Why You Need Solar & Batteries Now!

Power Prices Rise by 18%

Australian electricity prices have risen by up to 18.3 per cent under a decision by the Australian Energy Regulator due to increased cost of generation due to global rises in coal and gas prices. The increases, which came into effect from July, amount to more than $250 a year based on ACCC figures putting the average residential electricity bill at $1,434.

Feed in Tariffs for Solar Crash

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New hospital staffing

With all the current shortages of doctors, nurses and staff in all of our hospitals, I was wondering where is our state leader is going to find the staff for the new Tweed Valley Hospital. Can someone tell me please?

Terry James, Kingscliff

Random act of kindness

I was recently purchasing some products from the local fruit shop in Tweed Heads and at the checkout realised that my purse was not in my handbag. I was thinking about where it could be and was going to put my products back. However, the young gentleman next to me intervened and offered to pay for my purchases, $10, so that I would not have to come back. Thank you again to that considerate man, it was such a wonderful fuzzy feeling that someone randomly can assist a stranger and make a difference.

Trudi Cox, Tweed Heads

Antisocial behaviour

On Tuesday, January 24, I attended a community meeting at Tweed Heads Auditorium.

The forum was organised to discuss the antisocial, criminal element that gathers around the Jack Evans Boat Harbour park, Bay and Wharf Street, as well as adjacent streets and lanes. This area is home to many elderly retirees and families who live in nearby apartment blocks.

The meeting was well attended by a concerned public as well as a great representation by Tweed Police, regional politicians, various community leaders and local business owners. While the debate was encouraging, it must be acknowledged and agreed that the end game is to recognise Jack Evans park and the nearby streets and lanes are a haven for undesirables.

The local residents (mostly elderly) feel they’re under siege from an unruly element, many afraid to leave their apartments, meanwhile small businesses are at the mercy of this unruly mess taking a financial hit as they try and ply a trade.

The Wharf and Bay Street intersection attracts a nasty criminal element, who purposely seek out the local population to intimidate and terrorise. This ugly behaviour often escalates to residents being attacked and robbed. My note is not a broadside at the homeless or those who due circumstances beyond their control are down on their luck.

Tweed Council need to return to the drawing board to rejuvenate the area as previous attempts to add lustre have been an abject failure. There needs to be a total rethink about social and public space planning.

The council can’t simply greenlight development generating thousands of new ratepayers then abandon them.

It should be noted most residents who live at the Tweed border arrived to escape big city problems, now they find themselves immersed in a regional version of the very environment they wanted to avoid.

The final indignity for NSW border residents is to witness how nearby streets of Cooly/Kirra are so well maintained. Crossing the road into Coolangatta from Tweed is like walking from East to West Berlin.

be involved in swimming carnivals which are almost a national pastime. Instead of seeking interest in delivering such an important recreational facility as a decent outdoor swimming centre, the Council will be increasing rate payments this year so they can update their computers, presumably so they can get the rate notices processed quicker.

Climbing Wollumbin

I think we should all be allowed to climb Mt Warning (Wollumbin). Just charge ten dollars each and that will pay for the maintenance. Also, I think that the whole world is sacred, and we need to show respect for it all as we only have one planet.

John Buikhuisen, Murwillumbah

To climb or not to climb

ensure that due acknowledgement is finally given to First Nations people in our Constitution.

I also hope that a formal process is established for Indigenous Australians to provide advice on legislation directly affecting their lives.

Shamefully, it took us 66 years to decide that Indigenous people should be counted in the nation’s census.

John

Butler, Tweed Heads Back to school woes

There have been numerous complaints about the merging of high schools in Murwillumbah.

Spare a thought for the Condong Public School children that had to relocate to South Murwillumbah Infants School post the 2022 flood. It may be years before Condong school is back in use, whilst the wheels slowly turn to (eventually) raise the school. This will be a great outcome for Condong School, but meanwhile the children lack a practical play area. When the high schools merge, they will be having the best of everything I’m sure.

Spare a thought for these young children as they face yet another year away from their ‘home school’.

I feel compelled to put my thoughts across as a local born and bred near the base of Wollumbin (Mt Warning) at Bray Park.

As kids, in the early ‘60s and ‘70s, we would ride our bikes to the bottom of the mountain and climb up. Back then it was a dirt track, even the last steep section had dirt between the rocks with small shrubs to hold on to.

Now having climbed a few more times in my adult life, the last in 2004, I noticed the track had degraded to clambering over tree roots and rocks, with the chain (now removed) at the last ascent you nearly had to be a rock climber.

Will it take us another 66 years to acknowledge that human beings cared for this land long before a group of us white fellas decided to establish a nation that supplanted an existing set of nations?

Regarding the NT Senator Jacinta Price, she has every right to express her views, to be concerned about poverty and domestic violence and to consult with some of “her people”. However, she seems to be totally out of step with the considered views of Indigenous people from across the nation who contributed to the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

These were not “meaningless words”; they were a call to informed action, and we finally have a government that is willing to listen.

Tweed Heads New pool needed

Stevie Barr,

What was once a beautiful outdoor swimming centre, the Oasis Pools at Club Banora is no longer and this has been the case for some time now due to costs involved for maintenance and repairs. Tweed residents have just a 25-metre pool at Kingscliff to escape the heat if they can’t deal with ocean swimming (particularly the elderly).

Tweed Shire Council state they are in no position to take over the running of the pool or establish any other swimming facility in the area.

It is unacceptable in my opinion that such a populated area full of elderly residents, keen swimmers, young children and others can’t enjoy a day at a local swimming centre for exercise, recreation or just to cool off.

Not to mention the issue of schools in this vast area who can no longer

David Power, Tumbulgum

No case managers

Nice to know the Norther Rivers Reconstruction Commission (NRRC) is failing everyone and not just me.

A friend and I attended an information session at the Murwillumbah RSL on Tuesday, November 8, which was given by the CEO of the NRRC. They were very short on commitments for anything at the meeting, but the CEO did promise that they would be allocating a case manager and that they would be in contact by the end of the month. Have heard nothing, not even a courtesy email to say they are understaffed, overwhelmed or whatever. Meanwhile, I’m sitting, waiting.

Thank you to The Weekly for being a strong local voice.

Steve Powell, Murwillumbah

So, with nearly another 20 years, a few cyclones and 100,000 people per year, I can only imagine it has become more eroded. I now live at Nobbys Creek and look at the mountain every day and feel inspired by it. So I can perhaps understand the special feel of this place to everyone.

The whole mountain range has a very appealing aspect to it, the fact it’s one of the first places in Australia to receive the sun makes it very special. I also think the erosion and number of people wanting to climb is a very big factor for emergency services to keep everyone safe. Especially given the number of rescues over the years.

So perhaps we should do what is best for the mountain’s sake.

Elaine Van Den Broek (nee Hawkey), Nobbys Creek

The Voice is needed

Despite the views recently expressed in The Weekly’s Letters regarding the Voice to Parliament, I remain hopeful that a majority of Australians will

I wonder if those endlessly calling for “more detail” on the proposal have even looked at the comprehensive 270 page Calma/Langton report on the Voice proposal.

With reference to the upcoming referendum, the addition of a few healing words to a dry legal document known as the Constitution is not going to cause the fabric of Australian society to collapse.

Activists such as Jacinta Price will no longer be able to claim that Indigenous voices are not being heard. Let’s get it done.

Neville Jennings, Murwillumbah

Please note the views on the letters page are that of the letter writer and not of the Tweed Valley Weekly. Letters must include a suburb and contact number for verification. Letters may be edited for length or legal reasons. Send your letters to editor@theweekly. net.au.