It was held at The Green House at Pacific Dunes golf course at Medowie on Wednesday.  What a magnificent venue and what a magnificent lunch. There would have been over 100 people present and the way in which they were fed and feted was simply wonderful.  I and 12 other ladies at my table are volunteer librarians from the community library in Lemon Tree Passage.   We love what we do and we really appreciated Port Stephens Council's thanks.  

Elaine Richards

Salt Ash

It is incorrect to think the amateur fishermen (Australian fish stock owners) wish to displace commercial fishermen to whom they have granted limited harvesting licences through their government fisheries departments.

  Fisheries departments were formed after federation to make money from the fish stocks owned by Australia’s citizens (see “history of Australian Fisheries”). With this aim commercial fishermen were granted strictly limited yearly permission to harvest fish populations that are acknowledged to largely depress fish populations. The collapse of the entire Atlantic Ocean fishery proved that commercial fishermen could continue to catch fish right up to the day of collapse. Long after people (amateurs) could not catch a fish to eat.  Amateur fisherman can be considered the canary in the coal mine.  Research by government fisheries around Australia has proven findings that largely depressed fish populations can by returned to normal by the eliminating netting fish breeding schools in the breeding season. These very large increases in fish populations allow greater access to greater fish numbers by commercial fishermen and amateur fish owners during the year.  It is becoming demonstrably clear that the amateur fishing single-line method of taking a few fish from passing schools that might only meet a dozen amateur fishermen spread over a year can not destroy any breeding schools of fish despite a theory from a limited statistical estimation.  The simple solution to painless commercial licence reduction is amateur licence payouts for sold transferred or retired licences.  

  Jon Sherwin

Nelson Bay

Understandably, women and girls may be feeling a bit disheartened across Australia as 2016 draws to a close.

Hillary Clinton’s shock defeat by Donald Trump in the USA presidential election hurt for many of us.

It was also a shock reminder of the misogynistic behaviour our first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, was subjected to when she held Australia’s top job. Women face sexism every day. In Australia, research by Plan International revealed that just eight per cent of girls and young women feel they’re always treated equally to boys. Only 14 per cent say they always receive the same opportunities to succeed as boys. Following our event on how to tackle everyday sexism, participants including government representatives, researchers, journalists and the online community outlined strategies we can all adopt, both men and women, to fight gender inequality: Check your language, don’t say “you run like a girl”. Instead of telling girls they look beautiful, tell them they’re strong. Call out everyday sexism, and stop laughing at sexist remarks.  Check your unconscious bias, there’s no such thing as men’s work or women’s work, boy’s or girl’s chores.  Value women for their personalities and intelligence, not just their looks. Celebrate women leaders, and encourage girls to dream big. Lead by example as children mirror our behaviour.

Susanne Legena,

Deputy CEO, Plan International Australia