Letters NBN and phone lines
Politics
When all this settles down there should be either an Inquiry or Royal Commission about communications in Australia. How can a system fall over as it did in the Northern Rivers? Thanks, Malcolm Turnbull for implementing an inferior NBN service that should have been WiFi not cable. I can’t recall how many billions of dollars this cost but surely we have to face up to the fact we need a system that works during disasters. Telstra can apologise as much as they like, but it means nothing because with their logic it will happen again and again. The only media outlets that have focused on this as a real issue were ABC 94.5 and Today Channel 9. Where are all the media? Neil Sturrock East Ballina
A) Laugh, B) Cry, C) Feel contemptuous? These possible reactions occurred to me when I recently saw and heard in the federal parliament one politician sanctimoniously accuse another politician of – wait for it – ‘playing politics’! Needless to say C) took the inside running. Jim Rose Mullumbimby
EſĕëƐ ǖşşĎƆ dĶƆŔşſĕ I’m so sad to hear the horrible ordeal local residents and business owners have faced with the recent floods in the Northern Rivers, especially in Lismore. My heart goes out to all those who have lost so many precious and dear things in their lives. And many big thanks to the SES services, police, and all the locals helping each other out during this great catastrophe. So, my question still remains, however, though many people might not even want to consider it yet – like why, again? Why does this keep happening in Lismore? A town settled since 1856 on the junction of the Wilsons River and Leycester Creek. A bloody good idea at the time, or do we just have to learn to live with disaster every few years? In 2017, the disaster happened after Cyclone Debbie. On other occasions as well since the millennium began, in 2005, 2010, and 2012 come to mind. How many beatings does this town need?
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Cartoon by Gary Cavanagh. Instagram: @gary_cavanagh adjacent residential areas ought to be demolished and turned to parklands, never again to be built on. Gordon Balfour Haynes Federal
Even Rocky Balboa knew, eventually (five sequels later), it was time to hang up the gloves in the end. More flood gates? More what? C’mon, look at the aerial picture and layout of the river junction adjacent to the town. It might be time to think about a diversion of the river upstream to someplace else, instead of allowing floodwaters into the town every five or so years, destroying people’s livelihoods! To those in charge of the NSW water infrastructure, isn’t it time to reinvent the wheel with better, longerlasting ideas? Or what about putting a long pipe from Lismore down to Lake George in the state’s south? Or is it simply cheaper to let the town be destroyed once every decade? On the flip or bright side, it brings community and locals back together once more to help one another. A lifesaver in these changing times of isolation and fear! Chad Butler Goonengerry
Collective individual We humans have a choice. We can focus our moneyeffort heavily on repairs and maintenance of everything that our climatic extremes destroy, or focus our money-effort on renewable energy and electrification-ofeverything (and a couple of other things). The first option gives us sort-term comfort, and a terminal ride on the Luna Park death spiral. The second option gives us a future, taking us a giant step closer to sustainability. These choices are both personal and collective. Every individual has to choose between the wonderful exotic jet away holiday, and the second-hand electric car (also turns out to be wonderful). ‘I’ll do it after they do it’ is a strategy for collective suicide. Everyone must take the lead in their realm of expertise. Let’s broaden the lyrics, ‘We want you all to show us the way...’ Sapoty Brook Main Arm
DƖƐƖſĕ şĪ dĶƆŔşſĕ I lived through the ’54 and ’74 floods in Lismore – my home was under what is now Lismore Square – and nothing that’s been done in the way of flood mitigation has proven worthwhile when the big ones come. The entire CBD and its
Death trap Midgen Flat Road, there is nothing flat about it, it’s a death trap! Midgen Flat Road is the
main connection from Hinterland Way to Broken Head and Suffolk Park. When Ross Lane is flooded it services Lennox Head for residents and emergency vehicles. It’s repaired totally inefficiently by Council contractors spraying bitumen into the craters that reappear after each rain event. They spray it, it rains, holes reappear deeper and wider each time. Ratepayers’ money wasted once again. This pockmarked, patched, piece of road is an 80km/h zone. Pity help the motorbike rider that hits one of these potholes in the dark, or the driver avoiding a pothole with oncoming traffic coming at them on this narrow ‘road’ at 80km/h. How about Council fixes it once and does it properly, and gives residents a safe road, not the current death trap we are forced to use on a daily basis. Deborah Hayward Broken Head
Those of us trying to escape from floods can testify that climate change is not a looming threat – it is an immediate reality. The latest IPCC report stated that the world faces ‘unavoidable multiple climate hazards over the next two decades with global warming of 1.5°C.’ With the world’s
governments dithering it is up to each of us to take action. Animal agriculture – the practice of breeding and raising animals for food or clothing – is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. A new report from Stanford University states that a worldwide phase out of animal agriculture, combined with a global switch to a plant-based diet, would effectively halt the increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases, giving us time to tackle other sources of carbon emissions. The situation is life and death. It’s time to go vegan – for your kids’ future and to save billions of animals from appalling lives and terrifying deaths. Desmond Bellamy, PETA Byron Bay
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