DEAR News Of The Area, THE growing instances of inhumane violence and mass killings represented by that most sickening of all nouns, war, have led me to write. Most recently, the ongoing bombings in Kiev, Gaza, the Middle East, and the more recent brutal attack on the Washington Post journalist in the West Bank by […]
DEAR News Of The Area, I REFER to the letter, ‘Women do not want their rights reversed’, (NOTA, 9/10/2026, page 14) regarding women’s rights being attacked by One Nation. It is universally known that when a child, on being born, does not take breath, it is declared dead. I see all the activities in the […]
DEAR News Of The Area, WOMEN’S rights are being attacked by One Nation. The official policy platform explicitly states that the party will “seek every opportunity to roll back brutal and extreme abortion law”. The hard-fought battleground of the Women’s Electoral Lobby ahead of the 1972 election was fertility control and access to legal abortion. […]
DEAR News Of The Area, I WRITE in response to your article, “Hanson loses appeal over ‘seriously offensive’ tweet”, (NOTA, 29/7/26, Page 2). Senator Pauline Hanson’s so-called “seriously offensive and racist comment” was made in reply to Senator Merheen Faruqi’s extraordinary and disgraceful statement on the day our late Queen died. Ms Faruqi had described […]
DEAR News Of The Area, IN mid-September, I had the opportunity to attend the Local Community Services Association (LCSA) NSW Conference in Wollongong. The LCSA represents 175 Neighbourhood and Community Centres in NSW. All these centres are locally owned and managed and represent the largest network of local, place-based community development organisations in NSW. One […]
DEAR News Of The Area, MOST parents have, and probably still do, wish that their children would enter university to become a doctor, nurse, lawyer or financial genius. I have been a doctor for 50 years and witnessed the paradigm shifts with dismay, and sadly conclude I would not advise General Medical Practice in the […]
DEAR News Of The Area, A CONVERSATION with an Uber driver on my way to Brisbane Airport got me thinking about where Australia is heading. We talked about youth crime, housing, cost-of-living pressures and immigration. I came away wondering whether our political debate focuses too much on who to blame and not enough on what […]
DEAR News Of The Area, IN May this year, the Port Macquarie Hastings Council repealed its Climate Change Response Policy. The timing could hardly have been worse: it was followed, almost immediately, by an exceptionally warm winter here, and at the same time as an extraordinary summer in the northern hemisphere. France, England, other parts […]
DEAR News Of The Area, OUT of the halls of power, a familiar madness rose in a creature who mistook his reflection for revelation. He treated the spark of consciousness as a crown, the flicker of wit as wisdom, the noise of his ego as the voice of truth. And in that confusion, many followed […]
DEAR News Of The Area, MOST places around NSW and Australia ditched and retired the old local car ferries 60 years ago and built bridges across the river. Ever heard of Forster to Tuncurry? Why doesn’t Port Macquarie have a modern, thriving town where many people can live on the North Shore? It’s room for […]
