The Advertiser’s Letters to the Editor, Saturday, August 22, 2015

TODAY readers discuss city development and union action.

TODAY readers discuss city development such as the Adelaide Festival Plaza, and union action.

TODAY readers discuss city development and union action.

A long shadow

HAS anyone noticed the unfortunate symbolism in the people of South Australia’s Parliament House cowering under the long shadow cast by Lang Walker’s proposed office tower in the four illustrations of a “vibrant” Festival Plaza (The Advertiser, 18/05/15)?

In what other democracy would the legislature be so servile and dispirited as to make public land available for such apparent alienation and insult to its central institution? Can you imagine a similar edifice hovering menacingly over one end of the US Capitol or the Palace of Westminster?

There are much better solutions for this site, particularly at the vast windswept and sunbaked northern end. If there must be tall buildings, create an imaginatively designed hotel and apartment complex to finance the Festival Centre. Integrate the structures and create new foyers, restaurants and cafes that open onto a beautiful southern piazza, bordered by the historic buildings that would otherwise be encased behind the absurd office tower.

SP Healy, Beaumont

Failed analysis

THE State Government’s decision on the future development of the Adelaide Festival Plaza is disappointing. It seems it is incapable of undertaking its own analysis of what is required on very important strategic sites around Adelaide and that essentially it leaves it to narrowly focused developers to determine what should happen on these sites.

Before any decision was made on the Festival Plaza site there should have been:

A gaps analysis undertaken of arts and cultural facilities required in Adelaide;

A strategic plan prepared for the development of arts and cultural facilities in Adelaide based on a gaps analysis;

A detailed assessment of what role the Festival Centre Plaza could have played in meeting the objectives of the strategic plan;

An examination of the multiplier effect benefits in bringing a large number of arts and cultural facilities together in the one location

KEVIN O’LEARY, Crafers

Silent squash

UNIONS represent less than 15 per cent of the work force but have a huge influence on the Labor Party. Both Labor and the unions are desperate to squash the current Royal Commission. That so few people at all levels have been so quiet on the issue of removing the current commissioner when they should be standing up for him shows how low we appear to have fallen as a society interested in fairness and the truth.

It is in the interests of the majority of Australians that the commission be completed and the findings made public to all.

JAMES HEIN, Hackney

All adopted

In response to David Lamb (The Advertiser 20/08/15). I love my adopted country. I came here as a child aged 11 and have lived here for more than 30 years. I willingly and happily relinquished the citizenship of my birth country and took up Australian citizenship as soon as I was legally able.

I speak grammatically correct English with an Australian accent. I worked hard at school and university. I pay all my taxes and until I had children, had some sort of employment from the age of 15. I’ve never had to front court or been charged with any misdemeanours.

Heck, I can even carry a conversation about AFL. But to some people, that will never be enough. To some people, I can never be Australian because of the colour of my skin, the shape of my eyes and the texture of my hair. Despite my conduct and glad contribution, my allegiance to Australia, its rule of law, its democratic system and its institutions, I am still seen by some people, as “not fitting in”.

So I ask you, what more would you have me, and others like me, do?

CLAUDINE LAW, Glen Osmond

Beware unions

In the early 1950s when I was about 12, my father drove trucks for a living and was a member of the Transport Workers Union (TWU).

He changed jobs and became a storeman and stopped paying fees to this union.

One afternoon, two men called at our home. A lengthy, heated discussion ensued. I watched and listened with great concern. The men angrily demanded money but they left empty-handed.

My father was clearly rattled. He told me they were union workers sent to collect unpaid union fees.

Not long afterwards, a policeman arrived with a local court summons to serve on my father, taken out by the TWU for unpaid union fees – plus costs.

The union got the money in the end – he paid it all, but from then on, still a staunch Labor voter until his death, he cautioned me about the power of the unions.

Undeterred I became a member of an association affiliated with the TLC in SA for 37 years. The latest revelations arising from the Heydon Royal Commission reminded me of that intimidating visit.

The commission has so far provided prima facie evidence of corruption and misconduct by a number of union officials.

The public are entitled to learn what the Heydon Royal Commission has uncovered and have the evidence heard in the appropriate legal jurisdiction. If Bill Shorten and the ALP have nothing to hide, they should allow the Royal Commission to finish its work and let the evidence be judged on its merit.

ALLEN ARTHUR, Middleton

Smoking guns

Obviously Andrew Bolt has never worked in the construction industry therefore has no idea of the good the unions do. The only people who fear the unions are those taking short cuts, risking the lives of themself and those around them.

