At night, the Wollongong mall is one of the prettiest malls I have ever seen but it cost the ratepayers a lot of money and is yet to deliver a return on the investment.
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Sadly, there is a group of youths who have no appreciation of the cost and effort that went into rebuilding the mall.
It is not their fault. They don’t know any better.
They wanted a sophisticated skateboard park.
They didn’t get it and, because they didn’t get it, they have decided to turn the mall into a skateboard park.
The trouble with that is, sooner or later, there will be an accident.
In the interim, the continuous banging of skateboards – which aside from chipping away at the concrete and marble that the ratepayer has paid for – does not create a pleasant environment for wining and dining, nor any other artistic initiative.
Aside from the banging of skateboards, night or day, the mall is a dead space that needs the hand of a master artist to turn it into something incredible.
The potential is there.
Jan Lindrum, Wollongong
I believe the idea to replace income
tax with a higher GST is great, but I would also increase it to cover the tax lost through loopholes and tax deductions.
As Jenny Morris (Mercury letters, May2) said, everyone would have more money; but if the increased rate was the same for all goods and services the low earners would be contributing the same as the high earners to replace the high earners’ tax dodging.
To rectify this maybe a GST scale could be applied to goods and services (in groups); say from basics 0per cent, needed 10per cent, semi luxury 20per cent, luxury 30per cent and luxury plus 40per cent.
If this could be done it would delete the yearly income tax mess, and the tax office wouldn’t have to check or chase income tax avoiders.
R Connell, Dapto
I had a chuckle to myself after reading Wayne Bennett’s comment on Greg Bird “He was playing for his country so I guess he’d be a bit confused today.”
Personally I think he has been confused for more than a day.
Warren Fleming, Balgownie
Speed cameras were never about road safety.
The RTA statistics quoted in the Mercury when the cameras were installed on the M1 at Gwynneville showed that the ‘‘85thpercentile speed’’ was 98km/h.
Instead of setting the speed limit the internationally accepted 85thpercentile speed, the RTA set the speed limit at 80km/h instead of 100km/h.
In doing so it created an artificial trap for genuine motorists who are driving at a safe speed.
The only change in all those years is that the RTA is now called the RMS.
The cameras still rake in millions in revenue every year, so that proves driver ‘‘behaviour’’ has not changed.
The state government still refuses to admit that the way it uses speed cameras in NSW is all about revenue.
Most importantly, it stubbornly refuses to adopt internationally accepted method of setting speed limits at the 85th percentile speed.
Road safety suffers as a result.
Allan Pryor, Figtree
