A planetary pestilence
FIRST Melville Plaza, now Bunnings in Myaree (Herald, February 13, 2016).
And this in the Melville council area which recently told us about the tree policy and how we’re going to plant a forest in Melville.
What action is our council proposing to take against businesses which so wantonly chop down the little green and shade we have in these parts? In the middle of a heatwave of which we’re only likely to see more and more severe incidents of.
A recent article on the heatwave reported tree cover helps reduce heat in urban areas (by an average of 5 degrees) and that Booragoon has the least tree cover and is accordingly far hotter than the surrounding areas.
And then we continue chopping down the little bit of shade there is. Clearly we have gone completely mad and deserve climate change to wipe us off the face of the planet. The sooner the better, it seems, so the planet and remaining species can continue their lives without further disruption from the human virus.
Louis de Villiers
Portree Way, Ardross

High voltage industry
ANDREW LUOBIKIS’ “It’s the vibe,” (Herald Thinking Allowed, February 13, 2016) includes some interesting facts on declining electric vehicle (EV) sales in Australia, but the truth is less surprising.
EV sales actually shot up in 2015 compared with 2014, as the trend to pollution-free vehicles gathers pace. Unfortunately, this invalidates the main premise of his article.
VFACTS advise 1108 EVs were sold in Australia in 2015, an increase on 2014, but as Andrew should know these figures do not include Teslas, which started arriving in December 2014 in Sydney, with the first cars in Perth by February 2015.
Owners maintain a database by personal contact, and back this up by spotting the registration numbers, and the current estimate is 850 in Australia, but this may be an understatement.
Adding these to the record-high VFACT statistics confirms rapidly increasing EV sales. Hybrids (non-plug in) are a separate VFACTS category for which 12,138 sales were reported in the year.
The WA Tesla fleet started at higher number of cars per head of population, but has not grown as fast here since there are no service facilities or Tesla charging infrastructure in Perth.
Tesla refuse to sell through dealers: the cars must be specified and bought on the Tesla website, and they hardly need servicing.
Any issues can normally be corrected remotely over the permanent internet connection, but occasionally Tesla has flown technicians promptly from Melbourne to fix issues in the owner’s garage. Despite this there are more than 40 Teslas in WA now (plus Andrew’s 73 and/or “a dozen or so” EVs, however he gets/reconciles those figures).
Fortunately, RAC has filled the gap with its world-class electric highway from Perth, soon Fremantle, to Augusta and onwards. Although not quite as fast as Tesla super-chargers, these stations have four leads catering for all EVs in the market.
This electric highway and the example of one owner who drove his new car from Sydney to Perth (albeit slowly!) has all but banished range anxiety. Perth will eventually catch up with Sydney and Melbourne as people see the infrastructure developing here.
If you are excited by these new cars, with auto-steer, emergency collision avoidance, crumple-zone froots instead of engines, regular firmware updates over 3G, ludicrous acceleration from zero revs, etc, some owners will be demonstrating their cars at the AEVA open day on March 12, 2016 at RAC DTEC.
Tesla claims to outsell every other manufacturers’ top model in the USA (source EV obsession), and probably more than the total of Mercedes, BMW and Audi top models in Australia (VFACTS total 772); these more expensive cars have enabled Tesla to develop the technology so they can offer their new Model 3 for USD$35,000, with orders opening in six weeks’ time on their website for a USD$1000 deposit.
Then it may become difficult to find a spare charging bay, and maybe petrol stations will start converting to charging stations.
The changes from horse to car (although the first cars were electric), from taxis to Ubers, from physical shops to online sales, all caused disruptions and those invested in the old technologies suffered, which is regrettable. But if the new technology is better, it will be irresistible.
David Lloyd
Blackwall Reach Parade, Bicton

Asset holes
THE WA government would not have to sell Western Power if it stopped wasting money on stupid ads like the Water Corporation’s, telling people how to save water.
Then there are the Are You Ready bushfire ads, a waste of money and an insult to a person’s intelligence.
There are many other ways for the government to save money.
I would bet the federal Government would still like to own the Commonwealth Bank: CBA shareholders are laughing all the way to the bank.
You don’t sell your assets — one day there will be nothing left.
Frank Granger
Melville Beach Rd, Applecross

