LETTERS, FEEDBACK AND OPINION

this shared country. The second great “invasion” happened after the second world war when immigrants from war torn Europe flooded into OZ and eventually made Australia home. The third great “invasion” started after the Vietnam war when Asian immigrants flooded to our shores to escape communism. The fourth great “invasion” occurred during and after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan when many of the population fled to OZ to escape war and religious persecution. One could say that on each of these four occasions the “invaders” were not always warmly received, in the first occasion that would be an understatement. So here we are 2023, all these people and their descendants are now

“Australians” and live in the most successful multicultural country in the world. It is so important that the Albanese Govt’s referendum to give a “Voice” to first nations people to allow them more say in the issues that are important to improving their lives. If demolition Dutton and the right-wing the Liberal party had an ounce of empathy, they would stop playing politics and support this vital initiative.

Keith Duncan Pimlico

Rampant Capitalism

Our current financial crisis of rising interest rates and overall cost of living demonstrates the way capitalism has gone out of control. Many statistics are revealing over and over again, the rich are getting richer (and the super-rich are ruling the world) and large corporations, especially in mining, banking and food supply are making record profits. How does the capitalist system try to rein in inflation. Well in Australia, the Reserve Bank raises interest rates, that particularly effects the average person, be it through mortgages, rent or living costs. Wages, which have been stagnant for 9 (Coalition government) years, no longer meet the workers’ needs.

If the Reserve Bank’s only hammer is to belt the general population with rate rises why doesn’t our democratically elected government step in to charge the price gouging corporations, who are taking advantage of the situation, and apply a super profit tax. Surely if we can look at previous years’ profits of companies and can see a trend which indicates record profits year on year some equity should apply, so not only shareholders, but the general community, either gets a share or at least aren’t ripped off.

Fuel at the bowser is a classic example.

From December 2014 to April 2021 the barrel price was below $62, from January 2022 to December 2022 it sharply rose to $116 then quickly fell back to below the 10-year average of $78. The bowser price during those 10 years has gone up and up, not at all indicatives of the barrel market price. What a rip-off! Today there are so many examples of greed, where corporations, super rich individuals or new start-ups such as AirBNB and Uber, are given red carpet treatment with total disregard to the majority of the population. Trickledown effect, as if!

Richard White East Ballina

Stock Market

Getting rid of the stock market would force business to look after customers instead of shareholders and board of directors. Furthermore, companies would have to raise their own capital and therefore be more careful with their money in addition there would be more competition and big business would not have monopolies there would be lots of small business competing for customer dollars.

Alan Mosley Yamba

Broken Glass

This is a message to all the people in Evans Head who walked around Bare Footed. I am constantly picking up Broken Glass all over the place. This Broken Glass is deliberately done by a person/s at night. The Glass is usually from beer bottles. So, it’s by these people coming home intoxicated or otherwise. The straw that broke the camels back was when I found smashed glass in the kids play ground near Stan Payne Oval. What sort of mentality is that? I hope someone see’s these people doing this and do something about it.

Paul Brecht Evans Head

George Watts, known to his father as Jumbo, travels back to his childhood during the era of the Great Depression where men did whatever they could to scratch a living out of a lapsed economy. Born to a mother who wasn’t interested and a dad who was a bottle-o in the backstreets of the Melbourne suburbs of Fitzroy and Collingwood, George’s life was off to a rough start.

His dad, King Bob, took over the rearing of the little boy and as a baby, would carry him in a pineapple box and ask lactating women if they could feed him! We travel on the journey of George’s early life through the lens of his childlike memories which are always honest and often very raw.

From living in rentals where they would have to leave the lights on or the rats would attack, to taking ferrets on their camping trips to hunt