowed to opt out of any multi enterprise agreement or award. So, why have industry-wide agreements at all?
Perhaps the most important reform, that John Howard and Peter Reith will vehemently oppose, is the reinstatement of minimum pay and conditions that have been lost. For the last 20 years, under enterprise agreements and awards, workforces have traded off hard-won workplace entitlements such as job security, leave and overtime allowances for extra pay. But despite this, real wages have declined.
If and when workplace entitlements are restored to enterprise agreements and awards, to ensure compliance, each of them will need to be scrutinised by the Fair Work Commission. In future, any award or agreement that is up for renewal will need to pass the Fair Work Commission's BOOT (better off overall test) without trading off these reinstated entitlements.
With more job security for young, low-paid workers, many more of them will obtain home loans and buy their own homes. But the housing reform that is most needed relates to taxes. Home owner-occupiers should receive the same tax breaks as wealthy home investors. That way, generational inequity can be reduced. Another advantage of restoring entitlements is that many workers could receive decent sick leave. The federal government should legislate this, prioritising front-line workers such as fast food deliverers, casual teachers, nurses, and aged care workers. If these people had decent sick leave, they wouldn't be tempted to go to work sick and spread infections in order to put bread on the table. In time, Australia could seriously reduce COVID infections, the number of new cases of long COVID and the COVID death toll.
Geoff Black Caves Beach
Time for action is now
IF the critics of Extinction Rebellion on this page are upset about the disruption caused to their daily lifestyles by recent protests, well gosh, wait until they discover what runaway climate change will do to their daily commute, trip to the races and annual holidays.
Professor Debra Roberts, co-chair of the IPCC, declared in February "Our report clearly indicates that places where people live and work may cease to exist, that ecosystems and species that we've all grown up with and that are central to our cultures and inform our languages may disappear ... so this is really a key moment. Our report points out very clearly, this is the decade of action, if we are going to turn things around."
We've been warned through science for decades that we are facing environmental disaster and societal collapse if our governments don't make some serious legislative decisions on saving the planet. The fossil fuel industry has had too much influence on governments and media for too long. Groups like Extinction Rebellion rightly believe the time to ask nicely for some legislative action is long over. The planet is not a natural resource to be exploited - it's a life support system.
John Arnold, Anna Bay
SHORT TAKES
IN regard to the Delany Hotel late closing hours debate: in 1924, NSW hotels closed at 6pm. These closing times operated from 1916 until 1955.
Phil Gilbertson, Newcastle West
BRITISH politics reminds me of a remark Spike Milligan made: "One day the don't knows will get in, and then where will we be?". As the anonymous American saying from the depression goes, "don't tell my mother I'm in politics - she thinks I play the piano in a whorehouse."
Richard Ryan, Summerland Point
IN reply to Les Field (Letters, 19/10), I realise that speedos read slightly higher than the true speed of the vehicle, but my point is that a driver can't be expected to be constantly taking their eyes off the road to check their speed. My car has a head-up display on the windscreen showing my speed etc, which is a great idea because I don't have to take my eyes off the road. But I could still inadvertently creep a few km over and get pinged. The stats show most mobile speed camera fines are for very minor speeding offences and this is the reason most people are complaining.
Ian King, Warners Bay
TALK the talk but can't walk the walk. The start of the great unravelling. How does that song go, Mr Bandt and Lydia Thorpe? Hypocrisy the path I tread is catching up with me! I thought the voters were to blind to see! That the greens are full of hypocrisy!
Steve Barnett, Fingal Bay
HEY Steve Barnett ('Locals only', Topics, 20/10), I used to surf Box beach back in the late 70s, early 80s. In those days we would get there at sunrise for perfect waves and would be lucky to see anyone before 10am. What an idyllic time it was. Over a number of years a different element arrived on the scene and these losers thought it was quite OK to break into our cars because the area is a little remote. They eventually turned us off going there. Not lumping everyone in that category but a few will always spoil it for the many.
Tony Morley, Waratah
I LISTENED to Peter Dutton decrying the ex-RAAF pilots being head-hunted by China to train their airmen and Anthony Albanese aiming to send a training team to Ukraine to do just that. Tell me the difference. Would we not be better off training our own reactionary force of young people to defend this country? National service for some might not be as big a no-no as we think.
John Bradford, Beresfield
STEVE Barnett, I concur with the honourable Rose Jackson MLC's public reaction on how she felt when Mark Latham finally quit the Labor party "THANK GOD!"
