Letters to the Editor, October 4, 2017

We were putting up with it, until the offensive language on stage had me having to explain to my four kids some of the more ‘flowery language’ being constantly repeated by the performers on Sunday afternoon.

The council, when contacted, indicated it was a police matter and they would not be responding as it was an approved event. The police indicated it was an approved event and all they could do was take my name and log my complaint. No action would be taken.

I understand the need for this sort of event in Wollongong. I appreciate the value it adds to our city in terms of revenue and tourism. I do not begrudge people going to concerts and having a good time. I would just like the council to consider both the level of noise and content that will be associated with the acts at these outdoor venues. If it was only a one-day event, it would be infinitely more bearable, but three days of noise at that sustained level is really not appropriate for an inner city venue.

​Residents are seemingly powerless ... and must endure the noise, only to have it investigated after the fact. In the absence of any real, measureable evidence to support the complaint at the time it is made, how can council properly make an assessment to limit the noise at future festivals?

Derrian Catto-Pitkin, Fairy Meadow

It was refreshing to see Adrian Devlin outing himself as the champion of ‘Those who opposed the freedoms, legal rights and recognition of same-sex couples’ (Letters, September 30).

Unfortunately it was downhill all the way from there. Dark and unnamed forces will ‘’undermine religious freedom’’.  The only checkable assertion that I could find in Mr Devlin's lengthy letter was that ‘’In Ireland were [sic] after only two same-sex weddings, the parliamentarians removed all the exemptions from the religious, educational and medical fields’’.

This is fake news. It is true that exemptions for religious schools in Ireland, allowing them to sack or refuse to hire teachers on  the grounds of their sexuality, have been revoked. But what has that got to do with people being able to get married or not? Absolutely nothing.

People might argue in this country that, for the billions of tax dollars religious schools receive, they should behave in conformity to community standards or even to basic decency. That debate has been going on for decades, and will no doubt continue. But whether people are allowed to wed or not makes absolutely no difference to our employment laws.

And just by the by, in Ireland more than 90 per cent of primary education is provided by religious schools so if you had wanted to be a gay teacher, you would have been well advised to emigrate.

As with the NO case generally, everything is raised except the issue itself. I suggest that this is because everyone knows that our community can see no good reason why non heterosexual couples should suffer this discrimination. Simples!

Peter Cockcroft, Corrimal

My heart raced with concern as I read Richard Burnett's report (Letters, September 30) of the rise of heterophobia.

What injustice might he be about to expose? Were people being bashed because they are straight? Were commentators suggesting that being raised by straight parents is tantamount to child abuse? Had laws been changed so their benefits would be specifically denied to straight people? 

No, people were disagreeing with his political opinion. Truly, straight people are the most oppressed of us all.

Ken Finlayson, Corrimal