There's a manic, drunken gleam in the eyes of "industry", engineers, and economic enthusiasts.
It's about a high-speed rail, hardly faster than the beautiful, relaxing journey we now have by train, and stopping at fewer places.
Need and justification are evident only for upgrading what's there; because it works, and takes us where we want to go, without that invasive change, ugliness and destruction.
Costings ignore the vast losses incurred in scrapping the good for the unnecessary.
What bunnies we are to swallow this.
Not long ago, the great Newcastle train and its world tourism potential was killed, purportedly for merely "blocking the city from the harbour". Clearly false.
This new boy-toy is only chasing money and speed for those who don't need it while eating the funds now essential for our survival and transition.
Beverley Atkinson, Scone
Don't shortchange support for the elderly
Thousands of elderly pensioners and those in need are being turned away by Meals on Wheels because the government hasn't kept up with our ageing population, which I believe will soon amount to 10 per cent of our population.
The financial support towards these invaluable services has stagnated (not kept up with the cost of living, which affects services such as Meals on Wheels).
Get your act together and adjust the government financial support to keep these services alive and fully functional. Many of these recipients have served our country, and this is how we reward them? It's so very un-Australian.
According to A Current Affair, a 92-year-old pensioner was turned away.
This is not, I repeat, not the fault of Meals on Wheels. Updated government funding is well below what is required to keep these services operational.
Graeme Kime, Muswellbrook
Help us understand it, councillor
I listened with great interest to the City of Newcastle's council meeting on August 27, since the announcement by the Labor bloc of sitting councillors to write a letter to the state government to acquire the Jemena site for the Hunter Indoor Sports Complex.
They passed a motion to write a letter asking for the state to buy the site.
Cr Wood, I think very condescendingly, implied that her constituents, which include residents, parents of Lambton High School students, and members of the current sporting groups that use the ovals, do not understand the state significant development application process.
I can tell you if nothing else, we have all trawled through the processes and the NSW Planning Panel trying to understand it.
If Cr Wood thinks we are incapable of understanding, maybe she should have come to meet with the community to explain it in simpler terms. We have invited her many times.
Cr Winney-Baartz said that this was not political fodder or to appear on the front page.
I don't believe they all gathered at the site with a Herald photographer passing by, and I certainly do not believe that this is not a last-ditch attempt to seem like they are doing something.
We, the community, have asked so many times to just speak to our Ward 3 councillors.
Only one turned up, and it is not the one whose photo is on the front page.
The councillors were elected to represent the community, not their party.
Michelle Brown, Lambton
Questions linger on missiles
I AM a great believer that we should only become involved in fields we know, so we can support if needed to make a difference. I am trying to get my head around the recent thought bubble by our government to manufacture missiles, and the area in which they propose to carry out this unpopular craving.
My first inquiry is, why the sudden need for this proposal and what is the intended purpose? Bryce Ham ("Missile plan fills our region with shame", Letters, 26/8), asks "is this really the best future we can envisage for our community? Instead of exporting coal, Labor now wants us to export missiles-trading one harmful product for another."
I am reminded of dialogue by past war veterans begging us (those youngsters at the time) to never let this happen again.
Our forefather fighters and constituents would be rolling in their graves at the suggestion that "Future Made in Australia" products, will be exporting death and destruction to the world under the guise of economic progress and capability manufacturing".
Mr Ham confides "we should be building a future we can be proud of, not one that fills us with shame".
Watch this space. What is this government not telling us?
Pat Garnet, Wickham
Dutton divisive charge is valid
Your correspondent ("Destructive and divisive politicians", Letters, 28/8), wants Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers to explain why he labels Peter Dutton as divisive. Chalmers has already done that and his reasons have been widely reported.
But perhaps cartoonist Cathy Wilcox has set it out most simply and tellingly in her checklist of Dutton's desire to "unite Australians against a common enemy".
Her list of Dutton's "others" includes African gangs, Lebanese immigrants, boat people, First Nations advocates, climate scientists and Palestinians fleeing Gaza. Yes, Chalmers is spot on.
As for your correspondent's comments that "blanketing our environment with solar panels and wind turbines ..... and initiating a divisive referendum is destructive and divisive", it is well known that approvals for solar and wind farms take several years.
It logically follows that most of these extant were approved and built during the Coalition's reign. As for the Voice referendum, Dutton declared his divisive opposition only after the Nationals predictably declared their opposition (perhaps the first overt demonstration by the Nationals that they now control Dutton's coalition).
John Ure, Mount Hutton
Drive home facts of road trauma
ON average, pedestrians hit at 50kmh have a 10 per cent chance of survival, while at 30kmh, their survival rate jumps to 90 per cent.
Cities such as London, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Auckland, and Wellington have all adopted 30kmh limits. Clover Moore has proposed similar measures for Sydney.
Yet Premier Minns, reacting to objections from the chamber of commerce, has called for "common-sense laws", claiming: "You could walk quicker [sic] than that".
Such statements ignore the fact that cities with 30kmh zones have experienced not only major reductions in road trauma, but significant boosts in commerce.
Minns should look out from Parliament House and realise that all the roads protecting our politicians, right down to Mrs Macquarie's Chair, have been 30kmh for more than three decades.
Harold Scruby, Pedestrians Council of Australia CEO
Law's disconnect may grow
REGARDING the new disconnection rights for employees (Opinion, 28/8), the never-ending flow of legislation and its consequences in regulation never ceases to amaze.
Sophisticated communication is essential to any organisation, and these laws may have unintended consequences.
How would an overseas company look at us when investing in business in Australia?
As an old union boss who I respected said at a meeting between pollies and workers: "the problem is there is no communification [sic]".
He added that "once the government turns up it gets worse".
