Helping who?
SO Melissa Parke and the rest of the Rudd reboot groupies think it’s great that we are increasing our foreign aid to $5.7 Billion? Not to mention how much financial aid we are giving to “new Australians”.
I am 29 and have been working and paying taxes for 12 years.
That is until four months ago when I had a mental breakdown and lost my job.
Now my only option is to receive a New Start allowance from Centrelink, a whopping $597 per fortnight!
That is required to cover my rent (I am now facing eviction), my bills (now getting letters from debt collection agencies), my medical expenses and if there’s anything left over my food and basic living costs.
This is the maximum allowance I can receive, with no plans for it to increase in the next 12 months.
So while I’m sinking further into the cracks of a society I once helped fund, I‘m sure I can rest easy (on the street or in an infested boarding house) knowing that kids in PNG are going to school, and the Solomon Islanders are suffering less from malaria.
Thanks Ms Parke and Mr Rudd, I would hate to see Australian dollars being used to provide better mental health care and homing options, and god forbid it should be used to create more jobs in our own country.
Ben
Beaconsfield

Hands off Everyone’s Park
WE wish to register our utter disbelief and anger upon learning, only today, that council intends to remove the play equipment from our much loved and well used park on the corner of Jackson and Pearse streets in North Fremantle, otherwise known as Everybody’s Park.
We have lived in Pearse Street for 13 years and there’s never been more young families with children who use the park regularly, than now. Getting rid of the park is ludicrous.
Forcing us to cross a treacherous four-lane highway with no safe crossing nearby, to visit an already busy Dedman park, is crazy. Let’s not forget someone was killed crossing this highway in North Freo only a few weeks ago!
I cannot believe we have a growing population and Fremantle council is getting rid of parks! It should be encouraging more kids to get out and play, especially in Freo where backyards are often small. We need parks and lots of them!!!
This park was hard fought for by local residents. It is small compared to other parks and has native trees and only a small patch of grass. It requires so little maintenance compared to other parks. We often clean it and one of the locals even mows the lawn when the council doesn’t.
It is used every day by kids, dogs and our elderly, and teenagers are often shooting hoops at the basketball ring. It’s where we hold our street parties and a wedding was held there only a few months ago too! We will fight this unbelievably small minded, stupid decision.
What I would like to know is why didn’t council notify residents about this by way of a letter? Especially knowing the history of this park and how the locals fought council so hard to get it! Layla Tucak
David Weber
Eva Weber
Gracie Weber
Pearse St, North Fremantle

Communication breakdown
IT would appear from John Dowson’s quoted comments in last week’s Chook that he believes the use of Facebook and Twitter to be something underhand (“Support for skate park”, July 6, 2013).
Maybe he’d prefer the caring, invigorated youth who turned up at last week’s Town Hall meeting to roll his motion on the proposed skate park so eloquently, to have their mobiles confiscated and be forced to communicate using something a little slower and more understandable to the stagnation generation like, say, semaphore.
Ian Scott
Walker St, South Fremantle

Expect backlash
REMEMBER what happens to governments that don’t consult properly, don’t listen, pander to special interest groups then dress up poor decisions as being in the broader community interest.
Good on the skateboard lobby for running an aggressive campaign—shame on the council for its heavy-handed, mangled process, dragging Fremantle ever closer to losing a big chunk of iconic parkland.
Richard Mehan
High St, Fremantle

Cruel slip
AN accidental slip by the Chook’s typist turned mild-mannered correspondent Otto Mueller into a callous brute recently (“Needless suffering”, Herald letters, June 22, 2013). Where Mr Mueller appeared to be calling for terminally ill people and animals to be put down inhumanely, it’s a fair bet he really meant for them to be humanely euthanised. Sorry ‘bout that Otto.

The fracts
IT is clear from community forums I attend and letters I read that the public wants to learn more about the potential development of shale and tight gas resources in our state.
It was therefore disappointing to find Jon Strachan’s opinion piece (“More than a fracktion too much extraction”, Earthcare, July 6, 2013) so lacking in scientific or factual information.
Natural gas is a clean and abundant fuel that can help Australia achieve its national emissions reduction targets. While affordable ‘no emission’ base-load electricity generation is still decades away, opposition to natural gas development is in effect supporting continued use of higher emission electricity fuels.
Industry takes its responsibility to the environment seriously using technology that is well-understood, long-established, and heavily regulated. Industry cannot undertake any activity without approved environmental and heritage plans—including full disclosure of the additives in fracturing fluids—and land access agreements in place.
The Australian Council of Learned Academies has analysed risks to water from shale fraccing in the US at similar depths to WA’s shale and tight gas resources – which is between two to three kilometres from ground water. They found no case of contamination from these operations.
The industry has a strong track record of responsible development and will continue to keep the community abreast of exploration activity through open and transparent dialogue.
Stedman Ellis
Chief Operating Officer
Australian Petroleum Production and
Exploration Association
St Georges Tce, Perth
The Ed says: Without wanting to delve into the controversy surrounding fracking, when the oil and gas “industry” says it takes its responsibility to the environment seriously, we can’t help but shudder and think Deep Horizon, Piper Alpha, Odyssey, Exxon Valdez, Monara, Sidoarjo……

Hello us
OUR family wants to bury some treasure—a time capsule—under one of our second-hand rainwater tanks.
Des from Rainwater Tanks WA reckons the tank should last 30-40 years which seemed like a good amount of time to dig up the treasure.
Freya Amelie (5), Camilla Sundbladh and Pedro Schwindt thought it would be a great idea to bury a carefully wrapped copy of the Chook (hopefully with our names in it) to read in 30-40 years.
We also have a message for this election year for future generations: If you vote for a party that has a “flat earth ideology” and thinks climate change is bogus then your children and grandchildren won’t be thanking you for the mess we leave them in.
Pedro, Camilla, Freya
Martha St, Beaconsfield
The Ed says: What a great idea folks, we’ll see you in 30-40 years—with snorkels in hand if necessary.

Broad support
THE elector’s meeting at the town hall last week reminded us that the youth plaza has support from a broad cross-section of Freo people, young and old.
It’s a shame that the usual negative opponents feel the need to denigrate the result of the meeting they themselves called for, but hopefully they can move on and accept the facts of the youth plaza.
It will be about 1600 square metres of concrete, which is 4.5 per cent of the park, replace about 2500 square metres with new grass, and add many new trees to the park.
Most importantly, it is going to be a high standard addition to the park that everyone in the community can enjoy. As much as the opponents want to make this an issue that splits the community, the youth plaza will actually bring people together.
It will also be good to see the Herald move on from its reporting of the youth plaza based on the same small group’s weekly misinformation and attempts to create community division.
Dave Coggin, Councillor East Ward
Solomon St, Beaconsfield
The Ed says: Councillor, are you suggesting the Herald ignore an elector’s meeting (called under the council’s own rules) simply because it doesn’t fit your agenda? You are forgetting that, unlike too many council decisions, this was not a unanimous vote and there are many ratepayers who have different opinions about the plaza. They deserve to be heard.