Letters – January 2016

By Residents of the Eastern Suburbs on January 19, 2016 in Other

UNETHICAL CHANGE TO ETHICS FORM

As the mum of a young boy attending primary school, I was appalled to read the story about the removal of ethics classes from New South Wales school enrolment forms.

My young son attends ethics classes at his school. I believe these classes provide him with an opportunity to think for himself, to ponder philosophical questions, and to debate his point of view with others. He is given the chance to express himself, and importantly to experience conflicting views so he can better understand why people may not agree on certain issues. I feel strongly that ethics classes help my child to be more empathetic.

I’m not going to share my personal opinion about religion because it’s, well, personal. My views are my own, and I believe the only people I have the right to influence right now are myself and my child. The idea is that he’ll develop his own opinions along the way as he grows up, and I look forward to hearing and discussing those opinions.
I don’t understand why a religious faction would feel so threatened by non-religious ethics discussions that they would want to make it harder for parents to provide this opportunity to their children. Or why a political leader would do a deal that allows this form of censorship to occur.

Thanks to people like Lisa Smith and Teresa Russell my son is being given the opportunity to think for himself. This is too valuable a thing to allow politicians to play with. I for one will be writing to Mike Baird to complain.

Jacqui Bundy, Maroubra

THANKS BRONTE FALL RESCUE TEAM

Hello,

I had a fall six weeks ago on McPherson Street in Bronte on a Friday afternoon at about 5.10pm. I would like to thank the people who came to my aid. I wanted to let them know that I am okay, and that I appreciate the care and concern shown by all. Thanks again for your help.

Kerry Hall, Botany

STAR SIGNS IN POOR TASTE

Dear Editor,

I am always pleased to read your articles and useful information in The Beast. However, the recent entry under your star signs page for Scorpio in your December edition was in extremely poor taste and not even remotely funny.

Who ever thought such an image could raise even a glimmer of a smile? Yuck. I am not a prude and enjoy robust and clever humour, but Beardy from Hell needs replacing with someone with wit and genuinely clever humour! I am a recently converted reader to your publication who is now likely to resort to my previous habit of simply binning it.

Disappointed.

Di Drew, Clovelly

WHERE’S TRIPPING WITH TODD?

I have been reading The Beast since its inception and always go to Todd’s story first, instead of some of the longwinded articles and letters that appear each month. However, in this December month’s edition, there’s no Todd.

I do not care about reading about gangrenous genitals or circumcised lovers. I can pick these subjects from a medical magazine. If Todd’s column has gone west, so has my interest in your magazine. Bring back Todd.
P.S. this is a shorter letter than what usually appears.

John Maguire, Bronte

CUTTING CARPARK SPEED BUMPS

Dear Editors,

The speed bumps in Bronte Cutting car park are both dangerous and useless. The danger is for cyclists and walkers or runners who encounter these slippery, awkward lumps in the road, which are both skid and trip hazards.

The alleged purpose is to slow vehicles, and for this they are useless. When the Cutting is empty, vehicles dodge around the ends of the humps and do not slow down. When the Cutting car park is full, vehicles move slowly through the crowds anyway.

Let us bring some sense to Council and ask for their removal. Similar humps outside the Bondi Pavilion are removed for the City to Surf, acknowledging that they are a trip hazard for runners. This is surely a similar situation.

Yours faithfully,

Mora Main, Waverley

SUSPICIOUS MINDS ON AMALGAMATIONS

Your correspondent Duncan Horscroft brings up some relevant points about the forthcoming council amalgamations. Waverley and Randwick ratepayers have every reason to suspect Waverley Council’s motives for rushing to get in bed with Randwick Council. Even Jeff Kennett, who led the council amalgamation process in Victoria, is on record as saying that “the trouble with voluntary mergers is they’re often for self-interest, not for what is necessary for the good governance interests of the state”.

It really makes you wonder, especially as very few councils had volunteered so quickly. Unfortunately, by the time we find out that all this hasn’t been such a good idea, it will be too late. What do they say about mushrooms again? Kept in the dark, and fed…

Anonymous, Bondi

THANKS FOR THE COOGEE HELP

Dear Beast,

I wanted to send a big thank you out to some lovely people who helped me when I fell in a pothole on Alfreda Street, Coogee on Saturday, November 21.

I was crossing the road to get to my car when I fell, and was so grateful to the people who came to help me. I was in a bit of shock at the time, and as it turns out I broke a bone in my ankle. Thank you to all the people who helped me that day. I just wanted to say how much I appreciated it.

Bel Kemp, Randwick

PEARL’S ARTICLE OFFENSIVE

I am deeply disturbed by the article portraying Christ on the cross with shopping bags. For Christians this is an abomination! As we celebrate Christ’s birth and acknowledge Him as our Saviour and Lord, to see Him trivialised in this way is unacceptable and offensive.

Jacqui Guy, Coogee

RIDICULOUS ARTICLE SHORT OF THE MARK

Kieran Blake’s article titled ‘Mother Banned From Playground For Interacting With Her Children’ is one of the most ridiculous stories I’ve ever had the misfortune to read. While I suspect it was some kind of attempt at humour, it fell well short of the mark. I also suspect that the author of the ‘article’ may not have had the opportunity to spend much time in any playground ever.

