Entitlements for some
IT is obvious the age of entitlement no longer applies to average Australians but only to Liberals and corporations.
For example, Murdoch media receiving $883 million in tax breaks, a $60,000 “scholarship” for Abbott’s daughter, mining companies able to exploit our resources.
Our government gives big corporations free electricity, water, fuel, whilst they take their profits overseas or to offshore tax havens. Yes, the age of entitlements is over for average Australians, our public hospitals closed, new laws to gaol environmental protestors, cuts to ABC and SBS to ensure we no longer receive unbiased reporting, no national broadband, unless we pay for optic fibre, meanwhile we have 100-year-old outdated copper wire. Sorry to be cynical but we can’t have any opposition or competition against Foxtel and Murdoch’s profits.
Liberals are having a firesale of our assets—closure of Fremantle and Kaleeya hospitals and Carmen Lawrence’s free mammograms to be closed in Fremantle.
Sorry, Liberals represent corporations and not ordinary Australians. Shall we see Asian labour coming in on 457s denying Australians jobs under this new TPP agreement? A witch hunt against unions, which speak for workers against corporations which now demand we work weekends for less money, when some wages are not even meeting the cost-of-living index.
We are creating dysfunctional families who no longer can enjoy watching their children play sport of a weekend, as we all work for the god-almighty dollar.
Carmel Callaghan
High St, Fremantle

Bowled over
AS a past member of the Melville Bowling Club and City of Melville ratepayer, I would like to know the motive behind moving the bowling club (Melville Herald, November 29, 2014).
The City of Melville has spent thousands of dollars over the years maintaining the club: one large and expensive cost was the removal of the asbestos roof and replaced with Colorbond.
In the years I was at the club, the building had been kept in good condition. The club was also recognised for its first-class grass bowling greens. I would like to know where the money is coming from to move the club.
Melville ratepayers should not have to pay, as you do not have to be a ratepayer to join the club. My motto: if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.
The Melville Bowling Club could finish up like Carlisle Lathlain Bowling Club—the council gave it a simular story with the promise of a new club, I believe on land at the Perth football club. The council demolished a good building and pulled up first-class greens. Years later it does not have a club.
Frank Granger
Melville Beach Rd, Applecross

Modern rail a road to peace
THE Herald has lately reported upon and carried commentary about the noise and vibrations from the existing freight rail transport line.
The trains are noisy because they are hauled by a 1960s-era locomotive that has no muffler or exhaust filter. The rest of the rolling stock is similarly antiquated.
At the Road to Rail campaign’s inaugural public meeting, I pointed that out and explained that CBH has imported at least 35 new locomotives engineered to European Union noise and pollution control standards. It also has thousands of wagons with self-steering bogeys that reduce the noise as they go around curves.
That modern technology is not used on the Fremantle line because its private operator is separate from CBH.  This illustrates the madness built into WA’s rail freight transport ever since the Richard Court government sold the rail lines.
From the beginning, R2R has argued we must find a freight solution that is both environmentally and socially sustainable. That is why we have reached out to the Wheatbelt Railway Retention Alliance, which marches with us in the Fremantle Festival parade each year.
The West Australian has recently been campaigning about improving public transport in Perth, but has failed to point out the current freeway proposal is not for cars, it’s all about trucks. Actually, freight is central to all sustainability discussion in Perth. If we get that wrong we will get everything else wrong.
I have often wondered if High Street residents are deliberately tortured by truck noise in order to create a constituency of people so desperate for relief they would agree to any plan, no matter how illogical. Residents alongside the rail line could ask the same question.
I suggest that people along the rail line join Road to Rail and bring their piece of the jigsaw to the table.
If we fail to create the freight solution that works for everyone, the 65,000-trucks-a-day freeway through the Beeliar wetlands, which will slice Fremantle in two, will work for no one.
Barry Healy
Holland St, Fremantle

