The Illawarra area is caught between a powerful socialist movement that has Labor seats (state and federal) in the bag, and a group of Liberals who are pretend-conservatives and know they're dead ducks.

In addition, Labor representatives do not have to do much except jump up and down on certain occasions to impress their socialist masters and arose the community.

While the Liberals know there's little use in doing much for the Wollongong region, because there is little to gain "politically".

Putting trams back in the middle of Sydney, while attempting to scrap the free shuttle bus is wrong and lacks balance.

Afterall, the government should remember that it governs for the state, not just Sydney city.

The sale of the NSW electricity grid should have seen that money spent throughout the state and not confined to an over-congested city that needs to be decentralised.

The biggest users of the gong shuttle are university students and pensioners while also saving people the inconvenience of trying to park in Wollongong, which is nightmare in itself.

As we get closer to Christmas more people are going to use this service which should remain "free" given that the government's financial situation is strong and they can waste millions on tram tracks for the big smoke (city).

Adrian Devlin, Fairy Meadow

The FREE shuttle bus is not really free. 

Nothing is free because someone else has to pay for it. So why then should the shuttle bus be subsidised by others for the benefit of a few who feel a special entitlement?

It would be interesting to know what percentage of these people also queue up at Centerlink to collect more "entitlement".

R.Supwood, Austinmer.

In the fight for the Free Bus Shuttle no one has mentioned that Newcastle also has a Free Bus Shuttle around the city.

Has the government attacked that also or has Wollongong been targeted once again.

Heather Netherclift, Kiama

One lives in hope that Adrian Devlin (Illawarra Mercury, November 13) would learn to correctly interpret the NASA data he references and simply not just select segments of it.

Should Mr Devlin read the whole of the graphs recorded by NASA/NOAA  (and BoM in Australia) for sea levels over the last 25 years he would note an annual average increase of over 3mm.

Mr Devlin’s selection of data for a recent 18 months period can be cross referenced to at least seven other occasions where similar dips in levels have been recorded over the full duration of the graph plot.

However, the overwhelming and undeniable trend over the duration, which is the recognised reflection of change, is the increase previously stated.

Given that Mr Devlin recognises the precision and importance of NASA’s measurement and recording of climate data he might also consider referencing the data freely provided by that organisation in respect of global temperatures and Carbon Dioxide/Greenhouse Gas levels. (Source - climate.nasa.gov)

Frank Booth, Mount Keira

The Liberal Party appears to have a problem with cakes.

Former Liberal Opposition leader John Hewson was brought undone by a birthday cake and now Malcolm Turnbull is having troubles with wedding cakes.

Bob Fulton, Darkes Forest