Flash flooding is nothing new for Newcastle's inner suburbs

I was walking down Hannell Street toward Fleming Street when I had to cross the road.

I stood at the edge of the footpath, too scared to step onto the road because of the swirling water that was going down the wide drain.

I was old enough to know that the water was dangerous but too young to know what to do about it. Fortunately for me two girls from our local Wickham High School stopped and said "don't step there or you'll be washed down the drain."

They helped me to get safely across the road. We often had very low flooding in Wickham, not enough to flood the house but enough to make it look as though we lived on a shallow lake.

FILL out a customer service request form, and report it. That's what I do and have been doing it for years now.

The majority of my requests are followed up by the City of Newcastle team allocated to the job (some of my requests are actually someone else's responsibility, which then gets passed on to them).

So thank you also to the teams allocated to do the jobs requested, which have ranged from unblocking water fountains near children's play equipment, removing branches from children's play equipment, replacing tripping taps, replacing broken garbage lids, filling in potholes, repairing road damage, removing large branches that have snapped off trees, fixing grates over storm drains that were damaged during flooding, illegal dumping, street signs replaced after they had gone missing, signage reviewed and rectified near pedestrian crossings, signage put up to make road users away of children in the area, overgrown vegetation removed, grass mowed, missed garbage collection sorted, and I know there have been other requests as well.

I guess you're not just about roads, rates and rubbish. Thank you all, again.

DAVE McTaggart ("Votes can ratify promises", Letters 13/1), you're welcome. I am also more than happy to remind you and everyone else that before John Howard became Prime Minister in March 1996, he declared in an interview from May 1995 that "there's no way that a GST will ever be part of our policy. Never ever. It's dead."

In 1998, Mr Howard stated that "The GST will not increase the price of petrol for the ordinary motorist", but within a couple of months after the GST was introduced, fuel prices increased by 10.4 per cent.

The same year, Mr Howard also stated that "There'll be no more than a 1.9 per cent rise in ordinary beer", but within a couple of months, beer prices rose by 4.8 per cent. Mr Howard made a pledge of no new taxes, but by September 2002, the Howard government had introduced legislation for 130 new taxes or tax increases during its terms of office.

Where did you and others draw the line on these broken promises?

THANK you for continuing my regular comedy hit in the letters pages by publishing Carl Stevenson ("Renewables rush can't deny detail", Letters, 12/2).

Mr Stevenson asks a number of simple questions such as "how many wind farms will we need and how much will it cost?", and "is it the right wind?".

Mr Stevenson seems unaware of extensive work in this area from GenCost and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Hint: renewables are the cheapest form of energy supply, even with storage, another thing Carl ignores).

As for wind farms being anti-democratic, I remind Carl that this government was elected with a clear mandate for significant renewable targets. This is democracy, Carl.

I WOULD like to believe Kevin Fell's assessment ("How we can solve homelessness in three years", Letters, 16/2), on ending the homeless crisis but we are caught in a catch-22.

There is a huge shortage of housing simply because population growth exceeds our capacity to build.

While Mr Fell is correct in pointing out how tax breaks impact on government revenue, injecting more money into the housing market will increase the cost of building materials already in short supply.

It's a problem that has led to many building firms going bust since 2021 and has forced the federal government to cut back on infrastructure, now invariably over time and over budget.

There is now a crippling shortage in essential workers because wages have not kept up with rental costs let alone providing hope of ever owning a home.

Just to add salt to these wounds, we have spurious input for groups with vested interests arguing against any reform that might threaten their profits.

FANCY using Valentine's Day for your own political purposes. So while Jodie Haydon might have said "yes, Prime Minister", let's hope at the forthcoming Dunkley by election the people of Frankston and Mount Eliza give Mr. Albanese the kick in the pants he so rightly deserves.

ALBO'S new right to disconnect workplace regulations surely are reciprocal. If the boss can't use their phone to ring text or email an employee after hours then it's only fair that the staff don't text, ring or email on shift. Mutual obligations; I'm all for it. Shanks Albo.

The right to disconnect is the talk of the town at the moment. The majority of Australian workers work a fixed number of hours per week even those on shift work, when they finish their number of hours per week, they are entitled to their free time. If an employer wishes to contact them outside of their normal hours , they should be paid for that contact unless it is written into their workplace agreement for a different arrangement.

THE Labor Party decision to alter the third stage of the tax reforms is to be commended. While the benefits of this decision will not come into effect for another four months or so, something needs to be done now to stimulate the economy. You can only tread water for so long, it's sink or swim time.

I FIND Peter Devey's letter ("Not everyone objects to swimmers", Letters, 14/2), both sexist and hypocritical. As the father of two daughters I can only hope neither of them ever cross your path.