Better read or it’s dead
I RECENTLY attended the launch of a book by a local author, published by a local press situated right here in Fremantle.
The launch was held at Fremantle’s only remaining seller of quality new books, New Edition, at its new location in High Street.
After the launch I browsed the bookshelves and found and bought a wonderful book I had not known existed. The next time I visited New Edition I also found some literary gems I would not have known about had I not been wandering in the vibrant atmosphere of an interesting bookshop.
We are so privileged in Fremantle to have a local publisher, Fremantle Press, which supports WA writing, and a local book shop in New Edition which sells a great variety of fantastic books.
If you don’t use it you lose it, as the saying goes. I for one, am Christmas shopping locally, and supporting the existence of an essential element of any town or city—a good book shop.
Nandi Chinna
Ommanney St, Hamilton Hill

Clarification on verge signs
SUE Rayner of Pulse Realty in Murdoch is emphatic her ‘home open’ signs are not left on verges longer than allowed.
She rejected a claim by Andrew Campbell of Townsing Rd, Kardinya that four signs had been left on the verge for “three weeks” (‘Blood pressure pulsing…’, Herald Letters, November 22, 2014).
Ms Rayner said her agency always makes sure the verge signs are put out shortly before each home-open and removed immediately afterwards.
She said her award-winning agency had numerous listings and with Spring the busiest time of the year, it follows her agency’s verge signs are much more apparent.
Andrew Smith
Editor

Never again
MOURNING for Philip Hughes is an occasion to recall that old-time Aussie sportsmanship, which was lost to a craving for wins and winnings.
Let us never again cheer a newspaper splash about fear in a rival batsman’s eyes.
Let us abandon that onfield hostility and “sledging” which can mar every minute of play.
When the football season passes, we need a pastime of gallantry and wit, not another form of ritual warfare.
Brian Jenkins
San Domingo Close,
Safety Bay 

Kids these days
ANOTHER wild and noisy weekend party by a 16-year-old kid and the mother taking no responsibilities for her son’s actions (lousy parenting).
When are these young kids going to take responsibilities for their actions and stop blaming someone else? The noisy party disturbed neighbours who were fed up with the head-banging and the screaming and laughter going on for hours.
Young teenagers and kids don’t think of anyone other than themselves. These kids don’t have any rights to pelt police with bottles, rocks or not follow directions. The police role is to keep the peace and stop noisy parties or out-of-control gatherings, etc and stop disturbing the peace.
The police have the law on their side to maintain law and order. Kids and young teenagers need to realise they are responsible for their actions.
Parents need to teach their kids about responsibilities—this is something parents need to learn too.
Steven Cruden
Edwards St, Leda

For whom the bell tolls?
I HAVE noted with interest two recent stories—one in which an anonymous Liberal Cabinet member opined that WA transport minister Dean Nalder needs more time to prove himself as a minister before he could be considered as a potential deputy leader, the other was a report about a trip undertaken by Coalition MPs to Greece to investigate toll roads.
Conspicuous by his absence was the WA transport minister. This invites the question; is the minister so maligned by his own party that he is unwelcome on such fact-finding missions, or is the government trying to shield the minister from this policy because they want him to be able to deny it for as long as possible?
Can the transport minister categorically rule out road tolls for passenger vehicles, or does he not know his own party’s policy with respect to his portfolio?
Tomas Fitzgerald
Zenobia St, Palmyra

NZ shows the way
NEW ZEALAND led the way when it stopped live sheep exports in 2004 after 5000 died on an Australian ship bound for Saudi Arabia.
In 2007 the suspension of trade was formalised with a ban on all sheep and cattle. New Zealand did not suffer as a result, in fact the opposite
The latest results 2013/2014 show a record high of $45.3 billion in trade value, up $480 million from the previous year. The country benefited from ending low-value live animal export, the driving force being former deputy prime minister Jim Anderton. He said live export was the lowest level of commodity export you can make—you’re exporting jobs and doing away with any chance of high-value processing.
Let’s end a cruel trade and look after Australian jobs.
Michael Whitworth
Caribbean Dve, Safety Bay

