The insignificant forecasted savings of approximately $12 per resident a year does not offset what the residents of Shellharbour stand to lose.

We will have a reduction in libraries and pools.

Events such as the Carols by Candlelight and open pool day will no longer be held.

The profits from the marina will be spread across all of Wollongong and Shellharbour instead of just Shellharbour.

We will have two-three councillors in a council of 13 with all of the representation coming from Wollongong.

We will see paid parking implemented.

Shellharbour will just become a suburb of Wollongong and places such as Warilla and Oak Flats will be forgotten.

This proposal is not supported by evidence.

The one report that claims all of the cost savings isn't being released and I question why?

Mike Baird and Paul Toole will destroy the wonderful City of Shellharbour and other communities throughout NSW.

Marcos Baez, Flinders

In response to the letter by Ken Bone "Conditions Eroded"  (Illawarra Mercury, Wednesday, January 13, 2016) thank you for acknowledging both Labor and Liberal governments have allowed variations in working conditions that only benefit employers and leave employees working longer for less pay.

At the Royal Commission into union corruption, Bill Shorten revealed (as a union representative) how he negotiated for workers a longer period of secure employment with an employer by cutting penalty rates.

But the real villain is the Lima Agreement.

A call for change was made in March 1975 when the Second General Conference of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), meeting in Lima, issued a Declaration and World Plan of Action.

The Lima Agreement has directly contributed to halving Australian manufacturing and economic carnage continues while Australia imports vast quantities of goods once produced locally.

The UN industrial agreement also contributes to lowering wages and increasing unemployment.

Both political parties are equally to blame for betraying the nation.

The Fraser government took over where Whitlam left off, Hawke and Keating increased the tempo of the program with Mr Hawke, Keating, Button and other senior ministers telling unsuspecting Australians they were working to "internationalise" the Australian economy.

Adrian Devlin, Fairy Meadow

Irrespective of what ICAC concludes about the integrity of Senator Arthur Sinodinis, I will judge him by the fact that on Q&A last May he made a public promise to pursue the Australian War Memorial over its policy of the sanitisation of war records particularly in relation to the 2nd D&E Platoon which had been edited out of the records of the Vietnam War.

He never made good on that promise.

Says it all.

Don Tate, Albion Park Rail

In response to Mary Reynolds (Illawarra Mercury, January 21, 2016), the reason they charge so much in Dapto is because Daptonianians buy the fuel at their prices.

I drive down the road to Albion Park Rail where I get fuel at 12c-20c a litre cheaper.

It is about time the people of Dapto realised that Dapto.

Tom Rafferty, Horsley