Let good sense prevail
WHY let good sense get in the way of the MUA  heavies when they have such a tantalising opportunity to shoot themselves – and WA Labor – in the foot (“Wharfie looking for a berth,” Herald, February 13, 2016)?
Rather than give Fremantle residents the opportunity to vote for an outstanding candidate who has worked tirelessly to support them for many years, the MUA wants to foist upon Fremantle a candidate whose only credential is his membership of that union.  Notwithstanding his ancestral connections to the region, Chris Brown’s interest in Fremantle appears to have been awakened only when the smell of preselection was in the air.
Josh Wilson has done the hard yards and, in so doing, has won the respect of all sections of the community.  Josh not only talks the values of community, fairness and compassion, but he lives them every minute of every day – and has done so for decades.
He works doggedly to create opportunity for all members of the community and does so quietly, most often out of the limelight. A free-thinker, Josh does not pander to popular prejudice but considers each issue thoughtfully on its own merits.
In short, Josh Wilson represents the very best that Fremantle Labor has to offer the community.  The factional in-fighting, reflected in the candidacy of the MUA’s Chris Brown, is its very worst.
For the sake of the Fremantle community, let’s hope good sense prevails.
Karin MacArthur
Fraser St, East Fremantle

Someone who cares
IT was refreshing to read about the potential Labor candidate for Fremantle, Chris Brown (Herald, February 13, 2016).
Mr Brown came across as someone who cares and he has actually had a real job, also being a former member of the MUA I was pleased to see his name not connected to the words thug, militant or other derogatory terms used in daily papers whenever the maritime union is mentioned.
His photo showed he was not in possession of horns, a tail or a bloody pitchfork, which appears to be the opinion of those who know nothing about the grassroots maritme industry or its union that is standing up for its members.
Melissa Parke will be a great loss: although I did not agree with some of her policies, she always had the courage of her convictions and stood up for what she believed in, even if it was not popular with the party.
It would be nice if we had a parliamentary candidate who was local and was not actually a lawyer or academic.
But who knows how the cards will fall? I can only wish Mr Brown the best of luck in his aim for preselection.
Geoff Dunstone
Carrington St, Palmyra

Astounding whinge
IT is disappointing and frustrating to once again hear John Dowson whinging about Fremantle’s achievements in maintaining and boosting our unique built heritage (Herald, February 6, 2016).
It is astounding that Mr Dowson is now complaining about the listing of Fremantle’s West End on the state register of heritage places, which would make it the largest single listing in WA. It is very sad that Mr Dowson can’t recognise this as a great achievement for the community, albeit one he could not achieve in his time as deputy mayor.
Dave Coggin
Councillor, East Ward
City of Fremantle

Who will stop crime’s revolving door?
WA police minister Lisa Harvey stated in the West Australian newspaper (February 12, 2016) that amending bail conditions are not her priority now.
With the increase of crime in WA, I do wonder what priority the minister places on dealing with the revolving door of repeat offenders through our courts.
We continue to see where repeat offenders are given bail only to go and re-offend again.
The Barnett government stated at the last election it was going to get tough on crime and law-breakers. When? Another broken promise. It will be another promise for the next election.
We have been waiting two years for changes to sex offender legislation to keep serious offenders locked up and it’s going to be after the election.
We have been waiting for our court system to become stricter when handling out punishment for serious and repeat offenders. Our judges and magistrates are so out of touch with the community expectation for sentencing for serious criminals and offences!
We see the Barnett government, the police minister and the attorney-general taking a softly softly approach to crime and law breakers.
Finally our police commissioner has decided to redo the police structure and have more police on the streets and out beating crime. Time the police were allowed to take a zero tolerance approach to all law breakers, and that includes road laws too.
Steve Cruden
Edwards St, Kwinana

Motorists hosed in East Freo
A LARGE “H” indicating the position of a fire hydrant is painted on the road between my house and my neighbours.
Judging by the number of cars which park over the hydrant itself, the H is rarely noticed and, if noticed, apparently meaningless.
Thus violations of the Road Traffic Code:  “No parking within a meter……” etc occur several times a day in parking-space-poor Hubble Street, and the fines meted out by the ranger are a smashing little earner for the East Fremantle coffers.
However, the issuing of a fine does nothing to preserve the hydrant’s accessibility, nor to save the next newcomer from making the same mistake.
If the fire authority is serious about maintaining access to its hydrants, surely it would ensure high visibility through unmistakeable, un-ignorable street markings (and perhaps even a public awareness campaign).
In the meantime, visitors to the George Street precinct and its lovely cafes swoop into what looks like a heaven-sent parking spot and end up unwittingly contributing to the town’s revenue — perhaps a sour ending to an otherwise pleasant outing.
Winnie Dwyer
Hubble St, East Fremantle

