THE least you could say about the results of the recent national survey on attitudes towards domestic violence is very disappointing, ("Victim blaming is rife, survey shows", Newcastle Herald 30/3).
If there had been no advertising information, no education, no public protests, no statistics and no personal accounts of women I could totally understand but there have been and that is why many women are going to feel let down, frustrated, angry, and depressed by the results.
Why is there still so much ignorance on the subject, and where do all the myths and misconceptions come from? Never be fooled into thinking domestic violence is not happening next door, down the street or anywhere in your suburb. It could be within your own circle of family and friends.
You may not hear screams and you may not see bruises. It isn't just about fists, but also about bullets from the mouth; humiliation, punishment, threats and keeping close tabs on you. The overall result of the survey shows that often people have no idea of the gravity of the situation, they don't always believe women and too often blame them.
Julie Robinson, Cardiff
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14 or 1800-RESPECT 1800 737 732.
Parking pain isn't isolated case
I SYMPATHISE in the extreme with the residents of Andrew Road at Valentine and their parking issues with the council. Sealand Road at Fishing Point's off-street parking has similarly been decimated, yet I believe all this can be averted if Lake Macquarie council was prepared to listen to sensible suggestions.
I implore the Valentine residents to contact me for a background to my investigations with this problem. Further, I also implore residents of Fishing Point and Rathmines who reside on Fishing Point Road between the Rathmines shops and Fishing Point headland to also contact me so that I can inform them of what will happen to their properties when kerb and guttering is instigated along that stretch.
Richard Devon, Fishing Point
Supercars survey methods matter
REGARDING Sage Swinton's story ("Survey question mark", Herald 29/3), can City of Newcastle please further explain its comments that there are ' ...methods in place to manage the integrity of survey data...' and '..best practice research methodology..'.
How? Will KPMG track and check IP addresses and delete those that appear more than once? If so, this was not detailed/forewarned to prospective respondents. Best practice research methodology ensures that respondents enter the correct age range, occupation/business ownership status, gender and suburb details. Self-report surveys have flaws. I am not convinced.
Also, I believe it's incorrect to claim it's "not possible to exclude people from outside of Newcastle". In my opinion it is unacceptable for non-ratepayers and non-residents to have any say on an event that does not impact them physically or financially.
Catherine Whelan, Newcastle
Rebuke in chamber a surprise
I HAVE listened to many council meetings and am always surprised at the responses given by the lord mayor to anyone who expresses a different view to hers. This time it was in response to a councillor requesting detailed breakdown of attendees at car races in Newcastle to assist in the determination of whether the car races should return for the next five years.
A reasonable question, I would have thought. The lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes' response was "my first thoughts were 'well if you've already worked out all of our attendance numbers why would we need to go back to Supercars and get them'". In my opinion one would expect a more civilised response from someone in her position.
Narelle Martin, Carrington
Tickets differ from attendees
I NEARLY choked on my muesli when I read this morning that Jeremy Bath said Supercars had committed to provide "similar ticketing information" to council for the 2023 Supercar race ('Crowd call shot down', Newcastle Herald, 30/3). Has Mr Bath forgotten the fiasco surrounding the 2017 race when Supercars announced a weekend attendance of 192,242?
No one in government, council or Supercars seems to want attendance figures published. In my opinion it is imprudent of the council and its officers to toe the line which Supercars propagate that the number of tickets issued equals the number of patrons who attend the event. I believe that one day the true figures will surface.
I live within the circuit. For 2023 I was allocated 30 tickets, yet no one from my household attended the event. Those 30 unused tickets will be included in Supercars 2023 attendance figures. By my calculation, in 2017, 57.38 per cent of tickets issued were given away. How many of them turned up?
