A TIME FOR ACTION
We all voted for a government to run this country. We now have a parliament with a PM.
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He picked his Cabinet and we are all waiting with bated breath for his first call.
Looks like we could be in for a long wait. He doesn't seem to be in a hurry to do anything at this point of time.
Seems to be at the crossroads - no idea where to go and no idea on what to do.
A bit like our Noreen, maybe waiting for the next election before he comes out and speaks ?
Seems to me a bit of a lame duck. Oh yes, he was shouting “jobs and growth” instead of shouting “security and safety.
Now that would have given him a start on a new project would have done something by now. We all say, get on with it man. Do something, anything?
Lawrence Wren, Fairy Meadow
WHO HAS THE POWER?
Opened by Governor-General Sir Paul Hasluck on October 21, 1972, the Snowy Mountains Scheme took 23 years to complete at a cost of $782 million.
The massive hydro-electric system covers 5000 square kilometres, incorporates 16 separate dams and has over 150 kilometres of tunnels linking it together.
In 2015-16, Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (the owners) revenue totalled $581million. Income derived from a broad spread of offices around the world and the sale of electricity to NSW and the southern states.
Last month SMEC was acquired by Surbana Jurong, which is owned by an arm of the Singapore government for $S400 million ($393 million). SMEC will continue operating as normal with Surbana Jurong as the parent company.
Why did this happen? How can such an important asset as the Snowy Mountains Hydro system pass into the hands of the Singaporean government?
The big losers here will be the Australian government –loss of tax revenue— and power consumers.
John Macleod, Berry
A FREE COUNTRY
Ken Bone’s attack on Ms Theresa Tran (Illawarra Mercury, August 18, 2016) is offensive.
Ms Tran in supporting Australia’s involvement in Vietnam is describing experiences she lived as a child not stomping down Pitt St with a banner.
I use Ms. Tran’s letters regularly to show Vietnam vets I have counselled, that some people recognise their sacrifice and understand. The attitudes of the strident anti-war movement and the abuse our servicemen experienced on their return has been a major cause of the appalling incidence of PTSD and suicide amongst Vietnam vets.
I saw the same thing with a world war two bomber pilot who had shown no symptoms of PTSD until his granddaughter returned from school and said “grandad my teacher said you are a war criminal”. .
Yes the US in Vietnam fought a counterinsurgency war very poorly and responded by use of it’s immense firepower. I am afraid the US does this all too often. This does not mean that the population of Vietnam should have had a communist dictatorship imposed upon them. The millions of Vietnamese who fled were not escaping from Santa Claus.
Asia has a terrible history of vicious communist dictatorships, North Korea, the killing fields of Cambodia, the attempt to impose communism in Malaysia, the at least 30 million Chinese victims of the Mao personality cult. The corrupt leaderships in South Vietnam of Diem and Thieu would have proved to be very temporary. People like Ms. Tran would have seen to that, if they had peace. The dictatorship of the Vietnamese communist party has proved to be much more pernicious.
Ms. Tran please keep writing your wonderful letters. In Australia you are allowed to write them and I am allowed to keep them.
Andrew Humphreys, Narrawallee