Renewables are right
Mornington MP Chris Crewther’s parliamentary speech on 20 June glossed over and ignored problems with nuclear power as an energy source.
Australia is the driest inhabited continent and, in the southeast and southwest of the country, it is getting even drier. Nuclear power plants require huge amounts of water to stay safely cooled. At Three Mile Island, United States, a cooling malfunction caused part of the core to melt, destroying a reactor. At Fukushima, Japan, the failed power supply disabled cooling systems causing all three reactor cores to melt. Overseas, drought has forced reactors to shut down. The four inland plants proposed by [Opposition leader] Peter Dutton would take water from rivers or aquifers.
Then there’s the radioactive waste. According to Scientific American, even though the US has had nuclear power since 1958, it has yet to agree on a storage site. About 88,000 tonnes of spent fuel are stranded at 77 sites across 35 states, increasing by about 2000 tonnes a year. The article concludes: “Even if the US starts today, it will take decades to site, design and build a facility for disposal of its nuclear waste stockpile.”
And finally, there’s the need for ongoing monitoring to avoid accidents. After Fukushima, the US set up 61 centres just to respond to accidents. In 2022, half of France’s reactors were shut down because ultrasound checks found stress corrosion in their cooling systems. Australia does not want to import these costly and risky problems. The simplicity and cleanliness of renewables avoid them all.
Ray Peck, Hawthorn
Fuelling division
I was dismayed to read about the recent “pro-Palestine” rally in Mornington (Peace walk concern, The News 9/7/24). I would argue that such rallies have not “shone a light on community division” but have, instead, fuelled it. Indeed, the author of the article points out that other such rallies have turned violent, including in Melbourne.
As a result of the regular pro-Palestine rallies in the CBD, many in the Melbourne Jewish community actively avoid areas where protests and rallies are held. They have lost access to public spaces that others in the community continue to take for granted.
There are Jewish families and households scattered across the Mornington Peninsula. It would be heartbreaking if the same dynamic plays out here on the peninsula, and that these families have to now second-guess themselves every Sunday.
I was also concerned by the language used in the article, which appeared to parrot pro-Hamas talking points rather than more objective reporting. Hamas engaged in a brutal and indiscriminate attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Israeli troops entered the territory of Gaza – under Hamas control since 2007 – in response to this attack.
A core aim has been to free the hostages taken by Hamas – 120 still remain captive. Indeed, if Hamas had released all of the hostages way back in November then thousands of deaths of Gazan civilians would have been avoided. Urban combat is brutal without a doubt. The situation is made much worse because Hamas hides within civilian infrastructure. Unfortunately, such context about the current conflict is absent from the article.
Bianca Felix, Bittern
Figures not accurate
I would like to respond to allegations raised in your article last week (Walkers unite for cause, The News 16/7/24).
We all would like peace in Gaza but the word “genocide” attributed to Israel, meaning total ethnic cleansing of an entire group of people, is incorrect. This is not happening.
This word is bandied around to blame Israel for the war and ignore the reason for the conflict. It started 2 weeks after the massacre of 1250 women, men and children and taking of 250 hostages including babies by the prescribed terrorist organization Hamas on October 7, 2023. Is this not a breach of human rights and a war crime?
Why not protest the cleansing of Uyghurs? The Sudanese?
Also in your letters section (Save the children, Letters 16/7/24) C. Jenkins has accused Israel of killing a particular number of children. The exact numbers of deaths in Gaza are unclear and come from the Hamas Ministry of Health. The United Nations (OCHA) has also agreed that Hamas numbers are wrong. They revised figures downwards on May 6 by half. Israel’s Foreign Ministry has said the numbers have been manipulated by Hamas and Hamas itself has admitted it has “incomplete data”.
We need to understand figures in war are never accurate and should not be repeated as fact. Maybe we could instead hold Hamas to account for the tragedy that has befallen the area.
T Kaye, Balnarring Beach
Stop excusing Israel
Isn’t it high time our federal government and the opposition stopped excusing Israel’s behaviour in the Gaza strip?
Israel’s army thinks it is OK to kill 90 mostly innocent people in airstrikes on a United Nation school to possibly kill one Hamas leader.
If you ask me this is no way a proportional measure in a war that should have ended some considerable time ago.
All this is done with the blessing of America and our own government. Albanese needs to distance us from the present Netanyahu government in Israel that is not interested in peace or a pause in fighting, because their coalition partners, the lunatic extremists of the religious right, threaten Netanyahu to topple his government.
Enough is enough every day we see the indiscriminate bombing of innocents and resulting deaths of ever more children and ordinary people after being told to go to safe havens, that turned out to be false promises.
Rupert Steiner, Balnarring
Do it right on roads
The Mornington Peninsula Shire has appointed Fulton Hogan as the new roads, drains, and maintenance contractor.
From my experience Fulton Hogan are more than capable of handling the maintenance of the shire’s roads and drainage infrastructure, with correct engineering practices, that were so lacking with the previous shire’s contractor.
