TRUST is earned. The recent situation of lack of freedom of information is not isolated to Stockton beach proposals ('Stonewalled: the secret report you're not allowed to read', Newcastle Herald 2/5).
Both state and local governments have in my opinion hidden information which should be readily available to interested parties, ie; not just those with possibly vested interest in development and tenders.
We see journalists being raided for producing news that may make some people in power uncomfortable.
This is the time when we need to be confident in the integrity and goodwill of those who govern. They demand this trust of us. Return to school for the good of the economy, they say. Download the app, we are told, we have your best interests at heart. This information is not available for security, fairness and good business practice.
A relevant quote: "In regard to propaganda, the early advocates of literacy and a free press envisaged only two possibilities: the propaganda might be true, or the propaganda might be false. They did not foresee what in fact has happened, above all in our Western capitalist democracies - the development of a vast mass communications industry, concerned in the main with neither the true nor false, but with the unreal, the more or less totally irrelevant. In a word, they failed to take into account man's infinite appetite for distractions."
This quote, by Aldous Huxley, was written in 1927, close to 100 years ago. Has much changes? The book was not his fiction but Proper Studies.
Lyn Rendle, Rankin Park
COOK UP GREATER RESPECT
MAY 10 marks the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook sailing the Endeavour past Nobbys and the mouth of the Hunter. How should we regard this anniversary?
All of my ancestor streams came to Australia between 1790 and 1855. Our family has been here for a long stretch of white history. But, as John Maynard reminds us ('1770: a collision of catastrophic proportions', Opinion 2/5) it is a mere drop in the ocean compared to Indigenous history.
Although it is self-evident, it is sobering to know that my original migrant ancestors came from England to Australia by boat. I believe that they invaded the land and stole it from the Indigenous people at the behest of Great Britain. This action has caused untold misery to Indigenous people and it remains a source of deep insecurity to non-Indigenous. But I also believe that Cook and those that followed deserve respect and admiration for their achievements. We have to recognise and respect each other's heritage. We have to identify the bad things about our history and we deserve to celebrate the good bits. I cherish the Cook we learned about at school and regret the consequences of the British invasion.
Our thoughts on Australia Day, Anzac Day and the Cook anniversary all heighten our awareness of non-Indigenous relations with Aboriginal people. At the same time, the coronavirus might generate greater interest in Indigenous tourism. Good: we non-Indigenous Australians need to understand our history in all its complexities and we need to know the Aboriginal stories about Cook and those who followed.
How can we use these new understandings and sensitivities to bring about better opportunities for Indigenous people, and to reconcile non-Indigenous people to the ugly side of our history?
Roland Bannister, Newcastle
WE CAN'T PHONE IT IN
DOES anybody else find it incredulous that so many people refuse to download the COVIDSafe app because of privacy concerns? Given that they have already entrusted social media sites with a full running commentary of their personal lives, what else have they possibly got to jeopardise their privacy?
In order to return society to some sort of normality, COVID tracing will be absolutely vital for health authorities to identify the spread of infection in the event of a second wave. Since a vaccine seems unlikely to be available before 2021, in my opinion anti-COVIDsafe appsters are putting their heads in the sand to ignore community safety, not to mention their own. Get it done.
Zenon Woloszyn, Rutherford
MEET NEED OR WE BLEED
MANY still do not take this contagious coronavirus war seriously. We should, and we should take our cue from Taiwan to all wear face masks and allow our phones to track down contacts and quickly defeat this highly contagious and deadly virus.
We have almost 7000 cases and 96 deaths; Taiwan has 438 cases and six deaths. We have 25 million people and Taiwan has 24 million people, but the whole of Taiwan could fit in the Hunter Valley. Imagine how easily a virus could be transmitted in such a densely populated country.
