Newcastle Herald readers have their say: Ideas to help runway extension take off

These include:

These steps would result in:

Then there needs to be genuine thought and planning to get people from Lake Macquarie, the Upper Hunter and the Coalfields to make Newcastle their first choice for all flight holidays and business trips. Again, infrastructure needs to be top of the list of those plans, but so too do flight options.

THE recent by-election in the Upper Hunter which was retained by the Nationals has raised the perception that the coal industry is strongly supported, a myth encouraged by many politicians including Joel Fitzgibbon.

The reality, however, is that voters were rightly concerned about employment prospects and the coal industry has been able to out compete other industries, agriculture, wine, tourism, horse breeding etc because it was better at promoting false images through advertising, lobbying and more generous in political donations.

Strangely enough, much the same false impression has been aired by the ABC in their Australia Talks survey which claimed to have found that 65 per cent of Australian do not think that our population is getting too big.

This is not only contrary to many earlier studies going right back to the Jones inquiry in 1994, in which 208 out of 261 submissions wanted a stable or lower population while only 19 expressed a desire for a higher one.

The ABC's result is very probably influenced by employment fears because just like miners, successive governments have allowed alternative employment opportunities like manufacturing to collapse so that housing and infrastructure has become the dominant employer. It's also one that is almost as destructive as mining but developers are also good political donors.

CONGRATULATIONS to the subject areas at the University of Newcastle that performed fantastically in the 2021 Shanghai rankings.

These rankings have been described as "the best-known and most influential global ranking of universities" by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Control and Automation, which has its home in electrical engineering (EE) at UoN, was ranked 13th in the world and first in Australia; Nursing was ranked 26th in the world and eighth in Australia and; Mining and minerals engineering 27th in the world and eighth in Australia.

These are truly outstanding results by relatively small disciplines on the world stage. I work in EE and previously wrote that EE at Newcastle will be particularly hard hit by the university's current change process ("Powerhouse passing into history", Letters, 10/4). If EE is not to survive the current change at UoN at least its swansong will be particularly sweet.

IT makes this old heart sing with unbridled joy to read that the University of Newcastle's creative arts students will be seeking their quest for truth in the new Q building, "encased in the largest installation of thermal glass of its kind in the southern hemisphere." ('Uni collects keys for arts hub', Herald, 1/6).

Meanwhile, back at the swamp (the Callaghan campus), I have it on unassailable authority that Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education students with a passion for ancient history, are no longer able to pursue an honours year at our only local university.

And they can abandon any hope of considering a PhD in ancient history or classical languages at the once formidable - now defunct - Department of Classics, my alma mater. Lecturers and courses are now redundant. Priorities.

IN reply to John Lewer (Letters, 31/5). To suggest that Awabakal CEO Rob Russell has sought to diminish the heritage value of King Edward Park headland is disrespectful and insulting.

The recent history of the headland involved a Land and Environment court case (work done pro-bono by Newcastle University), which was won on a technicality by Friends of King Edward Park.

The drawn out court case would make any owner of this site try to avoid further interference from local objectors. It is not possible to mediate or reach a compromise with FOKEP, they quite simply do not want anything on the site, despite an unsightly, squalid bowling club deteriorating there for years.

You were happy for that to remain, in the state it was in, and now so obviously would wish to prevent the current owners from building something that could be of benefit to the community and the local indigenous land council.

You people have no shame. I note the spokesperson and representative of FOKEP for the past decade, Dr Kim Ostinga (OAM) has not issued a statement with regards to the heritage listing of the park. My advice to Awabakal would be a quote from Aesop's Fables, "slow and steady wins the race".

IT'S been a long time coming, but the Knights certainly got the rub of green against Manly. Their defence certainly picked up, but on the other hand they had a lot of the ball and a big penalty count and to go with that Manly had two in the bin. They certainly have to do something with their attack, two tries from barge overs near the line. They won't get away with that against the top two sides. Anyhow a win is a win.

KEVIN Miller (Short Takes, 1/6) believes that the gay community has become too "powerful in society today" and because of that "Israel (Folau) has been treated despicably". Like all minority groups in Australia, the gay community has very little power. The power to sanction the nonsense of Folau came from an overwhelming majority of thinking, caring Australians who sided with the gay community and said enough's enough.

I THINK that the NRL are going too far with the height of tackle rule. Although not a fan, I think that the anti-Newcastle referee went above and beyond the bounds of rule. Klemmer should not have been punished as the opposition player collided with him and it was a simple case of carrying the ball without care. Go back to the status quo and stop this constant change of their boundary before the game is lost forever.

THE front-rowers' "dumb and dumber" award goes to David Klemmer. Knights lead by eight points and can't be beaten with 30 seconds to go and he gets two weeks for a high tackle.

LET'S get this straight, the former attorney general recognises himself as the person in a story in the media even though his name or position is not mentioned. He takes offence at this and pleads innocent, then sues the ABC for defamation. His legal team do all they can and the ABC can't use all the evidence they have to defend themselves. When this doesn't work he goes into mediation and chooses to drop the action that he took, his action, Then he claims he was the winner out of all of this.

NOT content to create bad blood with China by insisting that the source of COVID-19 be investigated, implying that the Chinese were responsible, ScoMo has now dragged our very best friends into the argument. I sincerely hope that China does not impose trade restrictions on New Zealand as a result.

ARTS Minister, Don Harwin, describes Newcastle council's funding contributions as a scandal. What does he, in view of his government's scandalous pork-barrelling history, have to say about their non-contribution to this project? This government has no interest in this great city and its great citizens!

WHY would an engineer not want to be named for his comments on fixing the South Newcastle sea wall or his estimated cost of $1 million? (No quick fix for wall, Herald, 1/6).

I WAS laughing so much I fell off the lounge; Michael Daley running for the NSW Labor leadership. He was a big flop in the 2019 election, and seems to think things have changed. Gladys and her government must be trembling in their shoes.