Let’s hope that proper road engineering, table drain construction, and correct pot hole compaction is carried out, under the supervision of the shire’s engineering, or road construction supervision staff, this is a must! The recent and ongoing rains have proven my point, the shires engineering, and supervision staff have shown to me a total lack of concern or a real interest to see that the work was carried out to a professional standard.
Otherwise we the ratepayers have gained nothing.
Gerard van de Ven, Mt Martha
Rooming house fires
A recent article about fire prevention (Plan to prevent fire deaths, The News 16/7/24) provided information to assist residents escape fire and have fire preventative measures. But in rooming houses in Frankston there is very little fire prevention measures. The only fire prevention is a smoke alarm there are no automatic water sprinklers or fire extinguishers. There have been two fires in rooming houses in Karingal in recent times one in Eula Court which was allegedly drug related and one in Minno Court.
The council used to visit rooming house but stopped doing so and standards have dropped. The governments need to investigate the safety of rooming houses as they are prone to fire and there are no mangers to prevent trouble or drug taking and if fire breaks out then properties near by can also catch fire.
Landlords also allow grass to grow high which could also cause fire and the Frankston Council needs to make sure that grass is mowed and kept short in rented properties. The present situation in rooming houses will cause deaths through fire.
Russell Morse, Karingal
Close shops on Anzac Day?
The current debate revolves around the potential closure of large shopping centres on Anzac Day next year. Let’s consider the response to the closure on Good Friday as an example. Seeing so many overflowing shopping trolleys on Thursday is astonishing. Why? It’s just one day of closure, with shops reopening on Saturday, yet people complain about the closures. The same situation applies to Anzac Day. Again, it’s just one day. It is disappointing that some households cannot work around them.
Anne Kruger, Rye
Independent sought
Mornington Peninsula has a long history of running effective campaigns. We’ve had many successful grassroots campaigns to save Western Port, Arthur’s Seat, Point Nepean and Flinders pier. I hope our community is also prepared to fight to save our increasingly fragile democracy.
With our two major parties remaining committed to fossil fuels that are destroying our planet, electing a community independent who will listen to and act in the interests of their community is our only hope. A group passionate about leaving a livable planet to their children, is working to find and support a community independent in Flinders. You’ll find us at communityindependent4flinders.com
We need all hands on deck to help grow a strong grassroots movement which can support a great independent candidate at the next election.
Gerard Heijden, Rye
Agree to disagree
Regarding all the divisions now splitting so many Western-society countries We in the West must quickly learn to agree and to disagree without being so very, disagreeable.
Howard Hutchins, Chirnside Park
Letter to the Editor
I picked up your paper when down on the peninsula last weekend and I have a question. Are all your “Letters to the Editor” made up? I don’t think anyone would send you “Letters to the Editor” in this day and age. Not a one.
Liz Sarkie, Hampton East
Over cooked news
It appears that recipes are popular at both federal and state levels of government. Flinders MP Zoe McKenzie mentioned a scone recipe in her latest newsletter (Let them eat scones, Letters 9/7/24). Zoe is not alone in the cooking stakes.
Here in the state electorate of Hastings, we get instructions on how to make pumpkin soup. Hastings MP Paul Mercurio used one of four A4 pages of his newsletter for a soup recipe. Yet, on the front page, he tells us that the past six months have been so busy he cannot fit it all in the flyer.
I’d argue that there are so many pressing things that could have been included – not just the feel-good ‘photo ops’ of morning teas, Tyabb Airfield show, and the announcement of a kindergarten site. For example, updates on:
- Labor’s position on the VRET (Victorian Renewable Energy Terminal).
- The Latrobe Valley coal to hydrogen project for Japan to be shipped out of Hastings (HESC -Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain).
- The “progression” of the cross-peninsula bus service.
- The state releasing port zoned land (currently being jointly advocated for by the Mornington Peninsula Shire and the Committee for Frankston and Mornington Peninsula).
- Local issues regarding unnecessary vegetation removal under state planning bushfire regulations.
- Urban planning problems, particularly heavy road transport through our villages.
Reassuringly though, Mr Mercurio states he is “happy to go in and advocate for what we need” and that “I am having fun”. That’s a blessing, given it’s his well paid job. I might remind him that we pay for his electorate-wide delivery of his glossy newsletter too.
Louise Page, Tyabb
Cut meat subsidy
As a taxpayer for many decades, I was dismayed to hear the federal government announce on 15 July that it will give more than $100 million to red meat industries.
This is a business which boasts a turnover of more than $75 billion a year. At a time when Australians are struggling to pay their rents, power bills and, yes, taxes, do we need to be giving a large chunk of that hard-earned money to an industry which we know causes so much social disruption?
The UN has stated that animal agriculture is “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global”.
Research also shows that eating red meat, including beef, pork, and lamb, evidently increases one’s chances of dying from nine major diseases, costing the poor taxpayer even more in healthcare costs.
Ask your local politicians to overturn the gifting of your money to pernicious industries. And while you’re at it, try going vegan. As well as helping the environment and your health, you’ll spare nearly 200 animals every year a life of misery and a terrifying death.
Dr Desmond Bellamy, special projects coordinator, PETA Australia
