DEAR News Of The Area, THE social media ban set to begin in December is a welcome and much-needed step to reduce the growing impact of digital distractions on children’s wellbeing. But while it marks progress, it’s only part of the solution. We also need to look closely at school excursions, where mobile phone use […]
DEAR News Of The Area, HARRY Creamer’s dream of a foreign funded high-speed rail for Australia (25 July) sounds like another eye-wateringly, never-ending, expensive AUKUS scheme. Australia simply doesn’t have the population to support high-speed rail projects. Even if most city-to-city travel was taken by rail, there still won’t be enough usage to pay for […]
DEAR News Of The Area, ONE article among many caught my attention in the July 11 NOTA (No ‘hard and fast date’ for new trains, page 9). I have been following this since 2015 when then Port Macquarie MP Leslie Williams issued a media release announcing a ‘brand new fleet of trains to replace the […]
DEAR News Of The Area, LABOR’S proposal to introduce an unrealized capital gains tax on superannuation funds has created quite a bit of attention since Chalmer’s Federal Budget back on 25 March. I don’t believe Jim Chalmers owns a financial calculator or has thought through the effect of his tax. Recently the Government estimated that […]
DEAR News Of The Area, THE XPT service from Grafton to Sydney has been taken off the rails and replaced with coaches for twelve months. Pensioners, seniors, students without a car and children all rely on this daylight service. The majority of these people would prefer to travel by train for the comfort it provides […]
DEAR News Of The Area, WHY am I not surprised? Another election letdown, promises out the window. After voting at my polling station at Lake Cathie I looked around to purchase my democracy sausage, but there were no sausages to be had! What was I to say to my faithful dog, waiting in my car […]
DEAR News Of The Area, I wish to reply to the Letter to the Editor in last week’s News Of The Area, by Sue Baker. It was Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, who said if you tell a lie often enough people will believe it. There are a number of statements in Sue Baker’s letter […]
DEAR News Of The Area, WHEN asked how the Liberals and Nationals would ease cost of living pressures, both National Party candidate Alison Penfold and Shadow Treasure Angus Taylor recently replied with reducing fuel excise – that was the only thing mentioned. This would only occur for 12 months. It does nothing to help those […]
DEAR News Of The Area, THE NSW National (Mining) Party has been making a lot of noise lately about “youth crime”. In their quest for relevance they have chosen a campaign against a group that we all have a legitimate right to fear: young people! I blame rock and roll myself but that might be […]
THE Member for Oxley Michael Kemp appears to be the National’s new kid on the block when it comes to justifying native forest logging in our coastal forests. Repeating the same old National Party mantra over and over again doesn’t make it true. He would do well to read David Lindenmayer’s ‘The Forest Wars’, an […]
