GOOD ON YOU SALLY
Sally McManus has broken through a tough glass ceiling, she is the first woman to be elected Secretary of the ACTU. Her reply to a question about breaking the law is important. We owe our system, based on good laws and democracy, to heroic individuals who broke bad laws. It is interesting to note that Ms McManus' stand was opposed by Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull.
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The issue that prompted the question was a worker's right to strike. Conservative governments always attack that right. The Menzies' government gaoled a union leader in 1956 for breaking a law.
It was strike action that released Clarrie O’Shea, the union official. He broke the law. His imprisonment led to national strikes that released him.
Appeals to the injustice had been rejected. Strikes by their action break the law. While the billionaires enact the laws, unions have the right to break them. Good on you Sally McManus.
Reg Wilding, Wollongong
SOME ACTION NEEDED
My sincerest sympathy goes out to the family of Ryan and of cause his all his mates as I wonder how we can protect our community from this all too common occurrence during floods. We have road signage warning drivers of roads which are subject to flooding, pointing out the dangers of crossing or entering during a flood and the depth of water they would have to navigate with depth indicators.
Why can we not erect signs in and around vicinity of storm water pipes warning passers by that they are there and to stay away. My own two-year-old son fell into a storm water pipe near our home some years ago.
We had been playing soccer with him for some time before we kicked the ball a little further way. He ran after it and disappeared into the hole in the blink of an eye. We had no idea it was there.
The lid had been removed and was to one side of the two metre vertical drop. The area had been mowed by a council tractor a day or two earlier and had left long tufts of grass around the lid and edge of the hole, leaving it hidden. He was lucky enough to be able to hang on to the side with his little fingers and we were on him in a flash, pulling him to safety.
When I rang the council about this danger, I asked how such a large concrete lid could have been removed and not replaced and how when council mowed the area the danger had not been reported, I was told that when the pipes were laid no maps were created. So council didn't know how many there are and where they are. Something needs to be done.
Nina Brophey, Farmborough Heights
MUST BE AN ELECTION
Our local member, Sharon Bird, must think that there will be an early Federal Election ("Show us the Maldon money", Illawarra Mercury, March 16, 2017). Ms Bird has raised the Maldon-Dombarton rail line issue at the start of every recent Federal Election.
The local member's latest offer of $50 million is only made to get votes. In 2011, the estimated cost of the Maldon-Dombarton rail link was between $624 million and $667 million (reference ACIL Tasman "Maldon-Dombarton Rail Link Feasibility Study", September 2011). The true cost is now probably close to one billion dollars in today's money.
John Flanagan, Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting), Thirroul
DEATH AND TAXES
In 1789, American politician Benjamin Franklin penned his version of an old proverb: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”. No doubt if Ben had a seat on government benches today, he would see fit to change his famous quotation to the following: In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and tax avoidance.
John Macleod, Berry
