Time to act

FIRSTLY, a big thank you to Izzy’s writing in to call out the High Street “Upgrade” solution for the ugly monstrosity that it is (“Just too much,” Herald Letters, May 28, 2022). 

What will future generations think of us, the current custodians of Fremantle – “they came, they saw, they concreted” – ‘coz that wall looks like my worst nightmare of what Donald Trump imagined for the Mexican’s. 

The only point of Izzy’s I don’t agree with is blaming the artist; seriously how can you disguise literally kilometres of concrete?

It’s worth pausing to think about who inflicted this intergeneration eyesore onto us; go no further than Josh Wilson’s website and read these Media Release’s, 1 year apart:

Morrison Government Must Release $1.2B from Dead Row 8 (22/02/21).

Congestion Relief For Fremantle as High Street Upgrade Completes (21/02/22).

The first release starts with his typically shrill voice berating the Federal government with phrases like “deep uselessness” (is that English) and goes on to crow about how he is overseeing “the long-awaited upgrade of High Street in Fremantle” and finishes by accusing the state incumbents of not “having the courage to pressure the Federal government”. 

The second is simply self-congratulatory joint statements of content about micro problem solving from our state labour members; interestingly there’s no review by Josh about what the upgrade achieved strategically? That is, how has it solved the broader transport problem that led to the abhorrent threat to the Beeliar Wetlands?

Therefore, my conclusion is the current custodians of Fremantle saved the Beeliar Wetlands and then myopically concreted kilometres High Street, a nil-sum gain? 

This happened because both state and federal politicians couldn’t get their heads around what to do with the second harbour at Coogee, the old traffic bridge or how you build the equivalent of the existing Sydney Harbour Tunnel across the Swan River. 

Indeed, it’s hard to imagine a more ugly, dysmorphic outcome, with no strategic gains whatsoever.

Whilst Izzy’s calling out “elephants in the room”; I wouldn’t mind doing a few too, in relation to this last Federal election: 

• At a primary vote level, Labor went backwards;

• At a primary vote level, Labor and Liberal both achieved 30 per cent;

• The two party-preferred system elected Labor, simply because people wanted change and didn’t want to preference the dinosaur coalition. Self-evidently the primary vote says we weren’t convinced of what Labor offered as an alternative either; and, 

• Conclusion: The two party politics system is dead; only the politicians don’t seem to realise it.  

I sincerely hope, now that Labor is elected and that our federal member, Josh Wilson, gets his chance to be front-and-centre on strategy, instead of crowing from the sidelines about the faults of others, that he has “the courage to pressure the Federal government”; coz in his last term I heard nothing from him about changing key Labor policies, for example – Federal level Labor’s ongoing commitment to the incarceration of refugees; or at a state level, I didn’t hear a whimper of protest from him against the greenlighting of the Scarborough ~ Woodside project; AKA Albanese’s acceptance speech claim Labor will “stop the climate wars”. 

Interesting times: best I now pay my dues to the Chook’s Covid-induced crowd funding campaign; so we all have an independent place to write and keep the bastards honest.

Damon Via
email

Covid confused

RECENTLY some friends of mine were involved in a bad accident. 

They were queuing for bread when an elderly couple in a car mounted the curb and took all four of them out and pinned them against a wall.

Two of those friends were taken to Fiona Stanley hospital where they both had negative RAT tests on entry to A&E.

Both friends declined to have a PCR test because they did not want a swab inserted into their nose as it is a danger to the blood brain barrier. 

Despite both of them testing negative on the RAT tests, one of them was put on the Covid ward and the other sent to the 7th Floor (non-Covid ward). 

The healthy 69 year old sent to the Covid ward was very scared and she felt very pressured by doctors to have a PCR test. 

She was also not allowed any visitors. 

My question is why are hospitals treating patients differently? 

And why are Covid-free, asymptomatic people being put on Covid wards? 

I am aware that hospitals receive more money for patients on Covid wards?

Dominique Mimnagh
Via email