Drone moan
WHAT is the legality concerning low-flying drones over residences? Thursday morning over Bridges Road in Melville. one hovered for quite some time.  Taking pictures? No-one seems to know!
L Mckie
Melville

A jab at Josh
THE federal seat of Fremantle has often been used to house a WA luminary for Cabinet representation: Curtin, Beazley, Dawkins and Lawrence have enjoyed this privilege.
Current discussion about Josh Wilson and Chris Brown do not include any luminary credentials, so we must consider their credentials as local representatives of Freo as a place to live.
A “local” member must at least remember the needs of Freo people if a big issue is under debate.
I have no insight into Chris Brown’s credentials here, except to say his opposition to the sale of the port, and the need to spend money on moving the port to Kwinana rather than building roads to service the current port, have my support.
However, I do remember when Josh was so keen to provide a well intentioned needle exchange in Freo, he was willing to put it on the corner of our suburban street.
When challenged by us on the issue, he insisted we had to be willing to do our bit for the greater good. He could see no reason why this exchange should be in Freo central, near buses and trains, rather than in our quiet backyard. He had no empathy for our local issue in the face of the bigger picture, that of safer needle use.
He lost the argument at council, but he’d shown his colours. If he’s not bound for Cabinet, he’s not the man for this job.
The declining vitality of Freo during his time on council, no matter how hard he has worked, would suggest he is not Cabinet material,
The ALP should ensure the locals have a big say when preselecting “our” person for this plum job.
Ron Connors
Solomon St, Beaconsfield

More than an electric dream
THE article by Andrew Luobikis (Herald Thinking Allowed, February 13, 2016) makes a good point about the need to justify extraordinary expenditures to ratepayers, but he has completely missed the point when it comes to criticising the introduction of a charging station installation in Fremantle.
Bear in mind for a moment the following article from Wikipedia: “Solar power in Australia is a relatively recent phenomenon. Currently, it has over 4100 megawatts of installed photovoltaic solar power (March 2015), and 760 MW of PV was installed in the preceding 12 months…the amount of installed PV capacity in Australia increased 10-fold between 2009 and 2011. Feed-in tariffs and mandatory renewable energy targets designed to assist renewable energy commercialisation in Australia have largely been responsible for the rapid increase.”
It was only a few short years ago that solar power was perceived as some gormless hippy response to a major energy and pollution problem. However, with the benefit of visionary policies, an investment in subsidies and a preparedness to act, it is clear the burgeoning expansion of solar energy means it will increasingly become a mainstream energy source that benefits all of us, as well as our environment.
This could and should be the case for electric cars, which despite Andrew’s obvious distaste, are in a similar position to solar 10 years ago. The evidence is that electric vehicles are on the cusp of becoming a mainstream part of our traffic solution. Mercedes, Volvo, Passat, Chevy, Tesla, Rimac, Audi, Mitsubishi, BYD and BMW to name just a few are expanding their electric car markets at a similarly rapid pace.
These cars will need charging and anything that makes this easier or more mainstream will encourage a faster and broader uptake – something we should all look forward to. Sadly, it is this vision or foresight – and just a bit of that “vibe” – that Andrew seems to lack in his critique.
Sometimes it is not necessary to provide a cast-iron cost analysis for a new and innovate technology – the obviousness of the need and an appreciation of where the future is heading is more than enough to make this sort of investment.
Paul Tod
Healy Rd, Hamilton Hill

Bin there
I WORKED as a bin man for 25 years. When I started it was all hand-lifted and most homes had one 60-litre bin. Large families had two.
People would leave us out glass bottles — the container levy earned a day’s pay each week.
The wheelie bins arrived in 1998 and shortly after the bottle refund system was abolished in Western Australia.
The 240-litre bins were mostly half-full so Fremantle came up with the idea to encourage recycling and to pick up the waste bin fortnightly and provide monthly garden waste and kerbside pickup of recyclables.
Households were asked to keep meat/fish waste frozen till collection: some did not bother and condensation would form under the lid. When you wheeled the bin a maggot slurry would run onto your pants.
The ground nearby was a sea of maggots that popped underfoot like Rice Bubbles: it took a strong stomach to eat lunch working in those conditions.
Michael Whitworth
Caribbean Drive, Safety Bay