Nature strip no-go
When are council rangers going to start fining people for parking on the nature strip. Many residents like to walk around their neighbourhood, unfortunately they have to walk on the road.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
This is because, (a) The council did not provide footpaths, and (b) because even if they had, too many people park their motor vehicles on the nature strip. The nature strip is council property and it is illegal to park on it.
Edward Aldridge, Tura Beach
Lessons in recovery
Drought, Fires, Flood, Virus. Now we plan to "come out". There is talk of work and employment, business and growth. No-one could deny this focus for us all, or the fact that we are all looking to recover.
Recovery is about people being able to regain a level of control over their lives and their livelihoods. We embrace and revel on the opportunities that recovery offers to our lives our interactions with family and friends, community, the arts, travel and so on. We want to support all our local business and retailers.
We face vast changes to achieve recovery. Our shut down lives will morph to our frenetic complicated lives very quickly, and I hope that we all grab hold of what has been a huge gain in time of lockdown.
We have been talking so much about people and wellbeing while trying to understand what has happened. The disasters all seem to have led us to have far more concern and empathy for one another - albeit in physical isolation.
News outlets, and media generally I believe, have managed to remain focused on personal impact more than the monetary impact.
We need Resilience to retain this emphasis on our lives and relationships while we regain our livelihoods and move forward to reestablish the balance of work and life.
But, when we look to work and employment I do not want to be looking at the building of naval patrol boats and the like to create future stability.
Let's use the disasters to learn and revamp a deliberate direction in our employment. Our response to Australia-wide disasters can be directly linked to our recovery and resilience. It is the realisation that vast employment opportunities exist in responding to drought flood and fires.
Both climate initiatives and land management practices can develop thousands of jobs into the future.
Local communities should form the basis with support and infrastructure state and federal. Forget demarcation disputes about responsibilities - this is national.
Let's look to our own backyards to respond, avoiding the tired response as per the militarisation/border emphasis of our recovery.
The threat to our lives comes from within our borders, within our lives and livelihoods.
The implementation of climate change mechanisms will have a massive impact on employment and the development to the future.
The implementation of cool burning Indigenous land practices, which are based on a wholistic land management understanding, will help to develop our recovery and resilience against such disasters into the future.
The funding in all states and territories of a joint RFS and Indigenous land management strategy could employ thousands in all states and territories and lead us toward a sustainable future.
The realisation that this needs to be our response now is imperative.
We have the chance to listen to communities, learn and grow.
We have not forgotten the horrors of drought, fires and floods. We will recover with resilience and the realisation that change is essential.
Michael Brosnan, Millingandi
Incompatible plan
Letter to BVSC re Eden mill expansion plans.
After our recently shared bushfire experience it has become clear that we need a new and comprehensive approach to forest management in the BVS and more widely. This approach needs to be formed with the caring of our community and the environmental needs of our area as its primary focus.
It is unreasonable to think that this focus could be either formed or maintained with the pressure of a large business investment and its associated interests in the mix.
I submit to you that there are long term and more universal priorities that have a unique chance in this post bushfire moment to be nurtured by your policy decisions. There are numerous strong indications that we have to evolve our approach to our environment and how we interact with it.
An expansion of commercially motivated logging interests in the region is not compatible with this nor with evolving community sentiment towards it. I ask that your decisions reflect the new paradigm we find ourselves in and protect the lives and future livelihoods of the humans, animals and plants under your care.
Gray Ramsey, Bermagui
Fire funds buy votes
Sports rorts funding revisited?
Mike Kelly resigns, a byelection in Eden-Monaro to be held. Bingo! Scott Morrison suddenly decides to start spending $635billion of bushfire relief money in the electorate that he has kept squirrelled away until his opportune moment presents itself to try and buy votes.
Colin McAuliffe, Kambah
Support nurses
How can the public servants get a wage rise at this time and deny nurses?