Letters and short takes Thursday May 18 2023

Since 2012, I can still say I frequently visit to see friends and family, and I am always pretty chuffed about the ongoing decency of the people there. Everyone is still up for a chat, the cafes well patronised and catering for a number of price points and taste, and the newcomers bringing in some great ideas, and live music, to add to the bonhomie.

The potholes do mean that you need to be particularly focused on the road at the moment, not those beautiful rolling hills.

And my companion of that time still firmly believes that there is much to recognise as "too good" about his hometown, and this also now backgrounds his work with rural and regional youth.

However, he tells me that regional and rural youth need a lot of things, and sadly they often don't get it. A recognition of the differences of living in regional Australia would be a good place to start. Local schools need extra resources, staff and money, because to see a performance or to go on an excursion means a travel time of many hours, and an extra financial cost, not always available. Local kids need safe gathering places, and some activities just for them, and pathways to their future. And what they really could do with are extra mental health services, because, as a kid, it can be lonely and directionless at times, no matter your individual circumstances.

All the above would simply add to the delight of a special little place. All levels of government, we're looking to you.

MY wife and I recently watched a fascinating program about a huge archaeological dig where thousands of late 18^th /early 19^th century graves in two cemeteries in largely poor areas of London and Birmingham were excavated and relocated to make way for the high-speed rail line between the two cities (Britain's Biggest Dig; it remains available via SBS on Demand).

Information gleaned from skeletons and public records of the time, highlighted the poverty, disadvantage and discrimination that poor people faced. This included high rates of disease and injuries, especially among children, from the unsanitary and overcrowded conditions they were forced to endure. This led to malnutrition, rickets, scurvy, tuberculosis, cholera, and untreated injuries including bone fractures. There was also chronic unemployment, incarceration - even transportation - for minor offences such as stealing food. Poor people had no voice in their own affairs or their future.

Contrast that with the lives of Australia's Aboriginal people at the time. They had abundant fresh food sources: seafood from the unadulterated oceans and free-flowing inland rivers; plentiful game, tubers, wheat grasses, fruit and herbs resulting from land management practices developed over thousands of years, including judicious use of fire. They had freedom to move freely across their own lands or the lands of other Aboriginal nations, negotiated through a system of laws and protocols.

It is now almost a reversal of fortunes. The poverty seen in London and Birmingham 200 years ago has almost faded from memory, as has the freedom of Aboriginal people to move around their traditional lands. Since colonisation (invasion is also an apt term) the settler society has almost completely taken over this continent and has forced many, many Aboriginal people to live in conditions I consider not too far removed from those of the poor people in London and Birmingham 200 years ago.

Many Aboriginal people have no voice in their own affairs or in their future. Food for thought as we approach the referendum.

As someone not into the nitty-gritty of politics, I was reluctant to watch the federal opposition's budget reply, as I was with the Albanese budget forecast. I saw Peter Dutton as a lame duck who has had nothing much to say for the past 12 months. But, to my surprise, the duck has spread its wings. He was not so much contesting what was said in the budget report, but what wasn't said that needed to be said.

Rather than itemising various needs, I will proceed with just two that were mentioned that I believe covers many expenditures that concern the average person. First, the conversion of coal-fired furnaces at existing power stations with nuclear modular reactors to firm up affordable renewable energy, similar to the ones to be used in our nuclear submarines. Second, how many people can say they are better off today than they were this time last year?

And, just for the hell of it, how many people think that the war in Ukraine is the cause of the high cost of living in Australia?

WHAT a step backwards for development of the world game for our promising locals, with the decision by Football Australia to reject Valentine Phoenix's proposal for the national second tier ('Phoenix chasing answers after cut', Newcastle Herald 12/5). Both the national and state governing bodies recently had a clear out of the old guard, yet, in my opinion, Northern NSW football is still treated with disdain.

It's been far too long since our area produced Socceroos such as Troy Halpin, Richard Johnson, Clayton Zane and Robbie Middleby. This rejection will not expedite future internationals by bridging the gap between A League and local clubs. At the very least, I believe that Football Australia should refund Valentine and Edgeworth's expression of interest fees so both clubs can continue to function smoothly financially at a grassroots level.

MANY of the world's sovereign states use the word "republic" in their names and are not truly republic in nature. North Korea - AKA the Democratic People's Republic - is a military dictatorship.

Most true republics don't use the word. Countries that were British colonies would be a republic if not for the technical description of being a "constitutional monarchy" with a king or queen as ceremonial head of state. Why don't we just break the ceremonial link and continue with the existing parliamentary system? No special need to mention "republic", which sounds a bit suspicious given context.

I believe the need to have national autonomy from the monarchy in our constitution is as important as recognising the original owners of this land. It could also possibly serve as a significant separation from the past for Indigenous Australians.