DEAR News Of The Area, TODAY’S young people forget that their parents’ home cost a lot less, but then so were their wages. You saved for the things you needed, let alone wanted, since credit cards didn’t exist. You ate less, ran around more and read books because that was your entertainment, and fat people […]

By Doug CONNOR, Group Editor AFTER just shy of six years manning the News Of The Area news desk, I have made the difficult decision to leave my role as Group Editor. Before I officially depart next Friday (29 May), I wanted to take the opportunity to offer my sincere thanks to everyone who has […]

DEAR News Of The Area, LAST week Health Minister Mark Butler announced cuts to the $50 billion NDIS budget with little detail other than the end of support which is coming for an estimated 160,000 current recipients; not to mention future hopefuls. While few would disagree that there are national budgetary constraints and the NDIS […]

DEAR News Of The Area, WHEN I fled a violent relationship with my two-year-old son, I didn’t have the luxury of waiting on a two-year childcare waitlist. I added my son to every waitlist in the area, only to wait four months for a single day of care per week. Even now, with my son […]

DEAR News Of The Area, AT Park Beach Plaza at the Woolworths checkout I found I had left my wallet in another bag at home. I was going to go back home to get it when a lovely lady from Nambucca offered to pay for my groceries. To that good samaritan: thank you. Kindness sits […]

DEAR News Of The Area, DO we need a migration debate or do we need a migration discussion? Debate implies conflict and discussion, a learning exercise. Given that more than a third of our population is either born overseas or from parents who were born overseas and in total more than 95 percent of Australians […]

DEAR News Of The Area, IN a letter published on 17 April, Lex Stewart opined on Australia’s fuel situation. Some of those statements should not go unquestioned, for example that we now refine only 20 percent of our production. The reasons for that are not explained in Mr Stewart’s letter, but here they are. Australia […]

DEAR News Of The Area, IT’S worth noting that the US/Israel war on Iran is going to affect people differently. Setting aside the effects on the Iranian people, the main effect here in Australia is that the costs of energy and food are going to go up. For working and middle-class people this is going […]

DEAR News Of The Area, AS ANZAC Day approaches, and as wars rage unabated in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, it is important to contemplate the sacrifices made by previous generations and what legacies we have inherited. Almost everyone who participated in WWII is now dead, weakening the direct link to that dark […]

DEAR News Of The Area, AUSTRALIA until recently had 10 oil refineries, but now has only two. Therefore we rely almost entirely on imports of finished products, of which we have only a few weeks of supply stored on Australian soil. The late Senator Major General Jim Molan pointed out the severe consequences of our […]