A FEW weeks back, our local member accused Katherine residents of being apathetic.

I believe the time has come to show that Katherine is not unconcerned or lazy as he implies. 

Earlier this year, the Country Liberal Party government announced they had hit the “go slow button” with unconventional shale gas development.

Despite this, exploration has ramped up across the Northern Territory.

This dry season, Pangaea will be conducting hydraulic fracturing on four vertical exploration wells, with the closest to Katherine on Manbulloo Station. 

There is no go slow button.

Exploration is underway and our government is madly pushing for a new pipeline for shale gas, under the guise of saving the eastern states from a looming gas shortage.

A shortage, which I might add, does not exist. 

Our government has displayed extreme generosity in the NT Petroleum Act, granting Territorians a whopping 50-metre buffer zone of industry activity around land used as a residence or cultivated area and industry activity - and it has continued to refrain from protecting our water.

We have seen for ourselves over the past couple of years the importance of controlling how much water is pumped out of the aquifers, yet mining is still excluded from the NT Water Act.

The unconventional oil and gas industry is extremely water intensive.

It is about time the NT government brought the extractive industry in line with the Water Act, in order to make them accountable for their usage and thus protecting our aquifers from over extraction. 

In the words of Winston Churchill, “it is the people who control the government, not government the people”. 

-  Charmaine Roth, Katherine

Mangoes on agenda, not mining

I WAS extremely disappointed last week to read a letter to the editor in the Katherine Times (“Conflict causes concern”) which stated I attended a mining forum on May 25, instead of a water forum in Katherine. 

This statement was completely inaccurate and simply not true.

For the record, I was attending and speaking at the 10th annual Australian Mango Conference in Darwin during a Parliamentary sittings week.

However, it was pleasing to see more than 70 people attend the NT Water Forum in Katherine on May 15.

The discussion at this forum was robust and will help the government in informing future decision making.

Our Water Future Discussion Paper - A Conversation with Territorians is currently open for public comment and I encourage Katherine residents to have their say on this very important document, which will protect Territory water resources long into the future.

- Willem Westra van Holthe, Member for Katherine

Public deserves $500,000 answer

HOW could the Katherine Sports and Recreation Club use up nearly half a million dollars in cash reserves over a four-year period without anyone noticing or, more importantly, asking some fairly basic questions about what had happened to the money?

I note with interest that club president Stuart Duncan gave “deliberate” or “incompetence” as two possible options in his interview with the Katherine Times (“Troubled club looks for $500,000 answer”, June 17) - it takes a fair bit of imagination to believe that it was simply poor management that caused that much money to disappear.

If it is determined that impropriety was the cause, the offenders should be jailed and forced to provide an explanation to the people of Katherine.

-  Name and address withheld

Bin views of anonymous critics

NO ONE enjoys public personal criticism.

While I have been criticised for being a bit aggressive at Katherine Town Council open forums at times, at least the subjects of my aggression have been under no false allusions as to where the criticism is coming from. 

I think it is pretty disgusting, however, when individuals resort to the media to be critical of organisations or individuals, but lack the guts to do so openly, as they hide their identities behind name-and-address-withheld tags.

The anonymous Katherine Times letter writer (“‘Distasteful’ is disgraceful”) on June 17th may have accurately reflected community feeling in regard to the council levying a fee on a breast cancer research fundraiser for the use of Ryan Park.

Unfortunately, while criticising the council and the council chief executive officer for a recently-made decision, the critic has had their own name and address withheld from publication.

The media certainly has every right to publish anonymous letters of criticism and to refuse to reveal who the critics are.

I do feel, however, that editors should exercise a bit of discretion and consign such letters to the wastepaper bin.

-  Bruce Francais, Katherine

No room for fracking apathy in NT

IT SEEMS that Adelaide River has just spoken to both the Northern Territory government and the unconventional gas industry by voting 96.5% in favour of declaring themselves gas field free.

The community has send a very clear message that flies in the face of what the government and the industry will have us believe when it comes to who is in favour of seeing this large-scale, highly-invasive industrial development take place.

The sole reason they are getting away with doing so is simple: you, the reader.

It is your apathy and indifference.

It is their greatest ally and it is time for that to change.

It is time that the people of Katherine declared themselves gas field free to show that it is not just the small, active groups that are opposed to this development, but also the many inactive people they represent.

The Territory, the green tree frogs, the pandanus trees and our future generations could sure use your help.

-  Gus Elliott, Katherine

Lake idea will take some selling

THERE is considerable benefit to the idea suggested by Clinton Booth in last week’s paper (“Lake mooted as flood mitigation option”) that a lake could be built in Katherine to serve as a partial flooding solution, as well as a fun place for residents and tourists to spend their time.

As I see it, the main problem he will face with selling his plan to the people

holding the purse strings is the huge cost of developing it – and it is quite clear from reading between the lines of comments made by our local member and Chief Minister since TIO was flogged off that the $25 million we already have is likely to be all we will get.

I seem to remember Adam Giles telling the paper last year that if coming up with a proper flood mitigation plan for Katherine cost more than the money allocated, his government would find more.

Yet, now the raging floodwater surrounding the controversial TIO sell-off has subsided,  it looks like are not set for a secondary injection of funding.

One look at the Katherine flood committee’s draft report costings shows it has worked within the $25m budget, and anything that fell outside that figure – even if it would have provided better protection and benefit for the community – has been written off as unviable.

-  Name and address withheld