The Illawarra has skills in steel manufacturing and associated assembly to allow manufacture of submarine assemblies.

This can be backed up with support from UOW through it strong connections through its defence research centre and welding and automation research arms.

The submarine assemblies could be built and transported by sea to South Australia.

This gives virtually unlimited opportunities to the size of submarine assemblies that could be manufactured.

Ian Young, East Corrimal

Australia is facing a couple major economic crossroads. Our free public health system will crumple around our ears unless our government can save money or raise taxes, or both.

​As well our current inability to adequately support education, the disabled and their carers, the unemployed, the homeless, and the poor will worsen to an unthinkable level.

Even more alarming is the growing negativity within our society towards our elderly, driven by a belief they are becoming a drain on our health system and general economy, and are fast becoming an undesirable group in Australian demographics.

In spite of all of this we allow people (including many Australians) and organisations, who gain their public identity and/or make their living from the plight and mass resettlement of refugees and other migrants, to embarrass us – individually and as a nation because our current government will no longer accept an unregulated and costly flow of such people into our country.

Sovereign nations are fast losing control of their borders through the passive invasion by refugees who are greatly infiltrated by economic migrants, opportunists and potential terrorists.

Any suggestion or pressure that attempts to cause Australians to neglect our own in favour of people from other nations is obscene.  

Australia has always punched well above its weight in regards to foreign aid and the resettlement of refugees from all parts of the world.

Richard Burnett, Wollongong

Vale brilliant Aussie wordsmith and irrepressible larrikin, Bob Ellis.

His masterpiece was the evocative screenplay about 1950s Australia for "Newsfront", contributing greatly to the launching of our local film industry as well as to the careers of Phillip Noyce, Bryan Brown, Wendy Hughes and Chris Haywood.

He co-wrote with Director Paul Cox the AACTA winning script for "My First Wife", for which John Hargreaves also won the ACCTA Best Lead Actor Award.

Prince Hamlet’s rueful lament for his deceased father, perfectly crystallises my boundless admiration for Bob Ellis:

“He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not see his like again.”

Michael LaFave, Wollongong

In response to the letter by Don Kelly’s "Attack on the ABC" (Illawarra Mercury, Monday, April 4, 2016), how interesting Don Kelly can claim the Howard government stacked the ABC governing board with its political supporters.

While he conveniently forgets the Hawke Labor government did the same thing to suit the socialist left agenda with certain people given long contracts at the ABC.

Another claim by Don is the appointments by the deceitful Abbott/Turnbull government of extreme cultural warriors.

What is missing in Don's argument is that the public broadcaster, is for the public and not a minority of biased left-wing socialists.

Adrian Devlin, Fairy Meadow