BREAK DOWN GENDER BARRIERS
COVID has disrupted many aspects of "normal" community life over the past 18 months and dominated the news headlines.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Few other issues have competed, perhaps with the exception of cultural shifts occurring around key issues such as Black Lives Matter, gendered harassment and discrimination and transparency and integrity in politics.
With gender issues in mind I was disappointed to see that, at best, we look to see a maximum of 25 per cent female representation in the next Wagga Wagga City Council.
Only two women are sitting as lead candidates in groups above the line. They are Jenny McKinnon (Greens party) and Independent Georgie Davies.
While I am not arguing that one must be a women to be able to represent women, I do believe that increasingly we are recognising the need to remove barriers that have traditionally made it difficult for women to "have a seat at the table".
I hope that on voting day the broader community assists these wonderful women to have their seat.
Trudi Beck, Wagga
LOOK AT LONG-TERM STATISTICS
Geoff Field ("Climate sceptic rests his case", November 19), a couple of cold months, or four exceptionally cold days in Melbourne, don't really prove anything beyond the fact that weather varies.
Climate can only be commented on by taking a longer view.
The Bureau of Meteorology has done this. It compared past and present annual average temperatures with 17.3°C, the 1961-1990 average. It found that any resident of NSW younger than 24 has never lived in a below-average temperature year, compared to that earlier 30-year period.
Actually, the late cold and snow that Field suggests disprove the existence of global heating will probably get worse as warming continues.
There is already significant concern that the ocean currents which have till now worked to distribute heat from tropical regions to higher latitudes are weakening.
Regions in higher latitudes, especially in the northern hemisphere, can expect more atypical cold weather.
This is thanks to increased evaporation and cold, dense melt water from Greenland and the ice caps messing with the invisible underwater heat conveyor.
Like Field, I wish to offer some free advice. I suggest you question the "case" of those who call a few cold days "factual data".
(Especially when they conclude by saying what we do "will not make a scrap of difference to climate change/global warming". This bob-each-way argument implies they actually accept the phenomenon they have just spent several paragraphs disputing.)
Lesley Walker, Northcote
READ MORE LETTERS:
PALLIATIVE CARE 'REAL ANSWER'
A big thank you to Dr Joe McGirr for his real care and concern for all of us.
Many of us out here agree that voluntary assisted dying and euthanasia is not the answer and palliative care, holding the person's hand towards the end, is the real answer.
Let's make it more available, and palliative care training more available.
Anne Helyar, Uranquinty
HAVE YOUR SAY: Do you have something to get off your chest? Simply click here to send a letter to the editor.