PARKING was absolutely chaotic at last Saturday's Knights match versus the Parramatta Eels at 5.30pm. There was heavy traffic in the morning due to football (soccer) games held on Blackley Oval, and road closures occurred extremely early as three league games were scheduled at McDonald Jones Stadium from 1.15pm. The Newcastle Hockey Centre was also in use conducting games.
From 3pm onwards, living in close proximity, traffic was absolutely diabolical. Drivers were taking unnecessary risks and parking illegally.
Exiting the ground with a capacity crowd of almost 28,000, one can't help feeling concerned regarding safety issues. Basketballers absolutely need a new and modern facility, but proposing one in this area is ludicrous. A new, more suitable location is desperately needed. Surely common sense will prevail.
Katrina O'Brien, New Lambton
Hard to keep minding my business
YESTERDAY I was doing business with a supplier who informed me that the price of lamb had gone up due to the fact the company couldn't absorb the cost of paying 200 employees a 3.5 per cent pay rise. I know these employees are some of the hardest workers in the industry, and deserve a pay rise, but how does this not affect inflation?
Now my job involves mathematically seeing if our business can absorb the extra cost of lamb without raising prices for the consumer, as well as our employees getting their pay rise, which they deserve. This also extends to all other transactions with supply to a small business.
Costs are up: electricity, insurance, superannuation, basic customer needs, like bags (which we don't charge for) or EFTPOS fees, and many other things I won't mention. Then we have the government, state and federal, giving away bribe money in the form of electricity relief such as Queensland premier Steven Miles' promised $1000 per household and Albo's $75 a quarter. How is this possibly not going to create more inflation?
I can run a business, unlike most politicians, so could someone please explain how a small business continues to trade without raising prices and with government flooding the economy with taxpayer-funded handouts? How is this combination not inflationary?
Steve Barnett, Fingal Bay
One side doesn't justify the other
JAN Phillip Trevillian ("October 7th made deaths inevitable", Letters, 21/6), actually has his analogy reversed. Would New Guinea, Indonesia or Australia for that matter stand by while 60 per cent of the west of their country was colonised and its people pushed to the margins with increasing violence, week in and month out, for over 20 years before and rivalling October 7?
As any honest and impartial person can tell you, one doesn't justify the other. Not during protests or anti-terror operations, where school children are allegedly used as target practice by the army as well. Take 13-year-old Iman al-Hams with 15 army bullets in her body, for one.
I believe the army watches, even facilitates, while settlers enter schools and shoot at students and classrooms. There are street attacks and home invasions, often deadly, and often because the funeral will provide a target-rich environment. Farmers are sometimes killed for their land. This has all been documented by Israeli Jewish human rights organisations. It's been there for decades.
Colin Fordham, Lambton
Nuclear shift would be a waste
MEMO to federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton: nuclear reactors do not "burn fuel", like in furnaces or car engines.
Nuclear reactors generate heat by nuclear fission. That means splitting uranium atoms into unstable radioactive elements like Strontium-90, Caesium-137, Iodine-131, Technetium-99 and Radium-226. They also generate Plutonium-239.
As these unstable radionuclides decay, they continually emit gamma rays, alpha particles and beta particles that can cause thyroid cancer, blood diseases and leukaemia. Exposure can also lead to genetic damage.
Every year or so, they must be removed from the reactor, then stored in deep pools of water to be continually cooled for up to 10 years to prevent meltdown. Then they must be kept on site for another 20 or 30 years, in massive dry casks, as a precaution.
Over the long term there has been no proven safe site anywhere for securely storing the waste, which remains hazardous for aeons. If we pursue nuclear power here, management and storage of wastes will cost billions of dollars. It's a dangerous and expensive burden on future generations.
Kenneth Higgs, Raymond Terrace
Juniors paying price for wages at elite level
FOOTBALL clubs spending $100,000 to $300,000 on wages is only possible after parents and players pay nearly $2000 per season in the junior system and reserve grade. Clubs sign 15 or more players per team, generating income, but knowing a lot of these players will be lucky to get 20 minutes each week. The clubs say these players are getting elite coaching. If that is the case, why aren't Northern NSW producing more players of quality like Ray Baartz, Col Curran or Graham Jennings? Something seems to be definitely wrong with the current system.
David Howells, Elermore Vale
Vapes a dilemma for chemists
SO the government's going make it harder for smokers to get vapes, with consumers only able to get them through a pharmacy. What a dilemma for the chemist. Do they stock something that's bad for your health, or do they just think about the money? If the tobacconist goes broke, will the chemist be selling cigarettes as well? A moral dilemma for some, maybe.
Neil Meyers, Warners Bay
The price comparison is clear
IN answer to Allan Milton's letters ("Clear direction needed on energy", Letters, 26/6), the Australian Energy Market Operator manages our main energy, and also is responsible for identifying, planning and guiding the lowest cost grid transition plan that will meet our growing electricity needs and keeps the grid stable to renewables between now and 2050. They estimate this will require $122 billion, which includes 5000km of new transmission infrastructure. In contrast the cost of the Coalition's alternative plan, including nuclear generation, could be as high as $600 billion.
Richard Mallaby, Wangi Wangi
Code wars just some footy banter
HAHAHA Matt Ophir ("Two sides to footy code war", Letters, 27/6), can I add I like rugba league? It takes a lot of coordination to not fall over, as the opposition is trying to remove your shirt.
