The company has created this problem for themselves.

According to the EPA Whitehaven has stockpiled approximately 327 heavy mining tyres in the last five years, and by 2025 will have 600 in total to recycle.

Any other tyre user pays for disposing of these products with the intention of them being recycled - that is part of the cost of doing business.

The mining industry located within our agricultural precinct should not be exempted and simply allowed to bury these tyres.

The industry pays heavy lip service in advertising how mining land is rehabilitated back to prior use, those claims are as shallow as these tyres will be buried.

Any claim by Whitehaven that this is too costly to recycle these recyclable items is opportunist at best.

These items will remain legacy issues onsite for a millennia. They have created this problem over many years of profit, dividends and bonuses for executives and only now in 2021 scope the cheapest option of burying years worth of stockpiled tyres.

As a neighbouring landholder to this site it is not within my, nor would I suggest the broader community's expectation that Whitehaven Coal should be granted exemption from recycling tyres.

Peter Wills, Breeza

It is about time the Morrison government announced a Royal Commission on veteran suicides.

Government departments must be held accountable for their appalling treatment of veterans.

The bastardisation of young recruits should also be investigated, this is where recruits were subjected to humiliating initiation practices. This could have caused life long mental health issues for them.

Regarding the Brereton Report it is interesting that the "top brass" have been completely exonerated in respect of alleged war crimes.

Any accused soldier should have their day in court, and I have seen reports that the government of Afghanistan made no complaints to the Australian government regarding the conduct of Australian troops there.

Congratulations to Peter Dutton in his decision that all members of the Australian Special Operations Task Group will keep their Meritorious Unit Citations unless convicted of war crimes or sacked for poor conduct.

Peter Dutton elected to reverse a previous decision to strip 3000 veterans of their citations, in which the previous decision would have been greeted with contempt by veterans. Congratulations also to Catherine McGregor for her tireless support for veterans and their families.

John Rumble, Albion Park

I refer to the exciting news just in time for the Upper Hunter by-election that Shenhua Watermark Coal has been compensated a total of 362 million taxpayer dollars to exit our great Liverpool Plains food bowl.

This likely would not have occurred without the pressure of the Upper Hunter by-election and it is sad that the taxpayer's are footing the bill for the costly mistakes of the Government to keep that project alive with several extensions to EL7223 the last by Mr Barilaro himself.

However, it was a great announcement for the long suffering farming communities impacted by that proposal and those who understand the value of irreplaceable strategic black soil farmland and the critical water supplies below it.

That it took the NSW Coalition 10 years and a crucial Upper Hunter by-election to get to this point is a disgrace and an indictment on the party that had its roots in the agricultural industries as early as the 1920's.

That the long suffering farming communities at Breeza, Watermark and Nea couldn't garner the support of their local MP is a also a disgrace. Yet now those government MP's are likely to cover themselves in glory over this issue.

The Upper Hunter by-election demonstrates the schizophrenic policy nature of the Nationals. At the announcement of their Upper Hunter candidate they declared their unending love for coal, a week later and a couple of hundred kilometres away in another electorate (Tamworth) they were pulling the rug from under Shenhua and now curiously the Government acknowledges the existence of thousands of hectares of precious biodiversity.

However this is an exciting announcement and the victory is not The Nationals - Barilaro, Anderson or Marshall but the farming communities of the Liverpool Plains who suffered more than ten years of uncertainty as the major parties (Labor, Liberal/Nationals) chose to play chess with their lives, livelihoods, premium farmland, groundwater and native fauna.

I read an interesting tweet by a local landholder who said "Who would have ever thought that after 17 years of community battle, a sex worker would provide the Shenhua solution".

Mark Rodda, Tamworth

Last week Queensland's largest power generator, Stanwell Corporation, announced they are transitioning from coal to renewable energy. They plan to close the mines they own as well as the coal power stations.

It is a purely economic decision as they acknowledge that they cannot compete with price compared to rooftop solar as well as the wind and solar farms. All this despite the fact that they are some of the newest and most efficient coal power stations in Australia.

As more green energy arrives they will be left with stranded assets and workers and hence the announcement today. They advised that they will concentrate on renewables, storage and trying to take a central role in the emerging green hydrogen industry.

Also today "mining on the Liverpool Plains will be prohibited, full stop. From a small quarry through to an underground mine" according to John Barilaro, the NSW Deputy Premier. Isn't it time that we acknowledged that the thermal coal industry is no longer viable, sustainable, economical or morally acceptable?

Andrew Brown, Nundle

John Rumble continues to cherry-pick and misrepresent the facts. ("Electricity prices", 22/4) Instead of his fossil-fuel activist feeds, he'd do better to read the report of the International Energy Association, Renewables 2020, which found, for example, that "total installed wind and solar PV capacity is on course to surpass natural gas in 2023 and coal in 2024."

In regard to his claim that only subsidies keep renewables afloat, subsidies are everywhere. In 2015, the International Monetary Fund calculated fossil fuels in Australia received over $30 billion in subsidies and exemptions. And finally, Mr Rumble conveniently compares our electricity price to the US. The prices of electricity in the UK, Japan, Denmark and Germany are all higher than ours.

The latest report by the Australian Energy Market Commission shows that residential electricity prices in Australia are falling as cheaper renewables replace coal. More homework with wider sources please Mr Rumble.

Alice Milson, Calala

When I did a google search for some personal information a number of sites appeared but so did a related search of "Fun retirement jobs that pay a small fortune". My name is reasonably common so I wondered how Google knew I was retired, liked fun and could use a small fortune.

I know personalised ads and suggestions are a reality on searches and many web pages, but it does make me wonder how much they know about me and why?

When I decided to click the link all I got was "It looks like there aren't many great matches for your search" and therefore today my life stays the same, a bit of a disappointment but who knows about tomorrow?

There are a few lessons here, don't click on odd weblinks as they could be dangerous or just disappointing. Google knows a lot about you and this should be a reminder not to put anything on the web you don't want your grandmother to know or see. There are no real jobs that pay you a lot for doing little or at least not while I was still working.

Maybe I'll stay off the internet for a few days to avoid any more disappointments but we all know how addictive it is. Good luck if you try to stay away from social media for any more time than it takes to drink a coffee.

Dennis Fitzgerald, Melbourne