IT is hoped that Cessnock City Council has more influence with the Perrottet government than the developers of the new Huntlee town so that the lots are made bigger than the 217 square metre minimum approved ("Council vows to fight small lots", Newcastle Herald 24/11).
In the new estates in the Macarthur region, where similar sized lots were created, the residents are being subject to withering summer temperatures on a regular basis. So concerned were health officials that the government proposed that developers be required to put light-coloured roofs on all houses but developers objected, the requirement was abandoned and residents have been left to swelter.
Lots this small forces developers to remove all trees on the estate, leaving the homes with no heat cover and small lots prevent any planting of new trees. This is the new version of hot property, with air conditioning a vital part of residents' lives and power bills.
Frank Ward OAM, Shoal Bay
Power play hasn't been enough
TODAY we read that Origin Energy is thinking of extending the operational life of Eraring beyond the date set for its closure in 2025 earlier this year ("Coal your jets", Newcastle Herald, 25/11).
I believe that Origin's decision shows that the method of power generation is a commercial decision, based on the realities of available means of power generation and market forces.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine, energy shortages and the rising prices of power have certainly forced Origin's hand. But hopefully, the supply shortage which has created rising energy prices is only temporary.
In NSW, the long-term reality, despite the political rhetoric, is that renewables are unable to fill the gap in our projected power demands, since we haven't invested enough in them.
This is not the case in South Australia, where AGL will close its gas-fired Torrens Island B plant by 2026, because of "challenging conditions".
First among them is the new 'interconnector', linking the eastern states grid with SA's, is about to be completed. Presumably, with rising gas prices, the eastern states can supply power cheaper than a replacement gas-fired plant. Another 'challenging condition' is the 'ageing technology' of the Torrens Island B, that was built in 1976.
If AGL won't replace its gas-fired plant, the construction of a Kurri Kurri gas-fired plant is questionable.
Why is it going ahead? Were the NSW government and the previous Morrison federal government pandering to gas fracking interests by providing a market for their noxious product?
These days we don't read reports of conservative politicians and fossil fuel advocates mouthing off at South Australia's big mistake in installing its 'big battery', and its arrays of solar panels and wind turbines.
Geoff Black, Caves Beach
Time to unearth an old drawcard
LIKE Denise Lindus Trummel, ("Let's pool resources to bring back landmark", Letters 24/11), I have fond memories of the old children's pool and adjoining canoe pool at Newcastle beach.
The children's pool, opened in 1937, was laid out as a map of the world, with parts of the British Empire painted in red. As a kid, I enjoyed crossing the oceans from one continent to another.
The much larger canoe pool was constructed about 1940, despite the city council being warned that its closeness to the sea would see it quickly fill up with sand.
Sure enough, this is what happened and the children's pool was also affected. Constantly clearing the sand from both pools proved such a burden that they were eventually abandoned, with the children's pool being completely buried.
Now, we have the city council building a skate bowl on the sand's edge at the other end of Newcastle beach, again despite warnings that it too will face the same problem with sand as well as damage from stormy seas.
I believe that the council should forget about the skate bowl and devote the funds instead to restoring the children's map-of-world pool. This would complement the refurbished ocean baths and be a unique addition to Newcastle's tourist attractions.
Peter Newey, Hamilton
National service could serve some
THE closing of national servicemen organisations is understandable considering their age, and while they say six months out of their life was enjoyable for the first intake, the second intake was not so enjoyable.
Yes, 20-year-old males were selected by a ballot, but rather than six months of adventure, two years out of their life was lost with many forced to 12 months of active service in Vietnam that has troubled many lives ever since.
I reckon six months is acceptable for 18 year olds of both genders, provided active service is only for volunteers. To learn discipline, respect and self-values at 18 is not such a bad experience in life.
Of course, national service will never be enforced any more, however a volunteer brigade for six months of adventure to straighten out some who have difficulty with discipline and respect may be just what the doctor ordered.
Carl Stevenson, Dora Creek
Biodiversity can't be forgotten
WHAT an excellent article by the CEO of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Kelly O'Shanassy ("The other COP you need to know about", Opinion, 24/11).
The Newcastle Herald is to be commended for publishing it because the Australian media as a whole has given little attention to "the other COP" in Montreal, the biodiversity conference, coming up the first week of December this year.
It's good that Australia's Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek will attend because, as O'Shanassy notes, "For years, the nature crisis has lived in the shadow of the climate crisis" and "the two problems are intrinsically linked."
When releasing the State of the Environment report in July, Plibersek said, "good regional planning will help protect and restore the places with the greatest carbon and biodiversity value."
These places are surely Australia's native forests and marine parks. Perhaps the single most important decision Plibersek can make is to stop all logging of Australia's native forests. Strengthening the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act by implementing Professor Graeme Samuel's 38 recommendations and working out how to preserve 30 per cent of Australia's land and sea by 2030 will also go a long way to slowing extinctions and countering climate change. Young Australians await the minister's determinations with hope and high expectations. There has never been a more important time for her to make the right decisions.
Ray Peck, Hawthorn
SHORT TAKES
NEWCASTLE baths are 100 years old. I wonder how many kids Frank Sherrif taught to swim there.
Brian Boswell, Belmont
WELL here we go again: the Warners Bay branch of the National Australia Bank has announced that it is closing soon. The way things are going, an open and operating bank branch will soon become a tourist attraction.
Ian King, Warners Bay
REST easy Carl Stevenson (Letters, 25/11), your assertion of widespread industrial unionism is not supported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. A mere 14 per cent of workers belong to a union. Of these 52 per cent are in the education and training sector and professional organisations. All that both union and non-union employees want is a fair go. This has not been the case for a generation, the last 25 years or so. Read the Fair Work website and see who holds the aces. In addition your fear of collective enterprise bargaining could be allayed by a reintroduction of centralised wage fixing. This would be one of the greatest productivity improvement measures, given the time wasted during enterprise bargaining. Lastly, are not employer associations unions?
Marvyn Smith, Heddon Greta
I WONDER whether many people in Australia, whose lives have been completely changed as a result of the terrible climatic events of recent times, give much thought concerning what is causing them. Scientists may well have the answer as they appear to be convinced that it is the burning of fossil fuels to create energy and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions are the basic causes of most of the recent unstable climatic disasters. The question remains - why won't our federal government take convincing steps to ban, or severely limit, the process of burning fossil fuel that is causing so much misery for so many Australians?
Brian Measday, Myrtle Bank
IT'S now six months since the Albanese government was elected, promising climate action. So how have they fared? Labor has successfully enshrined net zero by 2050 and 43 per cent emissions reductions by 2030 into law. While representing progress, these targets remain well short of the science-based push for net zero by 2035. Further, until the government ends native forest logging and halts new fossil fuel developments, both deemed incompatible with achieving net zero by 2050, Australia is really only "talking the talk". CSIRO reports that Australia's average temperature has already increased by almost 1.5 degrees. We really must start "walking the walk".
Amy Hiller, Kew
ALL I know about those "other guys", Peter Dolan, (Letters, 26/11), is that they have no compunction about supporting the most morally degenerate US president ever. They seem unperturbed about the prospect of handing power back to someone who took the most important democracy in the world to the brink of civil war. No amount of false equivalence can justify that, just as it can't be adequately explained by reducing it to mere political preference.