Les Brennan, Newcastle East
Taxing the top offers no panacea
I BELIEVE it's Michael Hinchey, ("There's trouble in the hive", Letters, 29/3), who doesn't quite capture the reality of recent changes to superannuation. In 30 years the wealthy 0.5 percent of people handing over more honey for the hive will be a relatively less wealthy 10 percent, because there is no indexation of the $3 million superannuation threshold to inflation. Then there's the taxing of unrealised capital gains.
Herald financial guru Noel Whittaker wrote in March that such a tax would be "unconscionable", has always been recognised as a no-no and leads into very dangerous territory. At least when John Howard changed his mind about the GST he took it to the people at an election. As for Labor's "pet projects", I didn't have submarines in mind, but renewables reducing power bills.
Peter Dolan, Lambton
Not quite feeling free to speak
I AGREE with most of Amanda Vanstone's column ("It's time to cancel cancel culture", Opinion, 30/3) and I think freedom of speech is in real danger. Robust discussion is surely a sign of democracy at play.
There have been many times I have wanted to express my view on social media but refrained based on the backlash I expected. I think I am a reasonable person and don't have extremist views, but I have followed others who have sometimes expressed similar views only to be castigated.
It is time for us all to reflect and allow others to freely express their views even if they don't agree with your own. A good society is based around respect and healthy discussion not vitriolic comments or the shutting down of contrasting opinions.
Gary Fagg, Lakelands
Don't play with cards we're dealt
MEDICARE card details are now subject to ever more scammers, so why does Medicare want us to have our Medicare details on our phones? What if we dig our heels in and say no, we feel safer utilising the card rather than exposing our health information to possible scammers? Will Medicare fine us or ignore our card? We have had no dramas using card identification, so why fix something if it's not broken?
Graeme Kime, Cameron Park
SHORT TAKES
COUNCILLOR Mitchell Griffin, ("Election far from Labor landslide", Letters, 29/3), you conveniently forgot to mention amongst the NSW Liberal party's "achievements" the sell-off of Ausgrid and the leasing of Newcastle port. They're huge mistakes that they will be remembered for.
Matt Ophir, Charlestown
PAT Garnet's comment, ("There's a better way to ballot", Letters, 30/3), laments the sacrifice of a few of our 50 billion or so trees and requests ways to improve our current voting system. For a start we could ask all prospective voters for ID before they cast their vote, as well as implementing a system to prevent people from voting more than once. At present one can go to multiple polling booths, give the same name and address and state they have not voted before and they are given a ballot. With electronic voting and a unique authorisation code, you could only vote once and the tallying would be done in minutes, not days as under the present system. Look at all the trees we would save, not to mention the reduced carbon emissions in not having to drive to the polling booths.
John Cooper, Charlestown
WELL done to the Herald for printing regular sensible contributions from former Liberal minister Amanda Vanstone. Her latest piece ("It's time to cancel cancel culture", Opinion, 30/3) contains a sentence taking aim at those proponents of the Voice who label those against the proposal as racists. These types of comments smack of desperation from those with no other argument other than it'll make us feel good. It's the "vibe". It's just pathetic in my opinion. I believe the Voice proposal is, in itself, inherently racist, seeking to give one group of people greater voting power based solely on skin colour.
Greg Hunt, Newcastle West
IT'S important to know that the new oral medications, Lagevrio and Paxlovid for treatment of mild COVID-19 have been given emergency authorisation for oral use for the virus infections and have been subsidised for a people with a Medicare card since January 1 2023 so that they are now reduced from $42.50 to a mere $30. Concession card holders will be increased from $6.80 to $7.30.
George Paris, Rathmines
AS someone who is qualified in road design and has consulted with many road construction companies over the years, I would like to explain to Milton Caine in basic terms why the trees were possibly chipped and not logged. Where possible all top soil and vegetation will be removed, chipped and stored on site for later use in the verges and median strip. They try to minimise bringing in fill. I believe I've only seen logging done once and that was through Buladelah on the M1 where contractors were close. Hopefully this will explain why those trees weren't logged and only chipped as suggested.