It did not happen in Taiwan, there was no lockdown, schools stayed open, and the shops stayed open. Taiwan had learnt from the SARS coronavirus outbreak in 2003, so social distancing and face masks were implemented for everyone; temperature checking at the border was mandatory; mass testing was implemented; infected persons were home-isolated and phones were used to track down people who had contacted infected persons. The virus was quickly shut down. I believe our response has been ten times less effective.
We should heed the lessons from Taiwan. Everyone should wear face masks when outside home, and everyone should download the COVIDsafe app to allow fast contact tracing. With 15 million Australians on Facebook, surely 15 million of us can download the COVIDsafe app. Complacency will surely mean more deaths, more lockdowns and more economic bleed.
Tim Roberts, Callaghan
GIVE A SPORTING CHANCE
PAT Garnet (Letters, 5/5) seems to have overlooked sports such as boxing and wrestling, as being designed to contact others with cold, calculated force to the body.
For as long as I can recall men, and nowadays, women have been engaged in physical combat in the name of sporting contests.
I take umbrage when you refer to me, and others, as being arrogant and selfish merely because I choose to be a supporter of rugby league. I have been obeying the rules of COVID-19, as set down by law and will continue to do so. I feel sure that the NRL officials will come down hard on players who infringe in the future.
Robert Tacon, Adamstown Heights
HELP BEYOND CUTTING EDGE
I FULLY support the downloading of the COVIDsafe app in order to assist in the tracing of the coronavirus. I was very disappointed to find that I was unable to download the app due to the incompatibility of my three-and-a-half-year-old phone. I wonder how many other people are in the same position, and also how much effort was put in by the government to recognise the situation before the app was released.
Robert Learmouth, Dudley
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.
SHORT TAKES
SO often I've seen or heard of reports stating that better students are those whose parents help their children with homework and who themselves are strict on school work being completed. Well, you could knock me over with a feather. Why on earth do expert reports have to be commissioned to report on what any reasonably, sensible person knows? Common sense is now no longer common in so much of modern life. Everybody is waffling on about education, so I'd like everybody to define precisely what education for our children actually is. I'll start by quoting a close business associate: it's not so much a matter of back to basics; rather forward to fundamentals.
Howard Hutchins, Chirnside Park
I TOO feel I must say something about Jeff Corbett's declaring a hand shake a dirty custom. I am over 70 and have shaken thousands of hands in friendship, greeting and respect for the person. I have never come across the situations he described in his article. All these people I am sure have had respect and have followed the basic hygiene standards for the benefit of others.
Barry Fong, Warners Bay
MY granddaughter had a sore throat yesterday and went to get tested. She was told at one site she needed a referral, so went to another where a referral was not needed but was then told it would be four hours before she could be tested. This was in Queensland, so it may be different in NSW. If it is not, then I believe we have a long way to go before we can rely on data concerning the incidence of coronavirus.
John Hollingsworth, Hamilton
MILTON Caine (Letters, 4/5), Stockton beach has always been a surfing beach and should remain that way. People don't want a boat harbour on Stockton beach. Experts say offshore dredging and replenishment in the right areas will reduce wave action and erosion to the beach. There's no cheap or easy fix with any of the options. This situation has been argued, debated and studied for far too long now with still no result. Offshore dredging is the best option in my opinion.
David Berlin, Cameron Park
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's declaration this week that the administration had "enormous evidence" that the COVID-19 virus had originated in a research laboratory in Wuhan, China reminded me of a similar declaration by his Republican predecessor Colin Powell's statement to the UN in 2003 that there was "solid intelligence" the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
David Simmons, Merewether
I'M in full agreement with Ian Thomas's letter (5/5) regarding single-file walking and cycling on shared pathways, although whoever was the hardest of hearing of the pair would have to walk at the front on a calm day then change to the rear if they suddenly encountered a strong and blustery head wind.
Bryn Roberts, New Lambton
WE will never have to worry about China invading Australia if this government keeps selling it off; they will soon own the place. I believe it's an absolute disgrace.
