DEAR News Of The Area, I REFER to the excellent letter from Greg Hackfath (27 February) regarding the dedication and skill over 40 years of the ocean lifeguard service. Among many positive anecdotes from locals and visitors, I would like to remind you all of the dependence we have on those emergency workers, like the […]
Letter to the Editor: The roles we step into
DEAR News Of The Area, THERE may be no literal devil in our world yet there is never a shortage of people willing to step into the role: to stoke fear, to turn neighbour against neighbour, and to profit from the shadows they cast. And perhaps Jesus never walked this earth, but the role he […]
Letter to the Editor: We can’t transition to plantations overnight
DEAR News Of The Area, ASHLEY Love’s Letter to the Editor in the Nambucca and Coffs NOTA of 27/2/26 relates to several comments I made in an unpublished Forest & Wood Communities press release that accused anti-forestry activists, like Mr Love, of hypocrisy when it came to their claims that the native timber industry can […]
Letter to the Editor: Facts, not hypocrisy, on plantations
DEAR News Of The Area, IN the NOTA article of 18 February 2026 titled “Forestry organisations promote sustainable management in new report”, Steve Dobbyns, the Chair and Director of Forest and Wood Communities Australia, accused proponents of the Great Koala National Park of “hypocrisy” in telling Australians that plantations would replace native forests. Telling the […]
Letter to the Editor: Compassion and safety are not opposites
DEAR News Of The Area, AUSTRALIA now faces a difficult question: what do we do about the Australian women and children still stranded in the Syrian camps? The debate has become so politicised that the basic facts – and the basic humanity – are being lost. Under our Constitution, Australia cannot refuse passports to its […]
Letter to the Editor: When is a structure not a structure?
DEAR News Of The Area, THE recent refusal of the Land and Environment Court to acknowledge agricultural polytunnel structures as ‘structures’ requiring development approval, highlights once again the need for urgent State-based planning reforms encompassing all zoned land, including rural lands. While we all recognise the value of the Industry, the current established laws have […]
Letter to the Editor: The lasting contribution of our lifeguards
DEAR News Of The Area, THE City of Coffs Harbour is soon to determine the future of its professional ocean lifeguard service – a decision that will decide whether this long-standing in-house team continues to serve the community or the service is outsourced. Before such a significant step is taken, it is important to reflect […]
Letter to the Editor: We need our train back
DEAR News Of The Area, COULD someone from Transport for NSW please confirm when and if the XPT will ever actually run as it used to. Why? I’ll tell you We live in the Urunga area and for 20 years we’ve caught the XPT from Urunga to Sydney twice a year to catch up with […]
Letter to the Editor: Dissent is not a crime
DEAR News Of The Area, HISTORY shows us that authoritarian regimes – including Nazi Germany – treated symbolic dissent as a crime. Burning a flag, questioning a leader, or refusing to perform patriotic rituals could lead to imprisonment or worse. When modern governments talk about jailing people for symbolic protest, they are echoing the same […]
Letter to the Editor: New leader, same old Liberals
DEAR News Of The Area, NEW Liberal leader Angus Taylor promises that by returning to Liberal values he will restore our standard of living, protect our way of life and restore the Australian dream of home ownership. In trying to sell this snake oil, he turns a blind eye to the fact that successive Liberal/Nationals […]
