You can read the Letters to the Editor from Thursday, May 3 here.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Need to preserve old Ballarat
Flats in the St.Paul’s Tower blocks are now available off the plan.
Towers that will be a dominating blots on a heritage area of Ballarat.
The Civic Hall and the Ballarat Station site are totally in the hands of the minister. Forget community consultation or need.
The Plaster Fun House site is to get a 5 storey office block housing 140 jobs with 29 parking spaces.
High rise development in low rise areas start a process that ultimately destroys that area.
Once a precedent is in place others follow, congestion and inadequate infrastructure force out single dwelling owners.
And so over time the whole area loses its identity.
Successive governments have destroyed Melbourne which was once an attractive Victorian city.
Piecemeal planning without greenbelts, inadequate and aging infrastructure, little or no oversight on development practices have made Melbourne a high rise anthill.
Surely we can learn from these mistakes and preserve the liveability, beauty and individuality of Ballarat.
D. McCance, East Ballarat.
A Mother’s Day Challenge to Ballarat
As a natural follow on from Anzac Day when we remember all those men and women who have served our country in past and present conflicts, we see Mother’s Day as a day to reflect on the anxiety and grief experienced by their mothers and families.
I encourage the people of Ballarat to think about the mothers, grandmothers and great aunts from their own families and all the families not known to them, who have experienced the grief which is the inevitable consequence of war and take some flowers to the Garden of the Grieving Mother, adjacent to the Arch of Victory.
It would be wonderful to see the base of the statue covered with flowers.
G. Snowden, Chairman, Garden of the Grieving Mother Project Committee.
Not forgetting
Around Anzac Day each year it is predictable to see letters to the editor linking the phrase Lest We Forget with political comments.
Anzac Day is an occasion for solemnity, remembrance and thankfulness and it reminds the nation that what has been lost in war and conflict can never be counted in numbers.
It is also a reminder that what Australia has gained can never be described in words alone.
Anzac Day is a time to remember the freedoms Australia has inherited.
This freedom, however, does not extend to belittling solemnity, remembrance and thankfulness with political comments.
To do so, is to undermine the sacredness of a national day and what it stands for.
Lest We Forget, I believe, was never intended to be linked with political comments and to do so is to denigrate the memory of those who are being remembered.
The freedoms I speak about include freedom of speech.
Something which we all too often take for granted.
Freedom of speech should not and must not include the abuse or degradation of the sacredness of Anzac Day in any form.
B. Nicholls , President Sebastopol RSL.
The vanishing Museum of Australian Democracy
Our current mob of City of Ballarat councillors are wanting of any sense of decency with respect to Ballarat's icons.
The Victorian Government has legislated to remove council's control over the Civic Hall site and the railway precinct, no doubt believing they can do a better job.
Her Majesty's Theatre is closed. MADE is closed.
What is the truth behind council's decision to sack the board and the staff and close it down?
Did the patrons and trustees Steve Bracks, Lucy Turnbull and Robert Knowles have any say as to council's proposal?
Will MADE become a storeroom for council?
Is the library's Australian research room next?
There are so many questions being asked in the community but will we ever hear the truth from these councillors other than lots of flowery words with no meaning?
D. Hadden, Ballarat.
Delacombe Trench Deaths
Exposure to detail regarding two young men buried alive in a local trench installation has raised many questions none of which is more mysterious than this.
Are penalties which are imposed to satisfy Worksafe and governments still leaving victims’ families without resources or claims to reconstruct their lives?
I will be pleased to be corrected if this impression is wrong.
E. Maltby, Byford.
Regional customers still awaiting answers
Minister for Regional Communications, Senator Bridget McKenzie, continues to sidestep concerns that up to 200,000 regional Australians stand to be disadvantaged by the planned 3.6GHz spectrum auction.
Early this year, the Government gave the go-ahead to the spectrum auction as proposed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) despite concerns from regional-based Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs).
Unfortunately, Senator McKenzie has been missing in action; failing to address the concerns Labor and local WISPs have raised. The Minister still has to answer questions, including:
Is the Minister satisfied the ACMA has done all it can to find “like for like” spectrum for the WISPs?
Is the Minister satisfied the ACMA has adequately examined market and sharing solutions for the WISPs?
Is the Minister satisfied that booting the WISPs out of the 3.6GHz spectrum won’t result in a loss in quality of broadband, or a loss of jobs and services, in the regional Australia?
Labor supports the planned spectrum auction and welcomes moves to clear the way for higher-value 5G services but believes the very real concerns of the WISPs have not been adequately addressed. It’s time the Minister step up to the plate and look after the interests of regional Australia, otherwise there is a serious risk that regional customers who rely on WISP services will be worse off.
Stephen Jones MP, Shadow Minister for Regional Communications.