Newcastle Herald letters to the editor, Monday, June 8, 2020: Figures show need for new way of thinking

The fact that little or no money is spent in seats that are firmly held by the opposition should not be a surprise to voters. Governing "for all Australians" is a myth, and a favourite "magnanimous" saying of many political leaders after they win government.

So, we should expect the federal Coalition government to spend virtually nothing in safe Labor seats of the Hunter, Paterson, Newcastle, and Shortland.

The problem lies with our model of democratic government, and not with our politicians. Elected governments have an ultimate legal right to decide how taxpayer money is spent, and to ignore the advice of unelected advisory bodies.

RECENT LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:

Government politicians are only doing what politicians all do - setting out to win the next election and perpetuate their power in government. In this context, fairness, need and transparency, are irrelevant in government spending decisions, unless they help to win votes. Then they may be incorporated into an election spiel.

So, the advice seems to be clear: if you want your tax dollars to be spent on you, move to a marginal electorate or a safe government electorate.

If you want your tax dollars to be spent in a morally justifiable way, then invent, promote and have adopted, a new form of government.

THE op-ed by Helen Cummings (The Herald, 6/6/20) is a welcome output from an East End resident who feels privileged to live within the Supercars zone.

Ms Cummings seems to recognise that the East End belongs to all of us, not just those who live there. Rather than complain about the events, she seems to have embraced the initiative and indeed showed respect to the workers who set up and pull down the event requirements.

IN OTHER NEWS:

I use the Nobbys area and breakwall for almost daily walks for health and fitness reasons. When the Supercars are operating, I readily choose any one of a number of alternate locations for walking. The change does not bother me either, unlike some who choose to deface buildings with ugly graffiti in the Nobbys area and then complain about the effect of Supercars on the environment.

Today, I observed one person who may well have been an East End resident walking a dog on a lead to the steps at the Cowrie Hole. Then alongside a City of Newcastle poster pointing out that dogs were prohibited on the beach at the Cowrie Hole, slipped the dog off the lead and proceeded to run the dog on the beach.

It is one thing to criticise Supercars and yet there seems to be an empowerment in the East End to be exempt from CoN by-laws.

HELEN Cummings, I totally agree with your sentiments.

The Supercars gave the town a buzz. I would see excited kids and excited families lined up at the ferry wharf for a big day out.

The Supercars also showed off the beautiful foreshore of Newcastle. My friends in Sydney watched it and were enthralled. Needless to say they attended the next year and were looking forward to this year.

The Supercars added vibrancy to the city. Many visitors remarked "I had no idea Newcastle was such a beautiful city" and they stayed extra days and visited our wetlands, our botanical gardens, Morpeth and Nelson Bay. They ate at our restaurants and visited our museums.

I hope they return next year and kudos to the people who organised it.

THE rioting and protesting occurring around the world in response to the "Black Lives Matter" movement may yet prove to take more lives from COVID-19 than are saved through changes to law enforcement procedures.

Given the thousands who are reported to have attended BLM marches throughout Australia contrary to medical advice, one wonders if the three-month lockdown in Australia and around the world has dulled our common-sense.

Looking at Johns Hopkins University data, it can hardly be said that this virus is under control globally.

While some countries with first world health systems are slowing the transmission rates, their death tolls are amongst the highest recorded such as Belgium with 83.75 deaths per 100,000 people and the UK with 60.68/100,000 or Sweden who refused to enforce social distancing and lockdown with 45.56/100,000 even the US who leads in total cases and deaths is only the 11th most affected country with deaths of 33.36/100,000.

The worry with the US cases is that they reached their lowest number of confirmed cases on the May 26 and since the rioting started confirmed cases have increased again. How much has the rioting contributed to this increase?

Add to the above the fact that the reporting of these numbers looks questionable particularly from China , Russia , Africa and the Middle East, the world may well be underestimating this virus and it's entirely possible that the real death toll is in the millions, which for a virus that was only reported to WHO by China on December 31 last year, should be a wake-up call to the protesters and for that matter the NRL, that but for the Australian government's decision to close our borders in early February we could be in the same situation as most of the Northern Hemisphere rather than 113th lowest death rate with 0.41 per 100,000 out of 157 countries monitored by JHU.

LAST week we saw savvy Australians at work on a worldwide scale.

Australian company Atlassian was involved in the space launch, Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen have the number one buy now pay later company in the world with Afterpay and Larry Diamond and Peter Gray, who started ZipPay in 2014, transformed from a local operation to a worldwide one in one amazing US-funded deal last week.

That's not to mention another smart Australian company EML operating worldwide in the provision of financial services including getting speedy delivery solutions to government disaster relief funds and payment packaging for workers.

These companies and other Australian companies innovated while our older financial institutions preyed on consumers with punitive interest rates and bank fees on credit cards and other instruments.

Add Australian companies' dominance in other fields like CSL, Cochlear and the like and the future looks bright.

No, no recession here, not when we can lead the world with smartness and innovation.

WHEN the COVID-19 lockdown was imposed in mid-March our public health doctors told us that the measure of success would be if there was nothing to see: the absence of disease. The unforeseen effect of this success is that despite the evidence of the tragedy unfolding in other countries with tens of thousands of people dying from coronavirus, the unwitting misreading of risk saw thousands of people on Saturday flout social distancing rules, let alone the social contract of responsibility for each other's safety, and in doing so put at risk the lives of a further hundred elderly people who, if exposed, would sink into oblivion with solid lungs, unable to breathe. Such is the irony of denial of risk.

THROUGHOUT our subject in history this term we have been learning about racism and indigenous and non-indigenous perspectives. While we've been learning we have heard some appalling news about an explosion in Pilbara caused by Rio Tinto. We were upset when we heard that when Rio Tinto exploded the caves and mines that there were Indigenous rock paintings, grinding stones and even a piece of plaited hair that was approximately 46,000 years old. All of that history. Gone! All because Rio Tinto wanted land. Many Indigenous elders were very upset and now feel a loss of connection to their ancestors.

I LOVE her neighbourhood too, but don't live there, (Helen Cummings, Herald, 6/6) and if Supercars was over and done with in three days might agree with her sentiments. But its ugliness, its intrusion, its loss of facility and amenity lasts for months and is quite unforgivable. We should treasure such an historic and scenic part of town. Supercars doesn't have to be here and utterly fails any reasonable cost-benefit analysis.

IT'S about time the Herald published a positive opinion piece instead of all the negative ones regarding the Supercars. It is good to see that the East End Residents Group is not the the opinion of all of the residents of the East End or for that matter all of Newcastle. I think Helen has done a great job of describing a way of living with the once a year event. But of course the usual knockers have already chimed in and had their say.

HMAS Sydney that arrived in Newcastle was in fact one of three airwarfare destroyers made jointly by workers in South Australia and indeed Newcastle. Such a shame all media sources forgot these facts and over a thousand multi-skilled workers at Forgacs Carrington and Tomago over a six year period built these in block sections. Workers forgotten again just like the government did when shipbuilding to this scale ceased in Newcastle. Hats off to all my former colleagues.