Action for the future
World Children's Day is on November 20, as is the Day of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which Australia has signed.
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This commits Australia to protect the right of all children to health and safety.
I call on Scott Morrison, as the leader responsible for the futures of six million Australian children, to protect our children from climate breakdown. With more ferocious bushfire seasons, and the worst drought in history, some children and their families are losing their homes and livelihoods.
Babies and children struggle through longer and hotter heat waves. Children face an inhospitable world if we continue towards 3°C warming, and their mental health is suffering. We need urgent action to restore their hope.
To avoid the most catastrophic impacts, Australia must act on the science and urgently accelerate cuts to our greenhouse emissions, consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C. This Government's current policies are a betrayal of our children and its responsibility to protect them.
Alisha Onslow, Raymond Terrace
Also read: Letters to the Editor, November 7
Beach bags an eyesore
It is good to see Port Stephens Council start work on the demolition of the carpark - mainly it seems to get rid of an eyesore?
So why are they starting another eyesore to take its place on Nelson Bay Beach?
The installation of large, ugly sandbags on the high-profile marina beach adjacent the playground gives me little confidence that this council actually cares how this place looks. If they are so short of funds for regular maintenance and sand nourishment which should have taken place over the last three to four years, then why are they throwing ratepayers money around on special projects everywhere else?
Surely addressing the erosion and sand build up issue within the marina should have had much higher priority than all the other "nice to have" projects. Good access to the marina is the source of income for so many local boating businesses, and the beach just as valuable for local families and visitors alike.
Please get rid of those ugly sandbags and find another solution council. You could move them immediately to Conroy Park where they have been really needed for many months.
Margaret Wilkinson, Corlette
Also read: Letters to the Editor, October 31
Time to speak up
To Anthony Albanese, the leader of the Australian Labor Party, It is time for you to speak up.
How do dictatorships start?
1. Muzzle the media 2. Clamp down on activists.3. Eliminate the opposition parties - YOU.
When will Labor act? When will you speak up for democratic freedoms?
Georgia Phillips, Salamander Bay
Burn-offs the answer
The bushfire season has Port Stephens residents worried - but not out Tilligerry way.
You see, a cool bushfire twelve months ago did what the volunteer firies couldn't: it burnt off all the fire fuel.
This means we are protected from firestorms. Tomaree residents aren't as there have not been broad-acre burn-offs for decades.
Tilligerry's problem is the greenies who keep planting more trees. Bulldozing firebreaks would be more helpful.
Geoff Walker, Mallabula
Also read: Letters to the Editor, October 24
Get what you vote for
I've been having a bit of a chuckle lately at some people who voted against the Labor party for their own reasons at the May election.
Now it seems they are not happy with the governing of the country by the people who got elected.
It seems they now blame the Labor Party for the way the country is being governed, because the Labor Party didn't win the election when they were supposed to.
Fred McInerney, Karuah
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