During the eighties, nineties and naughties we were told that tariff protections were bad for us.  Regulation of business was an impediment to growth and profitability. We were too well paid and needed to sell our jobs to low wage manufacturing countries so we could get cheaper stuff.

We were told we didn’t have to train our own future workers as we could just import fully trained and competent workers from overseas. We had to sell our public assets because governments shouldn’t be in the service provision business.

This was supposed to leave us all better off through a phenomenon known as trickledown economics.

What did we get? Unfettered company growth at the expense of our wages and conditions. Banks stealing the super of retirees. Unlimited imported workers being exploited by labour hire companies.

No apprenticeships for our young people and private training companies scamming us all. Multinationals avoiding tax on an industrial scale and everyday people loosing spending power to the detriment of small business.

Might be time to try a new paradigm. Let’s try a bit of trickle up economics. Increase wages and conditions and see what happens.  

Andrew Sefton, Thirroul

Last  week in our Parliament we had an important conscience vote on Marriage Equality in Australia

The will of the Australian people and the electorates was clear.

Those who abstained from this vote were Treasurer Scott Morrison Former prime minister Tony Abbott Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce Liberal MP Michael Sukkar Liberal MP Alex Hawke,,  Liberal MP Andrew Hastie Liberal MP Kevin Andrews Liberal MP Rick Wilson and  National MP George Christensen.

I can only assume that these men have no conscience whatsoever.

Doug Steley, Heyfield

Would Wollongong City Council follow state rail’s example and do exactly what they have done and clean out and shotcrete the watercourse from Princes Highway Bulli to Spinners Way so Bulli High doesn’t get flooded again.

Council have a duty of care to the staff and students as well as residents in Alroy St and Trinity Row seeing council’s faulty engineering and lack of maintenance caused the last flooding in 2014.

Council must move quickly before the large storm hits the area.

Ken Mcdougall, Bulli

Where does one begin to describe what's happened to our Crown Street Mall? Is it the 20 or so large sandstone blocks dumped at random or perhaps the several palm trees thrown on to the pavers with their bulbous wrapped bases, but wait, there's more, one has to decide which is the "crowning" glory. Is it the large palm mounted on top of a light pole with its foliage some 15 metres high, or, the humongous sandstone blocks at the Eastern end, one of which has a hole through it and someone has threaded the foliage of one of the palms through the hole. Good Grief.

I was sounding off to some friends about this vandalism, saying surely someone witnessed the process and rang the cops though there doesn't appear to have been any arrests made as yet. They assured me that the whole business was deliberate and in fact done through our own Council at a cost of about $450,000. After that I  couldn't find the strength to type anymore.

Alex Cherrington, Fairy Meadow