Last time the ABCC was around, deaths in the construction industry spiked. This is because, like it or not, as soon as the unions have their powers restricted, the safety standards drop to save time and money.

Andrew Bolt and his ilk call it law when the rich are doing the policing and call it lawless when the people are policing the rich.

Any corruption in any entity needs to be stamped out but this Royal Commission is aimed squarely at the Government’s political opponents. It smacks of bias and has done from day dot. Now there are a couple of smoking guns. Heydon not only agreed to speak at a Liberal Party fundraiser but has known Tony Abbott personally for years.

This isn’t a royal commission, it’s a witch hunt.

DANNY NICHOL, Greenwith

The new old RAH

THERE have been many suggested uses for the current RAH site when it is vacated.

However there has been no suggestion that it should be refurbished as another hospital.

By the time that was completed, Adelaide would be in need of another hospital. The overloading of our major hospitals on last Wednesday indicates that it is essential for this to be considered now.

S.C. WEBSTER, Henley Beach.

Love us as we are

WE now have an overseas expert coming to tell us to pour coffee on our heads to reduce hair loss. Should those with excess hair be told to start a caffeine-free diet? Can we now please have an expert come to tell us that it is time we started to accept that much of how we look is based on our genes and that life is better when we don’t try to be someone we are not.

Society has become obsessed with image, rather than quality of life. If people cannot accept me with my thinning hair and grey beard, it is their loss, not mine.

ERIC TAYLOR, West Beach

Right sort of bloke

I JUST loved Margaret Minney’s letter (The Advertiser,   20/08/15) about her being hitched to a bright chap, an ageless husband and all the physical feats he still performs. A heartwarming letter, Margaret. There should be more of those men around.

Oh, and by the way, lucky me, I have one of those husbands too!

SUE EDWARDS, Fulham Gardens

Fathers for all

AS someone who at an early age lost her father through death, I know the inner turmoil and insecurity that comes from life without a father. I was raised by a loving and devoted mother in an extended family where I knew loving fatherly figures but this never substituted for what some have rightly termed my “father hunger”.

Some families have fatherlessness imposed upon them and they need all the love and support that we can give. But it is not the right of parents to choose this pathway for their children. Children do have the right to a mother and a father. Legal same-sex marriage would approve homosexual relationships and approve and contribute to children being raised either fatherless or motherless.

AMANDA BROHIER, Black Forest

Look at a merger

IT can be a thin line between “big ideas” and daft ideas and so it probably is in the case of the notion to merge Sout Australia with the Northern Territory. (The Advertiser, 19/08/15).

Would it be a catalyst for positive change or an endless distraction? In the 19th century the 50-year merging of the two proved to be just that. In the 21st century I am inclined to think it could be the same.

Nevertheless, if ever a big idea needed through investigation this one does.

STEWART SWEENEY, North Adelaide

Beware predictions

I WONDER if the expert scientists who are predicting a monster El Niño followed by a La Nina of similar proportions understand what they are risking? If they are right it gives those who believe that climate change exists some real credibility. However, if they are wrong they will give climate change sceptics some real ammunition to fire back in anger.

I’m not taking sides because I’m no expert and I have no idea but time could tell a very interesting story.

DAVID BISHOP, Plympton

SANFL strangled

MICHELANGELO Rucci’s defence of the AFL reserve teams in the SANFL is risible. In his “Reality Bites” column he says that for the first time since 1991 the SANFL has integrity because the eight “traditional” clubs no longer need to wait for players to be released by the AFL teams before selection of their teams.

He states that eight teams are “chosen, managed and coached to an SANFL agenda” which clearly implies that two teams have a completely different agenda.

Those two teams have fully professional players who have the best recovery programs while the eight pauper club’s players head off to their respective “real” jobs on Monday mornings while the princes recuperate at their clubs headquarters. How is that integrity?

As a lifelong Sturt supporter and long time member of Sturt who basked in the glory days, still feels bitter from 1978 and endured the endless thrashings of the 80s and 90s I now renew my membership yearly but feel that it is hardly worth turning up to a competition that the monolith that is the AFL is decimating.

If the crowd numbers of the last few years are anything to go by, the SANFL is on life support with no prospect of recovery.

The most telling point that Michelangelo made is that he no longer considers Port Magpies as a traditional club.

TOM De ANGELIS, Marden