There’s trouble
MAYBE I should get out more. This plague of footpath-sitting, chip-eating, mobile phone-watching troublemakers have escaped my knowledge or vision (Letters, July 11). Does your correspondent not realise it is the job of youth to irritate old codgers like me, just as we once did with blue suede shoes, loud transistor radios and haircuts which sent our seniors into spasms of outrage? I visit bus malls most weekdays and have not noticed this dangerous trend. I will take good care to seek out these threats to our society. The
Rezoning worry
I WANT to express grave concerns about the State Government’s ability to fasttrack rezoning of land for development, seemingly without reference to the local planning scheme or consultation with communities. It seems the Government has approved rezoning of rural land for a 450-dwelling subdivision at Huntingfield between the Channel Highway and two schools and Peter Murrell Reserve. There are already hundreds of houses going in at Whitewater Creek and Spring Farm across the Channel Highway. One wonders how roads, highway, sewerage and the environment will cope? It also seems, though almost no information is available, that only 5 per cent of this development will be for affordable housing (whatever that means these days!). Hopefully more information will come to light at the public meeting on July 25 at Kingborough Hub.
Reconciliation
THIS NAIDOC week let’s celebrate the fact that reconciliation has been achieved. Australia has a land rights legal regime that would be the envy of any nation.
Texan hero
THIS week one of my heroes died. His name was Ross Perot, a self-made Texan billionaire ( Mercury, July 11). When the Ayatollah took over Persia some of Perot’s employees were thrown into prison. The other workers were stuck in Persia and were hidden. Perot slipped quietly into Tehran to size up the situation. He paid a high ranking ex-military man who made a plan to get them out. A riot was organised outside the prison gate. The Americans escaped along with the other employees of Perot. Every one of those men survived. This was made into a movie and I was gobsmacked, by the audacity and the care of a man for his employees. What heroes Perot and the man, I believe a retired general, were. We need men like this today.