RAISING IMPORTANT AWARENESS
I'm grateful for the recent editorial and letters to the editor about the date of Australia Day; even the suggestion that we change the day to a month raises our awareness of the issue.
I think we haven't been able to solve this problem yet because the best date for it is still in the future. The best date simply hasn't arrived.
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The date as it stands celebrates the colonial view of history; however, the First Nations people and their supporters see it as 'Invasion Day'.
In my view, just changing the date would be a hollow gesture, leaving the underlying attitudes intact with no transformative process behind it.
The Uluru Statement from the Heart spoke for the First Nations people in 2017 but was not taken up by our parliamentary representatives.
It seems a successful referendum to change to the Constitution is a daunting legal proposition, requiring agreement of the majority of the Australian people and our various Parliaments.
It went into the 'too hard' basket.
On the day that constitutional recognition for First Nations people is signed into law in this country, then that day has a legitimate claim to be Australia Day.
Geraldine Gradon, Coolamon
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT ON CLIMATE
First up, let me congratulate letter-writer Bryan Pomeroy ("Be careful what you wish for", January 22).
It was nice that someone local was able to present such a concise case against the continual negative anti-government attacks by the media in general. (Listen to your ABC TV).
Which leads me to my trailer-building friend who gets himself into a lather any time climate change and the amount of column space and air time its proponents are given is mentioned.
The debate naturally drifts around to the use of coal and the undeniable fact that by far the biggest users of coal are all overseas from Australia.
Also undeniable is that our coal is the cleanest by far and that if it is denied to those users, they use their alternative supplies which only increases the gunk they add to the atmosphere, thus accelerating the dreaded climate change.
At least the coal industry here continues to try to improve the performance of its product and it certainly it is a major contributor to our overseas income.
My friend provided me with this list (a year or two old I believe) of coal-fired power plants around the world as food for thought.
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The EU has 468, is building 27 - total 495. Turkey has 56, is building 93 - total 149. India has 569, is building 446 - total 1015.
South Korea 58, is building 26 - total 84. S/Africa 79, is building 24 - total 103.
Japan has 90, is building 45 - total 135. A grand total of 2003. Pity he had no figures for Russia.
China has 2363, is building 1171 more - total 3534.
There must be a lot of people who still want power and light. That's going to take a lot of panels and turbines.
And lithium is still going to have to be mined and refined, using power at all cost!
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Gerry Shilling, Wagga
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