They must be Avo’ing a lend!
I WAS recently touring far-north Queensland and pulled over at a roadside store to buy some fresh fruit.
The vendor had avocadoes selling for a dollar each. I mentioned it was a good buy as they cost $4 each back in Perth. She said “that’s where I get them from and I still make a good profit on selling them for $1”.
Mareeba is approximately 5000km from Perth so there must be a freight component attached to the FNQ price as well. The question begs: who is ripping the WA consumer off?
Jim Nicholson
Aldridge Rd, Booragoon

Metre not much for the safety of cylists
THE “give a rider a metre” concept, far from being ridiculous, is already proving to be successful in Queensland (there it is called “Stay Wider of the Rider”) where it was introduced six months ago, with both metro and country drivers’ awareness rates being very high.
In contrast to some sceptics, the WA police I have spoken to, are keen supporters of the new legislation, as current laws are so vague they are unenforceable. The 1m law for speeds up to 6kph and 1.5m above that will make life far easier for police, who have video cameras within vehicles.
Their objective is getting evidence in cases where clearly drivers are not being careful. The Monash Uni helmet camera research of a couple of years ago demonstrated the high number of “near misses” with cyclists were caused by motorists. Cyclists aren’t without blame and Fremantle has more than its fair share, made worse by the mayor’s inappropriate comments about helmet-wearing and the like, and the city’s support for a very public demonstration of that with the annual Tweed Run!
Some riders try to create more room for drivers to overtake by swerving in and out of rows of parked cars, increasing the risks to themselves from car-dooring and the like, in their fear of each and every car behind, many just “hovering” to overtake.
South Terrace’s bus route is a classic case for that fear-driven behaviour! Do readers think motorists have any role or responsibility? Being kind-hearted would be a wonderful start if it led to changed behaviour, but what should that behaviour be in actual practice? The next Freo BUG meeting is December 9, 2014 at the Hilton community centre.
Paul Loring
Newmarket St, Beaconsfield

Plastic tide at beach markets
I ATTENDED Bathers Beach markets last Saturday, the first of the season I believe.
I was very disappointed to see most stallholders providing plastic plates and plastic cutlery. Given the City of Fremantle’s stance on divesting from fossil fuels and being carbon-neutral, I cannot understand why they don’t have regulations in place for all events to be plastics-free.
Also, given the huge push on by organisations to clean up the oceans, Tangaroa Blue being one at the forefront and of which I am a member, the closeness of the markets to the beach is concerning.
If you’ve ever walked along Bathers Beach there is a notable amount of rubbish there on any given day, most of it plastic, so adding more is simply unethical and is verging on Fremantle greenwashing the public as far as its environmental credentials go.
It’s not like there aren’t environmentally friendly options available, there’s really no excuse. I ended up buying a Spanish quesedilla because it was being served on a paper plate.
Alison Dorn
Chesham Way, Hamilton Hill

Of Sound mind
I AM writing to express my view about the most undemocratic way our state government is pushing through amalgamation of councils, and in particular our own City of Cockburn, voted one of the best and most successful councils in Australia, both financially and progressively.
I have been a ratepayer and resident of Cockburn with my family, since January 1966. First we lived in Hamilton Hill, and then Spearwood. My three children did all their schooling at Spearwood primary and Hamilton SHS. Two are living with their families in Atwell and Success and are ratepayers of Cockburn.
It would appear by what we read there is no respect shown to the memory of our pioneers, who laid the foundation for those of us today, to have the good fortune of being part of the City of Cockburn, which dates right back to  the arrival of Captain Stirling in 1829.
The proposed name of the City of Jervoise Bay is an insult to the people of both Cockburn and Kwinana. When you consider Jervoise Bay is only a small Bay in Cockburn Sound, and is mainly industrial area. A more suitable name would be the City of Cockburn Sound. After all, its coastline borders Cockburn, Jervoise Bay and Kwinana. If it comes to a vote on a name, my first choice would be City of Cockburn, followed by City of Cockburn Sound.
A Small
Stook Court, Spearwood