Flying foxes cause family chaos
I AM still stunned that so many people think those of us having to live with what feels like millions of bats in our yards should just be patient and wait for them to leave.
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I can only assume that the people making the outlandish comments have never been in our shoes and had to keep children and pets inside so they do not get sick.
We have had no option but to hang our clothes up inside recently – putting washing on the line is impossible.
I think I speak for my neighbours when I say that we have no patience left and are sick of touchy-feely excuses why nothing can be done to help us out of our current hell.
Name and address withheld
Opponents want same outcome for Territory
I REFER to Rohan Sullivan's letter to the editor on April 13.
My paragraph read, “I understand that the actual act of hydraulic fracturing poses minimal risk, but it is every other activity involved with this industry that brings with it very real threat. Drilling, well integrity, spills, faulty and leaking infrastructure, waste [contaminated] water storage, removal and treatment, the list goes on.”
Cherry picking is not a virtuous debating trait.
Mr Sullivan’s confusion may stem from the different meanings.
Industry refers to fracking as the act of hydraulic fracturing either conventional or unconventional gas.
“Activists” use fracking as reference to the entire unconventional oil and gas industry, and its activities.
Confusion is increased when our local member claims the Northern Territory has been fracking for 40 years – but fracturing sandstone for conventional gas pockets is substantially different to the required continuous pulverising of shale bedrock.
Mr Sullivan complains of “FIFO greenies”, yet welcomes fly-in, fly-out miners.
Instead of grasping at straws to try and fight, why not work together?
We all want water protection, long-term jobs and improved vital infrastructure.
I wonder who Mr Sullivan represents – his children and those who follow, or the political party he is rusted on to?
Despite his efforts, Saturday’s rally was amazing, with an outstanding crowd saying no to fracking.
Charmaine Roth, Katherine
Don’t frack Willemsland
WILLEM Westra van Holthe has expressed disappointment at not being asked to sign a petition calling for the Gorge Road area to be exempt from fracking.
He stated that some people were being presumptuous of his view on fracking.
There was no petition, merely a survey of people living on Gorge Road.
Mr Westra van Holthe owns land along the road but was not asked to sign because he does not live there – the people living on his block participated in the survey.
It is not unusual that he was not asked, considering his past unwavering support for the petrogas mining industry and the Country Liberal Party's endeavours to have most of the Northern Territory.
Mr Westra van Holthe appears to be beginning to realise that shale gas mining may cause environmental contamination and is now opposed to fracking on his own land on Gorge Road.
After having ignored Territorians’ concerns about the adverse effects of gas mining in the past and speaking derisively about activists in his electorate and elsewhere in the Territory, it seems that the Member for Katherine has now had a sudden change of heart.
Quite apart from Mr Westra van Holthe now recognising the necessity to protect his own land, it appears that with an election imminent, he has finally accepted the fact that the vast majority of his constituents are fervently opposed to fracking.