I have had plenty, and one of the most satisfying parts of visiting these places is witnessing parents interact with their children, and outwardly display their love and care. It’s also been my experience that parents will assist a child who is not their own if they need some assistance.

Lastly, as for drinking coffee and using phones, I wasn’t aware that parents weren’t also allowed to enjoy at least some aspects of life that the rest of society has the ability to enjoy with much more freedom and frequency.

Jason, North Bondi

STOP THE CEMETERY SCAREMONGERING

Dear Editor,

In her letter in the October edition of your magazine, former council employee Bronwyn Kelly suggests that Waverley Council has a long-term agenda of selling Waverley Cemetery to developers. This is out and out scaremongering. There is nothing at all to suggest that Council plans to sell Waverley Cemetery to developers. In fact, the support by Council of the State Heritage Listing Application for Waverley Cemetery that was made by our group, together with its decision in favour of National Heritage Listing, demonstrates that Council is fully committed to the long-term conservation of this significant heritage asset. If they wanted to develop it, they would never have handed over control to heritage experts.

Ms Kelly criticises Council for accepting a recent report from accounting firm Deloitte that concluded that Ms Kelly’s suggestions are not financially viable. She implies that there is something wrong with Council accepting advice from what she calls “big end of town consultants”. Council commissioned experts from one of the world’s top four accounting firms, and it is entirely appropriate that Council should accept their advice.

Ms Kelly also claims that there is excessive vandalism at Waverley Cemetery, which leads her to suggest that Council should erect a fence costing in excess of $14 million around the cemetery to lock it off from the public. The Deloitte report described the cemetery’s record keeping as Dickensian, so it would be most unwise to take its vandalism records at face value. Having reviewed a selection of the records that were compiled during Ms Kelly’s tenure, I can only agree with Mayor Sally Betts. Vandalism levels are not excessive. The situation has been overstated by including things that are simply not vandalism. Furthermore, a lot of the incidents recorded relate to very minor damage to the perimeter fence. Parts of the fence were not maintained and were falling apart anyway, and some damage is probably caused by people frustrated with a lack of access. Make access more difficult and that problem will only get worse. It is true that some headstones have collapsed, but a lot of that is age-related and not the result of vandalism. Furthermore, it wasn’t reported to the police.

The idea that big fences stop vandalism doesn’t stack up. Rookwood Cemetery is surrounded by a fortress-like fence, topped with barbed wire and CCTV. That didn’t stop someone destroying 70 gravestones there last year. Surely the better solution would be to keep the cemetery as open as possible and encourage people to use it. More people means more vigilance and less opportunity for vandalism.

The conservation of old cemeteries is an issue all around the world. There are a multitude of as yet unexplored operational and funding models. Council needs to get moving, consider them all and find the best solution.

Penny Mora, Residents for Waverley Cemetery

THE A-Z GUIDE TO RECYCLING

I refer to an article in the November issue of The Beast (The A-Z Guide To Recycling), and provide some additional information from the REDcycle program regarding recycling.

In late 2012, the REDcycle program created a revolution in soft plastics recycling, allowing householders to recycle a wider range of soft plastics by returning them to more than 480 drop-off points at Coles supermarkets. Soft or flexible plastics are any plastics that can be easily scrunched into a ball or broken, when crushed by hand. They include bread, pasta, chip and lolly packets, biscuit packs and trays, and old ‘green bags’.

The plastic packaging is processed in Australia and sent to local manufacturer and program partner Replas, which converts it into recycled plastic products such as outdoor furniture and signage for schools and communities. In addition, the thin foil-like plastic sleeves and packets that some biscuits, chocolate bars, crackers and chips come in are also fine to be recycled via the program at the supermarket.

Margaret Scott

ABALONE CONFUSION

Dear Pascale,

I thought I’d write to correct you and inform the readers of The Beast that the information you provided in your article in the December edition about the collection of abalone is incorrect.

It is understandable that you made the mistake because our beloved Department of Primary Industries and State Government of NSW has in fact published two conflicting sets of rules relating to the collection of abalone.
One set, as part of the Sydney and Northern Beaches Recreational Fishing Fact Sheet (www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/329319/Factsheet-737.pdf), shows incorrect, out-dated information.
The second set of correct details can be found at www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/recreational/regulations/sw/sw-bag-and-size and in further detail at www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/229746/Abalone-Closure.pdf.
I, too, had come across this conflicting information in my own enquiries, but rather than take either as the actual rule I contacted NSW Fisheries and had them confirm which was in fact true.

The correct information is that abalone in New South Wales have a bag and possession limit of two abalone over 11.7cm (long length), with an added restriction that allows the collection of said invertebrates between Port Stephens and Jervis Bay only on weekends and public holidays adjacent to weekends.

It’s worth noting that it is illegal to collect abalone and all other shellfish within the waters of Sydney Harbour, Port Hacking.

I hope this clears the situation up.

Kind regards,

Avid Angler