LIFE is too short to waste time hating ("There's hate for cyclists", Newcastle Herald 5/12), but gee cyclists can be bloody annoying at times. There is room for improvement in the behaviour of both drivers and riders. Perhaps we need less talk about rights and more common sense and individual responsibility would help.
I believe a registration fee for cyclists using major roads and shared pathways such as the Fernleigh Track would at the very least remove one area of annoyance for drivers and walkers.
SUBHEAD
Dave Mc Taggart, Edgeworth
Pride in past, but it's a new era
IN response to Andy Lane (Letters, 30/11): there is no doubt that coal and related industries have provided an immense amount of jobs and prosperity throughout the Hunter's history. We are proud of that history. However, there is a global movement towards cleaner technology that sees demand for coal falling, investment diverting to renewable and clean technologies and corporate policies causing investors to reduce their exposure to carbon.
This issue should not be viewed in a partisan political way. Government (of any persuasion) must consult with industry, unions and workers to enact a plan to ensure workers are not left behind as fossil fuel industries diminish. The Hunter has seen this before when BHP closed. Only one third of workers found secure, full-time employment. Big business and the market do not care for workers and their families, only profit. People of the Hunter must stand together united and demand a fair and just process to ensure workers are supported into secure, well-paid jobs as the world transitions to newer and cleaner technologies.
John Black, Charlestown
Send a message in language
CONGRATULATIONS must go to the Australian Rugby Union for organising the Australian national anthem to be sung in both English and in the Eora language ahead of the Wallabies versus Argentina Test match on Saturday. According to the commentators, it was the first time it has been done in an international sporting event and certainly the first time at a Wallabies Test.
Olivia Fox, a Wiradjuri woman and student of Newtown High School of the Performing Arts, sang both versions and gave an inspirational and moving rendition.
It is time for this to be a widespread practice in all sporting events where Australia is represented and indeed on any occasion when the national anthem is sung. We would not be the first country to adopt this practice.
Further, some communities have included local Aboriginal place names alongside geographical locations signposted in English, but why not make this a widespread nationwide practice? If Ireland, Wales and New Zealand can manage it, then we can too.
Greg Archbold, Eleebana
Stockpile risk outweighs rewards
ORICA'S licence renewal for its storage of explosive ammonium nitrate on Kooragang Island is now due for renewal by the EPA.
This is an opportune time to require Orica to shift its time bomb out of harm's way and up the valley to where it is used in open-cut coal mines. ('Orica seeks to renew hazardous licence', Herald, 5/12).
Safework NSW and Joel Fitzgibbon may have given Orica the thumbs up on its ammonium nitrate storage, but Orica has incurred fines for past breaches.
Moreover, if Orica's ammonium nitrate stockpile goes up, it will be like a nuclear explosion, destroying Newcastle all the way up to Charlestown. Furthermore, like it or not, Hunter coal mining is on the wane, so less explosives will be required.
Novocastrians cannot risk it. Our lives are more important than profits.
Geoff Black, Caves Beach
Drastic action not taken lightly
JOHN Ure (Letters, 4/12), there's nothing "extraordinary" about Peter Devey's assertion.
Historians still debate as to whether President Truman was justified in dropping the atomic bomb on Japan.
Bestselling military historian Antony Beevor says that faced with the Japanese refusal to surrender, President Truman had little choice.
Robert James Maddox agrees with Truman's Secretary of War, Henry L Stimson, that using the atomic bomb was the "least abhorrent choice".
The overwhelming majority of America's political and military leadership, and scientists, at the time supported Truman's decision.
Conventional bombing by the Allies killed more innocent civilians during World War II than the atomic bomb.
Many historians consider the American firebombing raid on Tokyo, Operation Meetinghouse, on March 9, 1945 to be the deadliest military assault in history, killing an estimated 100,000 people.
Peter Dolan, Lambton
Quarantine line can't be porous
I WAS reading in another place matters concerning tourists skipping quarantine; yet I remember there was time in history when arriving in a country you had to go to quarantine before travelling free in the country. It seems the department of immigration must re-establish the process whereby when a visitor arrives they are directed to quarantine.
So long as the government claims the requirement for 14-day mandatory quarantine the process of arrivals at airports must change so that there is no skipping of the quarantine requirements.
In the latest case we have German nationals, while previously we had New Zealanders doing as they pleased when quarantine was required. As the government, in this case the Commonwealth government, has failed to have processes in place to deliver on their public statements of policy - that is 14 days of quarantine isolation upon arrival, may I humbly suggest that the government urgently create quarantine centres as all major entry points into Australia?
The now Q Centre was the quarantine centre for Sydney arrivals and was successful because it was isolated from the community and limited freedom was possible within the area for those on quarantine. If we have a policy position claimed, we must also have in place the infrastructure to enable the policy to be effectively and intentionally carried out. It is time for work to be done.
Milton Caine, Birmingham Gardens
Patron of the arts makes mark
I WISH to acknowledge the outstanding contribution of Debbie Abraham to the world of art and culture in Lake Macquarie, the Hunter and Australia.
In the Hunter we are fortunate to have three notable public art galleries that have been led over the years by notable directors. Debbie Abraham has also projected development across the sector in national forums. Thank you, Debbie.
Bill Storer, Charlestown
SHORT TAKES
WHAT really worries me is that our Prime Minister Scott Morrison is showing more concern over a meme from China than the actual atrocities found to have been committed by members of the SAS against Afghan civilians. Indeed, I believe he is actually undermining the Chief of the Defence Force, General Angus Campbell's actions.
John Queripel, Kotara
WHEN are we all going to wake up? It is now past time that we nationalise all Chinese interests and, above all, put huge tariffs on all Chinese goods. It is also high time that the government stop all of these handouts to won't-works and send them out to places that need labour. It is also time to create our manufacturing industry, stop foreign aid and start thinking that Australia comes first. It is also time that the government clamped down on dissidents. This is not what Australia was in the past, so let's all find our backbones and return to what we held dear, a free and proud country.
Dennis Crampton, Swansea
I'M sure the Chinese manufacturing sector did well out of the massive Black Friday sales.
John Bonnyman, Fern Bay
GEE whiz Donald Trump is going real well with his refusal to accept defeat in the presidential election. Apart from losing every legal challenge, except one, Trump paid for a recount in Wisconsin which resulted in Biden getting 85 votes more than he did the first time. Just can't help bad luck, eh? At least one US newspaper is reporting that Trump is wandering around the White House repeating over and over again "I won". To think, 74 million people voted for Wally in the White House. Mind you with 13 million plus Covid-19 cases; 267,000 dead and 93,000 currently hospitalised; just goes to show that large numbers of US citizens are just dumb, dumb, dumb. As Dr Fauci put it, inter alia, "if only we (US) could be as smart as the Australians".
Mike Sargent, Cootamundra
THURSDAY was International Day of People with Disability. The term disability replaced some horrible terms that were used to describe people with a disability in the past. This word displeases me because it does not mention anything about their abilities; some are slightly affected by their disability while others are very affected. But all these people have differing levels of abilities. I personally would like to see some other term used.
Peter Selmeci, Murrays Beach
ACCORDING to the latest news bulletin MPs could probably be the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available. This is not surprising because scientists have been experimenting with monkeys for years.
Robert Tacon, Adamstown Heights
STEVEN Busch (Short Takes, 4/12) you believe that doing away with daylight savings would reduce the use of air conditioning? The temperature would still remain the same in that six month period in the morning, afternoon and evening, regardless of what time we say it is.
