What use will nuclear subs be? Sub spend not so clever

Three nuclear-powered submarines is the best use those geniuses down in Canberra can come up with for $368B (yes, billion) of government spending?

With those we’ll “threaten” (ha!) the world’s largest economy (China), our largest customer (China) and the country upon whose growth

Australia’s standard of living depends (China).

While it’s debatable whether Australia is still the Lucky Country, one thing is certain; we ain’t the Clever Country.

Email, Mar 27

Richard Pryke, North Avoca

At a cost of $368B and (with) the first nuclear submarine to be delivered in the early 2040s, what use will they be when they do come into service in fighting climate change with devastating floods, fires, droughts and pandemics?

Eventually the only war which could unite all countries and worth fighting against are the daily catastrophes threatening our sacred planet fuelled by out-of-date political systems and financial manipulation and greed.

As Greta Thunberg stated: “We need new politics and new economics … we need to stop competing and start cooperating and sharing our remaining resources”. Sadly we are still trying to solve today’s problems with the same thinking that created them.

Email, Mar 26 Paul Corkeron, Kincumber

While I agree with much that Bruce Hyland writes (Rose-coloured view of home-grown manufacture, CNN 383), I consider that an Australian manufacturing industry could be much more than a stopgap in the event of interruption to imports.

Over two decades ago I entitled a joint research paper, On the High-Skills Road or in the Ditch.

It elaborated on the need to differentiate ourselves from low-skilled, mass-producing economies by focusing on the

Central Coast Council is to be congratulated on the presentation of the draft Strategic Housing Strategy for comment.

This is the finest compilation of Central Coast data that I have seen – easy to follow, well-organised and as comprehensive as one could wish for, in a publication only using secondary sources.

It will be a most useful reference work for some time to come.

Unfortunately, the Housing Strategy that derives from all the analysis is almost completely useless.

It consists almost entirely of