Organ Previously Quiet

Illawarra Mercury

Monday March 31, 2008

Organ previously quiet

The recent letter from Michael Organ, written apparently as a vehicle for puerile sniping at Wollongong council's David Farmer, raises significant concern about his own actions.

He claims to have been aware of corruption of process within Wollongong City Council for decades and yet I am unable to find any public record of action on his part beyond currently offering to keep his door open.

Mr Organ was the MHR for this area prior to Ms Bird and therefore uniquely placed tor those three years to expose and pursue the eradication of such corruption. He could have used the avenues properly made available to our national parliamentarians and backed by the authority of that parliament.

Despite the contrived nature of his election, the brevity of his stewardship and the Gilbertian nature of his performance he was the Federal Member and as such should have done what he is now encouraging others to do.

Peter Wolfe, Thirroul

Time to bag plastic

As people mindlessly leave their plastic bags on beaches and public places, they should be aware that much of plastic waste ends up in the sea in quantities dangerous to the environment.

Floating in an area between San Francisco and Hawaii, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is composed of floating islands containing 80 per cent of plastic bags and weighing about 3.5 million tonnes and is estimated as being as big as the state of Texas.

Researchers have been monitoring it since the 1950s and say it has been increasing tenfold each decade.

It is dangerous to marine life and birds through entanglement and ingestion of plastic.

Cleaning it up is not an option. It would cost billions of dollars and require international support.

The long-term solution is to stop producing plastic bags, as San Francisco has done, and to change our consumer habits. Wrap up your garbage and line your bins with newspaper; use canvas bags for shopping, buy loose vegetables, not pre-packaged. There are many alternatives.

Finally, we must urge local, federal and state governments to tighten up the littering laws and to fast-track the banning of plastic bags in shops.

Once they're gone, we will easily adapt to other practices safer to our environment.

Barbara Cattunar, Wollongong

Attitude on the nose

One of the Labor-appointed administrators now in charge of planning at Wollongong City Council was the CEO of NSW planning (DUAP) who gave consent for the reopening of the highly controversial Port Kembla copper smelter in the late 1990s.

When confronted this week about her consent to the smelter she enquired, "how is it going now?" We had to tell her that it fell over and died back in 2003 after instilling three years of horrendous suffering on the community and environment.

Is it any wonder we have no confidence in Premier Iemma's solution to the Wollongong council corruption fiasco and are calling for a Royal Commission?

Helen Hamilton, Port Kembla

Foreshore for the future

I'm a nine-year-old girl from Wollongong and I am really worried about the council's plans to ruin Wollongong's magnificent foreshore.

Please leave it alone. The natural environment is so different from the artificial foreshores around Australia. I have lived here my whole life, I have participated in the Australia Day Aquathon, the Mother's Day fun run and I am a regular swimmer at the Continental Pools.

I have been to the Gold Coast, Nelson Bay and Coffs Harbour but I always love coming home to Wollongong because it's different to the other places. It's beautiful and it should stay that way.

I am hoping to take up a petition to stop this project from happening.

I urge the people of Wollongong, don't let this happen. Ask your children - it's our future!

Claudia Hodge, Balgownie

© 2008 Illawarra Mercury

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