FORGET all this talk about demolishing the old Newcastle post office! This wonderful, significant historic building should be restored and saved at all cost. Yes, it is time for the powers to be in Newcastle to bring this issue into the spotlight.
Colin Rowlatt, Merewether
Time to put pressure on project
I have a suggestion for Denise Lindus Trummel ('City jewel can shine again", Letters, 3/10).. You should go down to Darling Harbour at Christmas and look up at the colourful, animated dancing Santa filling the giant eastern faade of Jerry Schwartz's lovely Sofitel building. That's his gift to Sydney. Compare that with his gift to Newcastle: a black-shrouded, decaying eyesore long past its prime, which he had promised to restore for the good of the city.
It's time to put the pressure on. If he has developed cold feet, and no one else is willing to put up the substantial amount of money needed, then there is no alternative to demolition. It cannot remain like it is: a laughing stock.
Denise, I too worked in a post office in my teens. We didn't have time to critique the architecture, with Melbourne University and Victoria's Roads and Traffic Authority on our beat, as well as hundreds of businesses and thousands of households to look after. And we learned to spell every name.
I did make one howler though. I relayed a telegram by telex to say "The stalk had visited" instead of "stork". The all-male staff took great delight in the accidental double meaning.
Ray Dinneen, Newcastle
No need for nuclear here
Your correspondent ("Nation must farewell coal, welcome wind", Letters, 2/10), notes that the UK has shut down its last coal-fired power plant, with a third of its power now coming from wind and solar "in a country where many Aussies would argue that the sun rarely shines".
In fact, the UK averages about 1400 hours of sunshine per year (16 per cent of the total hours in the year, averaged over 30 years of data); Australia averages 3000 hours of sunshine (34 per cent of the total hours, from more than 100 years of data).
The UK also uses nuclear power, however its five operational nuclear nuclear plants produce less than 15 per cent of the nation's electricity needs.
This does not include the Hinkley C nuclear project, initiated almost two decades ago with a proposed activation date of 2017, at a cost of £9 billion ($17.4 billion AUD). The latest aspiration is that one of the two units in the plant may be operational by 2031 at an estimated cost roughly five times the original cost. That is in a country that has a well-established nuclear industry.
Australia is indeed fortunate to have abundant sunshine, wind and water such that it does not need to pursue the folly of nuclear power.
John Ure, Mount Hutton
We're missing a power Plan B
IN response to the letter by Jeff Fothergill ("Nation must farewell coal, welcome wind", Letters, 2/10). I'm afraid I do not understand his logic. He states that "the last coal-fired power station in the UK shut on September 30" apparently after 140 years of coal usage. He says "a third of UK power comes from wind and solar", I say "terrific". What about the other 16 hours per day? One can only assume that the UK also has nuclear power for the times when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow.
Unfortunately in Australia we don't have nuclear at the moment and probably won't for many years. Our biggest coal fired generator, Eraring, is scheduled to close in 2027 and Bayswater in 2033. It looks like we are all going to freeze in the dark.
Would it not be smart for the government to buy back the Bayswater Coal Lease (now Mount Arthur), which it sold to private enterprise in the '90s and BHP are planning to close in 2030. It has coal reserves of greater than 5 billion tonnes (yes, 5 billion tonnes) which could supply coal to all the coal-fired power stations in NSW for 100 years, or until such times as we have a reliable baseload substitute that can give NSW a guaranteed supply of base load power for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately renewables cannot do this for years to come.
Kim Schofield, Singleton
Green boost isn't providing bang for buck
NOW Origin Energy has abandoned its plans to develop hydrogen in the Hunter and it comes after Andrew Forrest's company Fortescue scaled down their green hydrogen energy targets ("Hydrogen bombshell", Herald, 4/10). Energy Minister Chris Bowen touted the Kooragang Island project would be able to "deliver a safe, reliable, and commercial-scale hydrogen supply chain" and would create hundreds of jobs. Added to promises of gas turbines at Kurri (that will now run on diesel fuel) and solar panel production at Muswellbrook who are putting off staff, Mr Bowen's promise of making the Hunter region an energy superpower is up there with the fast train to Sydney. Mr Bowen has spent a lot of taxpayers' money with no jobs created, the energy crisis getting worse and our electricity bills still going up.
John Cooper, Charlestown
What did it cost the taxpayer?
I NOTE that Origin Energy have announced that they are walking away from the so-called Hunter Hydrogen Hub. Just as Twiggy Forrest has walked away from a similar project. One would wonder what subsidies and grants of taxpayers money the federal and state governments handed out to these projects and will it be refunded.
Sandy Buchanan, Largs
Few positives to negative gearing
Times are changing, and negative gearing is a practise that's passed its use-by date. Getting into the real estate market is a pipe dream for many young people who find the price of participating an impossibility. I confess I have benefited from this practice, as have most current serving politicians, however it's time to blow the full-time whistle, grandfather any existing cases and level the playing field.
Aidan Ellis, Charlestown
Not everything deserves a debate
The Coalition: We must have a sensible, adult debate on nuclear power. Also, the Coalition: There will be no debate on negative gearing and capital gains tax.
John Arnold, Anna Bay
Priorities in passport renewals
I WAS trying to renew my Australian passport, but found that all resources have been placed by the Albanese government to renew Australian passports that have lapsed belonging to Australians living in Lebanon who may need an escape route home to Australia.
