Letters and short takes February 7 2023

Will clubs and pubs require you to become a member of that location to use their cashless cards? If so, the club then ensures your patronage as well as giving your membership money to the government, or will membership be free?

Given this new innovation is supposed to reduce/eliminate illegal money laundering and problem gambling, I have my doubts. Laundering can likely still be achieved by people a lot smarter than our politicians, and I believe problem gamblers will still have a problem; are they using their debit card or their spouse's card or joint card, or credit card? Who will supervise these anomalies?

MICHAEL Hinchey, ("Pell funeral a fresh affront to church victims", Letters, 4/2) makes some very relevant comments regarding the funeral of the late George Pell. In particular, Tony Abbott describing him as a saint as bordering on the obscene. While Mr Abbott is a devout Catholic who obviously derives great strength from his faith, in my opinion he overstepped the mark by letting his loyalty to the teachings of the Catholic Church mean the interests of the Church must come first. Think of the way assault victims of countless priests have been treated, many of whom were under the watch of George Pell. No, Mr Abbott, Pell is in no way worthy of being called a saint.

I GREW up in Windale, then lived in Belmont and Blacksmiths, camping at Belmont South, swimming and fishing at Marks Point, Swansea Channel, Wangi and Pulbah Island. I learned to surf at Blacksmiths in 1962, and in the 1980s my daughter Michelle learned to surf at Blacksmiths and went on to be the fifth ranked female surfer in the world. I made surfboards and opened the first surf shop in Belmont.

I now live in Ballina but Blacksmiths is my spiritual home, Blacksmiths Beach gave me everything in my life. Blacksmiths and Stockton in aspect are identical beaches. Go to Newcastle beaches in southerly conditions in the 1960s and '70s and you'd find both perfect for learning to surf. Sixty years on Stockton and Blacksmiths have serious beach erosion problems and the surfing conditions are now poor. Both Blacksmiths and Stockton beach erosion issues can be remedied with sand nourishment from sand transfer systems that are proven and working in Queensland.

Lake Macquarie has been allocated money to purchase a Swansea Channel dredge to keep Swansea Channel open for safe navigation. This is is essential to open the lake for more tourism potential. This budget allocation and infrastructure project is for the ongoing dredging required to maintain Swansea Channel and is specifically for the purchase of a Swansea Channel dredge. They may then lease the dredge to other locations for short term dredging projects.

IT is all very well to throw up your hands at City of Newcastle and lay the blame with them about Supercars continuing on but they have now been relegated as the key turners of this event. Unfortunately Supercars will go on regardless of what council we have in place as it is being controlled by a much higher authority, which is the NSW Government and Supercars itself. They then sell the rights onto TV channels, food and beverage operators, merchandise vendors etc. The list goes on.

The three-day event takes six weeks to set up which involves shutting down Wharf Road, the car park at Nobbys beach, throwing local businesses into duress and caging in Newcastle East residents who need a pass to leave their homes.

Solution? I'm not sure there is one. The only way we can turn this around for Newcastle is for Supercars to include local businesses in their offerings and hold the race on a racetrack which doesn't involve shutting down infrastructure for six weeks.

WE now hear from Greg Hunt, (Short Takes, 1/2), that so called "woke" activists are not only cancelling culture, but "delegitimising history". Apparently there is one view of "culture" that must be preserved, and only one legitimate version of history to be told. Such is the modern right's obsession with conformity.

Over time, culture evolves and changes, and history is reinterpreted. It has always been so. All that's changed is that a wider variety of voices are making themselves heard about those things, and right wing culture warriors don't like it.

As for Mr Hunt's claim that I and like-minded others think we have "superior intelligence" - as much as I disagree with Mr Hunt's opinions, I'm not in the least threatened by them. Why should he be by mine?

REGARDING recent letters on the word "Woke" between Michael Hinchey, (Short Takes 31/1) and and Greg Hunt, (Short Takes 1/2), there appears to be a number of people that look to use it in the context of belittling and demeaning others.

I think this is something that is more akin to what shock jocks would do, when they cannot find words to counter thoughts that they oppose, rather than from a letter we would be expected to receive to a respectful community of writers into a paper such as the Herald.

A quick fact check shows that the (Cambridge) Dictionary definition is as follows: Woke: "Aware, especially of social problems such as racism and inequality". So, by definition, woke is in fact a term of endearment that indicates someone that has above average knowledge on the above issues. So by my reading, calling a person or group of people "woke" - according to the Cambridge definition - is saying they consider that person or person's knowledge on these issues to be superior.

With the One Nation candidate Pietro Di Girolamo saying he wants to eliminate "woke teaching" ('Pull, Di Girolamo take on Labor in Wallsend', Herald 1/2) in my opinion he is by definition saying he wants to eliminate education of students in social problems such as domestic violence, cost of living pressures, disadvantaged aged care residents, COVID and the Alice Springs problems - to name just a few.

I reckon this is likely to result in young people having less exposure to the facts and considered opinions and more higher dominance of rumour, innuendo, and conspiracy theories. I have the opposite view - it is best for students to have factually correct information on social issues - and I don't mind being called woke (i.e. more educated or intelligent) for having this view.

GEORGE Pell's funeral was hard enough to cope with, but when Tony Abbott spoke it became so much worse. So many damaged people were mocked. Words are not enough to express how sad I am about it.

WHEN Federal Labor got elected in late 2022 I sent a short take to the Newcastle Herald that Anthony Albanese had no choice but to overturn Scott Morrison's outrageous one and only decision from his multiple ministries to stop PEP-11 and he has delivered.

I HAVE read many books that explain climate change extremely well, but The Climate Book created by Greta Thunberg, first published in 2022, is something quite different. It is, in my humble opinion, better than anything I have read before concerning climate change. My mind boggles when I think about the massive amount of effort that must have been expended to produce this outstanding coverage concerning human caused climate change. I only recently purchased The Climate Book in Adelaide so assume it will be widely available across Australia.

A BATTERY manufacturing facility at Tomago that will manufacture 66 megawatts of batteries per year ('Big battery revolution on fast charge', Newcastle Herald 3/2), and Tomago's aluminium smelter promising to use renewable energy with battery storage for 100 per cent of their production by the year 2030 ('New push to drive down emissions', Herald 3/2). Now maths was not my best subject, but I can still seem to remember Tomago Aluminium saying they require up to 600 megawatts of power per hour. I believe the cost of that much power per hour of renewable energy with storage batteries would be astronomical; it would far exceed the price of aluminium.

ON the day when public opinion about the life and times of George Pell was perhaps the more divisive of topics among Australians. Tony Abbott chose to make an inane comparison between Pell and Jesus Christ during the interment Service held for Pell. Abbott's outrageous and insensitive declaration that Pell was a victim of modern-day crucifixion, and that Pell was worthy of Sainthood was not only stupid; it cruelly added pain to the ongoing misery of clergy abuse victims. George Pell did successfully Appeal against his sentence for sexually abusing two altar boys. However, the Appeal to The High Court did not request the court consider whether Pell knew of incidents involving his fellow clergy sexually abusing minors or had knowingly aided and abetted those crimes being concealed. Lawyers, high priced or other, "Never ask questions which might incriminate their clients!"