LETTERS Cutting Sunday pays The Fair Work Commission’s decision to cut Sunday penalty rates is just cruel and unfair for so many families in our community. These are ordinary people who rely on penalty rates to pay for basic living costs: rent, food, petrol and bills. These are not luxury items. What’s worse is that the Dunkley MP Chris Crewther was a strong advocate for these changes. I wonder whether he has ever had to survive on penalty rates. I suspect not. John Lithgow, Carrum Downs
Majority ignored
Only when we stop breeding like rabbits and let the world’s population decline will we reverse the global warming. Natural climate variations, the coming and going of ice ages, and warmer periods, are caused by the radius of the earth’s orbit about the sun varying cyclically with time. The sea is now 1C warmer than not too many decades ago It is warmer because CO2 has trapped the heat in, no other reason. William Day, Burwood
Scientific belief
Would John Cain, that prolific letter writer and expert on everything, please install a wind turbine in his yard and leave the rest of us to enjoy reliable electricity from, gasp, coal fired power plants (“Sun, wind, not coal” Letters 28/2/17). What if the wind doesn’t blow and the sun don’t shine? Man’s contribution to a changing climate is miniscule and you can’t fight Mother Nature. In 1969 a best selling book stated that by the 1980s it would be too cold to grow food. Recently canoeists got trapped in ice trying to prove the Arctic ice cap was melting; warming alarmist Tim Flannery predicted Perth would be a ghost metropolis due to little rain. We have always had natural disasters, as in the words of Dorothea McKeller, we are a land of fire and flooding rains. Most bushfires are caused by lightning strikes and firebugs; some floods are made worse by the ban on building dams. Al Gore and his silly film “An inconvenient truth”, which got all the warming alarmists so excited, is actually quite laughable and hypocritical. His huge mansion in Alabama uses more power in a week than a small town uses in a year. He flies in a polluting private jet. Mr Cain has previously boasted he and a handful of people stopped a pool including a muchneeded hydrotherapy pool being built on [Rosebud] foreshore where a pool had been before. This was against the wishes of more than 10,000 people who signed a petition to get it built. It’s pretty sad when a few people can have their way and prevent a desperately needed facility being built where it would be accessible to everyone. So, you people who are against everything, just give it a rest and bow to the majority. Patrina Frederiksen, Rosebud
I read so many articles and letters written by people who have little or no understanding, or expertise, about the issue they write about. But therein lies the rub - everyone is allowed their opinion. Clearly, in many articles, there is a political bias (always unstated). Recently there have been several articles and, hopefully there will be many more on this most vital issue, global warming and climate change. I am apolitical (always have been), I believe I have a reasonable knowledge of this important issue and have a common sense approach for and a strong belief in science. Thus I firmly believe in the 98 per cent of the world’s eminent climate scientists, ecologists, meteorologists, atmospheric scientists, geologists and yes, the vast majority of economists who empirically believe that the human usage input of CO2 into the atmosphere is causing the overall average temperature of our planet to get hotter. Unfortunately, the science of climate change cannot be explained in a few simple terms as all the sciences are very complicated, that is the very nature of science. If we pollute our lands we can be fined and the pollution is very obvious; if we pollute our waterways it is a little more difficult as water moves in many directions and changes into several other forms, such as a gas and a solid, but we can observe pollution in waterways. Our atmosphere is vastly different. How do we obverse a polluted atmosphere if the pollutant is clear and odourless? We can see particulate atmospheric pollution in many places, such as Beijing, but to say we are not causing detrimental effects on our planet is extremely naive. To say that burning fossil fuels does not cause or is not causing atmospheric pollution is, at the very least, uneducated and, at worst, very dangerous. Andrew Raff, Fingal
No escaping CO2
Population problem
The whole crux of the [global] warming matter was missed in the letter from Henry Broadbent who would have seen from his graphs that the percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere is rising (“Power up” Letters 28/2/17). It is this CO2 which traps the heat in at night, just like clouds do. No one can dispute that fact. The heat has no time to escape before another dose of the same next day, and more build up of CO2. Was it not for the fact that more CO2 is produced than can be absorbed by the trees and the oceans we would be in the process of global cooling The graphs which might have been correct, have had the wrong conclusion drawn.
