TRANSMISSION NOT RECEIVED
I can’t dispute the claim made by Bob Newell in his comment ‘Frankly, Mr Dutton we are not amused”’ (Illawarra Mercury, May 23, 2018).
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Bob states that Peter Dutton criticised the ABC for sending a special crew from Australia to cover Prince Harry and Megan Markle’s wedding. If Dutton expressed this comment, he was not alone with that view.
There was an ABC “crew” already on the ground in England which could have been supported by others working in nearby European locations.
“A crew”, in every way, that would have been far more appropriate than a couple of Australian-based blow-ins. The outcome of the ABC’s eventual transmission supported this view.
Presenting a leftist view of the wedding was always a bridge too far away, even for the ABC. It seemed as with most of its entertainment programming it only intended a B Grade production of the event.
And as the proverb says: “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”. The ABC’s transmission was not well received. It was cleaned up by the commercial channels.
From around four million Australia viewers Channel Seven viewers totalled 1.95 million (44.5%), Nine’s total was 1.89 million, and the ABC only scored 0.81 million (half the its audience from the last Royal Wedding it covered).
Richard Burnett, Wollongong
PRIVATISING OUR ASSETS
The coalition's government is slowly privatizing the state's assets across the board.
Sydney's trains right now are being prepared for private operations to take over,already there are bus routes and ferries in Sydney that have already been privatised.
When she was transport minister now Premier Berejiklian shut down the rail service in Newcastle and replaced it with private buses, thus causing chaos and frustration for the public and making it easier to blame the public sector and not management and itself.
This meant it could try to convince the commuting public of the lie that private for profit would be more efficient and cheaper.
Matty Ryan, Fairy Meadow
STRIKE FORCE GLADYS
The state government’s forced acquisition of properties each side of the WestConnex motorway has come at a price: in excess of 1 billion dollars – pushing the taxpayer's gift to a selected urban toll company to over 18 billion dollars.
Gladys, for this cost New South Wales could have its own private air force.
Cost of 100 fighter jets: $17 billion.
Cost of one hanger and spare parts at Richmond Air Base: $1.8 billion. Three cheers for Air Chief Marshall Gladys Berejiklian.
John Macleod, Berry
KEEPING THE POWER
We have the Liberals demanding that AGL sell the Liddell Power Station to another private company.
Abbott and his acolytes claim that coal is cheap. Returning coal to the main source of electricity generation will bring our power bills down.
Yet the price of coal is $US94 per metric tonne while sunshine is $0 per metric tonne. Banks are refused to finance coal projects. Insurance companies are declining requests to provide insurance cover for coal power generators.
Why do Abbott and his disciples have faith in power generators? The economic indicators suggest that this faith may be misplaced. Coal is more expensive than renewables.
Banks and insurance companies do not want to conduct business with the owners of generators.
Perhaps the Liberals would have been smarter if they had kept the power system in government control than privatising in the first place?
Ben Morris, Wollongong