Sir, there is always time for respect and a phone call to your counterpart. We have always made sure if our dates change to consult when ever we have had to change them.

The Parkes Elvis Festival had the date and changed since Sept 2021, you were fully aware. But the arrogance of not even telling us and having us find out via social media!!! a new low.

Your decision has cost jobs for many people who work both festivals, who rely on working both. Many people in our town are very disappointed and disgusted in how we have been treated.

Gail Richardson, Parkes

The media continues to report daily, the number of COVID cases, and related deaths and maintains a critical focus on governments, particularly the conservative governments.

No matter what the Western Australian and Queensland governments do or have done, they appear to not face scrutiny by the media. Queensland closed borders to Australian citizens crossing into Queensland, some wanting to return home, some wanting to visit sick family members, some wanting to attend funerals of deceased family.

At the same time, Queensland welcomed the entire NRL competition, hosted the grand final, and also a women's cricket tournament featuring the national team and a team from India. Additionally, a four team rugby competition was hosted by Queensland with our National Rugby team, plus teams from South Africa, New Zealand and Argentina, all welcomed into Queensland, and not one complaint from the media. The annual 'schoolies' week at the Gold Coast was allowed to proceed. All these boosted the Queensland economy!

The anomaly of reporting concern of illness and deaths from COVID is twofold. Firstly, the majority of deaths are in the elderly age bracket, often with an underlying medical condition, and secondly, the governments, while publicly offering condolences, introduced legislation legalising abortion and euthanasia.

Will governments offer condolences for the murder of the unborn and infirmed, will the media provide daily updates on same. I very much doubt it.

This confirms the depths to which society has sunk, accepting termination of human life, while campaigning against cruelty and death of animals.

Grahame Tighe, Tamworth

Congratulations to the Country Women's Association on 100 years of trailblazing ("Country Women's Association set to mark 100 years of scones and activism" 17/1/22). All power to these women who are the backbone of rural communities.

We should never underestimate their ability to band together and get a job done. I am therefore heartened to read that climate change, sustainability, and the environment are now a central focus for the CWA.

These are issues that should be in the forefront of all our minds as the world continues to warm with devastating consequences. Working together to protect our natural environment and transition toward sustainable living is vital.

We would all benefit from following the lead of the wonderful CWA.

Amy Hiller, Kew

Recent reports are indicating that net zero greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved by 2050, but that massive funding will be required to reach that result. Why then is our Federal Coalition Government providing huge sums of money to assist the natural gas industry? Natural gas is a greenhouse gas! The following comments add to the funding confusion.

Expert opinion states that methane is the main component in natural gas and that methane is about 80 times more powerful in relation to warming the atmosphere of the earth than carbon dioxide - over a 20 year period. Concentrations in the atmosphere of methane have more than doubled since the Industrial revolution. The growth rate of methane in the atmosphere now being more than double the average annual growth rate of the last 17 years. It that the Coalition Government is heading in a direction that is most unlikely to bring about net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050.

An extremely important question now emerges given the fact that the Federal Coalition has two partners that often follow different pathways, particularly in relation to climate related matters including the continuing use of fossil fuels gas, coal and oil, will it ever be possible to reach a net zero greenhouse emissions result if the present seemingly incompatible partnership arrangements continue.

Brian Measday, Myrtle Bank, SA

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