It has been interesting, although rather perplexing, to read in your letters over recent weeks about anthropogenic climate change (ACC) and the differing responses to this mighty global challenge. However, I can only conclude that all we are doing as a species is tinkering at the margins and not dealing with the cause. Between 1900 and 2000 the world’s population increased three times more than at any time in history. Three times more, think about that. So it matters very little how much clean, green solar and wind power we generate, how many gas guzzlers are replaced by electric cars, how many coal mines we close, and how many off-grid batteries can be harnessed to offset fossil fuel base load energy. If the human population keeps growing at an exponential rate the problem can
only get worse. Billions is being spent trying to combat anthropogenic climate change with all sorts of wondrous technologies and (high carbon) international meet and greets, but there is no such thing as sustainable overpopulation. It would be a very brave politician to campaign on a low child policy and, ironically, it would unite both the left and right - albeit for different reasons - but it is the most effective strategy in reducing atmospheric CO2 and dealing with ACC. Everyone should try and reduce there carbon footprint, but if we continue bearing offspring exponentially it’s all just hot air. George Russell, Blairgowrie
Andrews has ever held any job outside local or state government, and therefore may be viewed as a professional politician of limited worldly experience. This “out of touch” perception is not confined to the ranks of Labor, but the left of politics would seem to be over-represented in the “professional politician” scenario. Is it any wonder that the voters are disillusioned with the major parties, especially with the recent revelations of ministerial rorting. Again, this is not confined to one party, however, Labor would appear to be marginally in front by a nose, or perhaps a snout. Neville Congress, Rosebud
Aunty’s carer
Letters make The News
Once upon a time, recently – Little Red Riding Hood heard that Aunty was not well. She packed some books and tapes from the ABC Shop in her basket and set off. She was horrified to see Aunty’s garden plants trampled upon, tracks everywhere and holes all over the place. She knocked on the door, which was opened by a man she immediately disliked. Where is my Aunty, she asked? I have been sent by the PM to help her, said the man. Well, said Red Riding Hood, you have destroyed her garden, left mess everywhere, and your rough appearance breathing smoke would frighten everyone. I don’t like you and I certainly don’t like the PM person if he thinks you are a help. And from that day forward, Red Riding Hood became a climate change believer because she did not like the tactics of the prime minister appointing a black coal lobbyist to the ABC board to push his agenda supporting, among other things, more black coal mining. Peter Strickland, Balnarring
Pollies out of touch It has become apparent that there is significant growing support for the One Nation party and there are various reasons put forward for this. One of the primary reasons would appear to be general voter disillusionment with the major political parties and the popular thought that they are “out of touch” and parliamentarians, in general, are “professional politicians” incapable of relating to their electorates. The following statistics (source: www.parliament.vic.gov.au/members/ministers) would tend to confirm this theory, and while the data relates to the 22 members of the Victorian cabinet, if it were to be reflected in other states and at national level it would tend to support the theory that our elected representatives are “professional politicians” isolated from the general populace. • 17 ministers (77 per cent of the Andrew’s cabinet) have progressed through the ranks from a trade union background as union organisers, or officials and possess no private sector or business experience. • 15 ministers (70 per cent of cabinet) hold current membership in one or more trade unions, including the premier who is a member of the ASU. This same number have only ever worked for the public sector and have nil experience in the private sector. • Five or seven have been exposed to private business but have only worked part-time or on a casual basis before entering politics. • There is no evidence that Premier Daniel
The letter from Kate Philip (“Keep politics out” The News 7/3/17) is a concern. I look forward to the letters page every week, politics or otherwise, covering a cross section of the various opinions on a plethora of subjects. Politics in particular can be the life blood of general conversations and often provide me with comedy, a life force for an otherwise uninteresting lifestyle. “Politicians are only interested in their own re-election”? Surely not Martin Dixon, MP for Nepean? As for the “irrelevant rubbish we get in the mainstream media” that depends on one’s point of view on what is or is not irrelevant. Take Mel Farnbach’s letter (“Information should be shared with the community”) “the vast majority of the community is disgusted with the antics of the council and councillors”. Mel talks of his vital concern, pleading for inclusion on anything and everything discussed by our elected representatives. One is amused by his assumptions on our behalf, also the use of the word vast before majority to plead his case, obviously without any evidence. Then there are the regulars, Rupert Steiner, John Cain, Brian A Mitchelson, Michael Free and Hugh Fraser. All grist for the mill. It’s only one page Kate, sometimes less. If you chop out politics what’s left, the weather? We have two local weekly newspapers Kate. Take your pick. Cliff Ellen, Rye
Push for skate park A PETITION supporting the establishment of a skatepark at the Narambi reserve, at the rear of the Mornington Park Primary School, is being circulated by former Mornington shire councilaspirant Fred Crump. Mr Crump said he had received strong support for the skatepark from residents of Tanti Park “and I’ve only been down Robertson Drive”. He said he would present the petition for the 45 metre by 20 metre skatepark to new councillor Sam Hearn, who lives nearby. “Residents believe the skatepark at Emil Madsen Reserve, Mt Eliza, is too far away and there is no public transport,” he said. “The Dunns Rd skatepark [in Mornington] means kids have to get two buses to get there.” Cr Hearn has lived and worked as a youth worker in the neighbourhood for the past five years. “I really believe we need to provide as much support to our young people and families as possible,” he said.
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