WHAT HAPPENED?
In your story about stopping pensions to politicians convicted of a serious criminal offence you state that Opposition Leader Luke Foley supported legislation to strip corrupt politicians of taxpayer funded perks in September 2016.
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However you did not mention that Luke Foley lead the Labor Party out of the chamber on Tuesday when the bill was tabled by the Government on Tuesday.
What has happened to change his mind?
Is it because the bill will apparently affect only ex-Labor politicians?
Keith Norris, Bellambi
MEAT IN THE SANDWICH
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared May 31 "World No Tobacco Day".
Bravo! We've known about the link between smoking and cancer for more than 60 years, and any opportunity to remind people to quit is welcome.
But let's not forget that meat, which is much more widely consumed than cigarettes, can also be deadly.
The WHO ranks processed meats as group 1 carcinogens – bacon, ham, and sausages are now in the same category as asbestos, alcohol, arsenic, and tobacco as a major cause of cancer, while red meat more generally is in the 2A "probably carcinogenic" category.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer concluded that each 50-gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increases a person's risk of developing colorectal cancer by 18 per cent.
Millions of people have improved their health and longevity by quitting smoking, and millions more would live longer and better if they gave up processed and other meats.
Laura Weyman-Jones, Press Officer, PETA Australia, Sydney
MONEY MACHINES
It would be beneficial to the students if Nathan Hindmarsh (Gambling With Kids, Illawarra Mercury, May 22, 2017) explained how clubs have set up poker machine rooms to pyschologically isolate users and those lights and sounds are also pyschologically set up to keep participants at the machines.
Also how many millions are siphoned out of the economy by people playing a machine designed to take all their money.
I'm sure Nathan implores them not to go near the machines.
Ken Mc Dougall, Bulli
FAIR CRACK OF THE WHIP
The contribution from Grant Schultz ‘Labor hides the truth’ (Illawarra Mercury, Tuesday, May 23, 2017) raised questions which even the most dedicated of Labor Party supporters would find difficult to answer.
Not being a member of the Labor Party, but having over 45 years’ experience in labour negotiations may I put my ten cents forward on the issues Mr Schultz has raised?
If indeed his examples of agreements negotiated by the SDA are correct, in my experience they represent an absolute betrayal of SDA members by their representatives.
As for the comments about the Fair Work Commission (FWC).
That’s another story.
Having as general secretary of The Miners Federation; had numerous dealings with a number of those now members of the FWC I sincerely doubt their capacity to understand what life is like outside of their own comfortable existence.
The absurd FWC decision to cut penalty rates for the most underpaid workers proving this.
So what needs to be done?
For a start SDA member should withhold union subscriptions until those officials involved in the dud deals are sacked from the SDA.
As for the FWC, the entire labour movement should continue to refuse to accept any detrimental decisions of the FWC affecting work place conditions.
Barry Swan, Balgownie
