Newcastle Herald letters to the editor, Monday, June 1 2020: Good heavens, restrictions are distressing

According to the NSW government website, there are still other limits on pubs and clubs from June 1. Yes, they can have up to 50 people, but those people must all be seated, and maintain the rule of 4 square metres per person.

Can churches arrange the same limits for services? I expect the health advice for churches would also need to take into account that singing spreads virus particles far more than talking. Perhaps 4 square metres distancing isn't enough if there's a lot of singing.

I know church is a very important part of life for many people, and I realise the current limits are distressing for some. But I don't think clubs and pubs are exactly the same as churches in terms of virus transmission.

Maybe these differences account for the different timing of "opening up" church services, rather than just oversight or economics.

According to the British team at Maralinga in 1952 the only victims in the explosion were meat pies, which were over cooked due to being reheated many times.

They did not count the local Aboriginal people, who were forcibly removed from the area and relocated. This was to make way for British nuclear testing, which proceeded without any talks with the traditional inhabitants of the land.

The British regarded Australia as their backyard for nuclear testing. Maralinga and land around that area is highly contaminated today.

Sir Robert Menzies who was more British than the British themselves, and who plunged Australia into the "American War" in Vietnam, was the man responsible for these open-door policies for the British government of the day.

The misery of Maralinga cost many Aborigines and Aussie servicemen their lives due to contamination and radiation. Lest We Forget.

ABC TV is showing a series based on this sad Australian history now.

A few facts for Peter Devey that I am sure Greta Thunberg would be well aware of.

While water vapour provides 70 per cent of the greenhouse effect and carbon dioxide 30 per cent, CO2 has overall warming power that water vapour doesn't.

Water vapour also has short residence time (hours to days) in the atmosphere, and can only increase in concentration if the temperature increases.

CO2 can linger in the atmosphere for 100 years and increase in concentration independently of temperature.

The real danger increasing water vapour in a warming atmosphere presents is its contribution to record rainfall rates.

The Australian Energy Operators who manage, and are responsible for the future of, our national grid have developed a detailed plan to achieve both a 94 per cent renewable grid, and the cheapest power prices, by 2040. Check their website.

Why is it that President Xi Jinping, the supreme leader for life of communist China, allows his people to be exploited by the world's capitalist class headed by globalism, undercutting fair wages of the world working class, enslaving them to poverty?

Why have the Australian Liberal and Labor governments allowed a communist country to buy up our assets and infrastructure? Is this the price we have to pay for China's cheap workers?

It's my opinion the capitalists dictate too much Australian policy and the politicians are out of order.

They are not representing the Australian people's best interest. China's price is too high and globalism policy is a ball and chain for Australia and the world.

On Thursday night the Broncos-Eels game was played in an empty stadium in a state with closed borders, yet there were no complaints about this from Gladys Berejiklian, Pauline Hanson, Clive Palmer or the Queensland LNP.

With a state election coming in Queensland, but in the name of what's good for business, these Liberals and their hangers on are all calling for Labor Queensland to open its borders, so that possible virus carriers may come in and get close to each other on beaches.

But in Liberal NSW, these same people don't call for virus carriers to be allowed to get close to each other at plays, concerts, movies - or at sporting events.

Why not? If possible virus carriers from NSW are good for NSW business on a Gold Coast beach, they're even better for NSW business in the Sydney Opera House or at the Sydney Football Stadium.

Right, Gladys? Pauline? Clive? Queensland LNP?

Scott Morrison and his henchman Christian Porter are touting the LNP's latest tilt at industrial relations reforms as a job creating enterprise.

It's interesting to note that the last time the LNP moved on industrial relations with job creation in mind all they managed to do was take penalty rates off some of Australia's lowest paid workers in order to appease their big business donors and instead of job creation for Australians we got increased profits for rich LNP mates.

Some commentators are for some reason comparing this with the wages accord of the 1980s.

The Hawke, Keating and Kelty wages accord was for the betterment of all Australians, not just the richest.

Beware working Australia. In my opinion Morrison and Porter are nothing more than wolves in sheep's clothing.

It's funny how you can be at the top of your game one day and the next day make a decision that sends you to the bottom.

That is the situation our Premier finds herself in now. Freezing pay rises for 400,000 public servants for 12 months was a game-changing decision that has sent her ratings crashing.

During this crisis, not one politician or high-profile public servant has put their hand up to take a pay cut.

We have the highest paid politicians in the world and instead of them stepping up to the plate, they freeze the wages of the front line workers who have done all the hard yards fighting this pandemic.

I am sure this action will not be forgotten when the next state elections come around.

Recently the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer, Brendan Murphy, pointed out that the greatest number of people affected by the coronavirus were those in the 20 to 29 years age group. These are the parents of children who are now recommencing their school attendance and who have not been required to social distance. We're told children are relatively immune to the virus and conversely elderly people are most at risk. It will be revealing to observe 'the corona curve' by early June.

A recent reference here to Donald Trump (Short Takes, 29/5) encapsulates the concept of a narcissist. Any follower of the news media would know that to him the only world which is truly real is his inner world, in which he is front and centre. Anything which has not touched him personally can be dismissed as false. In a few words, the narcissist is driven by an inner world which he alone controls, subject to his whims. Anything external, such as opinions, facts etc, which are contradictory, and not a good fit to his inner world, can be regarded as sinister, and likely to be dismissed as "fake news". It is mystifying as to why Mr Trump has a cult-like following.

To Alan Kendall (Short Takes, 29/5) maybe all our country towns have been safe from COVID-19 precisely because there's been a lock down everywhere!

Regarding Milton Caine's reply (Letters, 27/5) to my letter (Letters, 26/5). I am fully aware of the circumstances as to how this situation arose as outlined by Milton. My criticism was that the Treasurer originally said that nobody should be blamed for the massive $60 billion miscalculation. Yet on consecutive days, first Prime Minister Morrison then Treasurer Frydenberg accepted responsibility for the error. Unlike Milton, I am not, never have been and never will be a member of a political party.

Steve Barnett accuses Labor of "putting their slippers under the bed of a communist regime" (Short Takes, 28/5). But it was the NSW Liberal government who happily sold the Port of Newcastle to a consortium half-owned by Chinese interests. And the Port of Darwin was sold on a 99-year lease to Chinese interests by the Northern Territory's Country Liberal Party - their version of the Coalition. If Labor "puts their slippers under the bed" I can only assume Mr Barnett thinks the Coalition happily jumps into the sack for communist dollars.

The NRL resumed under the spotlight of sports fans and organisations world wide and at the kickoff of the Brisbane Parramatta clash the world was given a close up of a Parramatta player spitting on the ground.