The Northern Territory news Thu 11 Jun 2020
NT news
The Northern Territory news; NewspaperNT
2020-06-11
English
Community newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Darwin.; Australian newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Darwin.
News Corp Australia
Darwin
application/pdf
Copyright. Made available by the publisher under licence.
News Corp Australia
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/803411
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/803586
12 OPINION THURSDAY JUNE 11 2020 NTNE01Z01MA - V1 Your say THE PEOPLES VOICE IN THE TERRITORY Gunners got to give on border ITS been 66 days since the last person tested positive in the Territory to coronavirus. And still our borders remain firmly shut. The longer this goes on, the more businesses are being pushed to breaking point. Little wonder Business SA has joined forces with the Chamber of Commerce NT to call for a Centre-West Travel Triangle to be opened between the SA, NT and WA. The closed borders are costing the respective states and territory millions in lost tourism dollars, with thousands of jobs also on the line. This latest desperate call to re-open the borders between South Australia, the NT and Western Australia is about keeping businesses alive and protecting jobs. Domestic spending is low, directly affecting the revenues of local business. Something has to give and that has to come from Chief Minister Michael Gunner. If he is not going to provide a date to open our borders, he has to listen to our calls for a tourism and hospitality stimulus voucher scheme. Weve outlined how it can be done: vouchers with a monetary value that require an equal contribution from consumers. Lets say $200 towards staycation packages that include visits to tourist attractions or restaurants. Those who use the $200 vouchers would have to contribute a similar amount. When the borders open you can link it with airline packages to encourage people to fly to the Territory. You have to give something to get something. So far there is not much give. And another thing ... ITS been three months since the unthinkable happened and AFL, along with sport in general, was forced to stop under the threat of COVID-19. Since then a very big void has been left in many peoples lives, with some tragics desperate for a footy fix relying on current day commentators calling old games as if they were being played now. It was a sad state of affairs. But all of that is behind us now and we can once again marvel at the skills and athleticism of our favourite stars. Letters Help for eating disorders BUTTERFLY Foundations annual MAYDAYS campaign is now well under way, running until June 30. Pushing Past Postcodes aims to improve awareness of eating disorders and raise much-needed funds to support our work as the national charity for people with eating disorders and their loved ones. One million people are affected by an eating disorder in any given year, and around 280,000 of these people live in regional, remote and very remote areas. While the stereotype of someone with an eating disorder is a young woman, the reality is that eating disorders do not discriminate by age, location, or other characteristics. Tarsh, a mum from rural Victoria who features in our campaign, developed an eating disorder in her 30s. She struggled to navigate the system to access care and support. Our national survey shows that people with eating disorders living outside of urban areas are doing it tough right now. Access to services is particular concern. Almost two-thirds of those in regional and remote areas reported that COVID-19 had impacted their ability to seek treatment or support. We are seeing the impact of the pandemic in significantly increased demand for our free National Helpline service (1800 ED HOPE). During the last two months webchat contacts to our Helpline have more than doubled due to COVID-19 and are up 90 per cent from this time last year. You can find out more about our campaign here: https://butterfly.org.au/ MAYDAYS. For counselling, advice or referral, please contact us on 1800 33 4673 from 8am-midnight (AEST), seven days a week. Join us this MAYDAYS in our pursuit of #PushingPastPostcodes, and lets break down the barriers for those in regional, remote and very remote locations. Kevin Barrow, Butterfly Foundation chief executive Perfect site for RSL Re: RSL the proposed site of the building is a car park on the extreme southern end of the Esplanade, not on it. No one seems to object about an unsightly park (ever seen a pretty one?). Those that protest are putting emotion before reason. This site will be adjacent to the Cenotaph not on it. Let us look at the benefits of this location. Visitors to the Cenotaph would have easy access to an institution founded on the very existence of such memorials. The Ode and the Last Post are recited and played each and every evening. For those not aware the Ode is as follows They shall not grow old as we are left grow old. Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them. Is this not a better site than all others? Dave M, Stuart Park City greening fail IM extremely grateful for the political efforts by our politicians to practise sensible green policies for Darwin. Kon is busy pulling down the George Brown trees so that he can have the Kon Vatskalis trees. That obviously is going to be a big improvement for our ratepayers. Those 40 fact-finding trips to Singapore by politicians is working, we have so much envy for the green space in that country and we have learned a lot by those visits. We were so impressed that we, the NTG, decided to get rid of that sports oval occasionally enjoyed by the Darwin High School Students at Bullocky point. The great mind-bending thinkers at level 5 decided to put concrete all over it. Great thinkers and planners? The next empire building suggestion raised in the recent NT News, was the relocation of the Throb proposal from East Point to The Ski Club, true! Mr Gunner said Throb could go there. He obviously wants it in his electorate, at any cost. Now the recent disaster is the asbestos at the old hospital site. Many of these asbestos chips can be found in residential land in my suburb. The big $3 million of borrowed spend on a playground at this site would seem to be part of the government plan to congest as much of our spare land before some other country takes it away? The mentality of stealing our land and putting concrete all over it now extends to the RSL proposal at the car park at our Cenotaph. Probably doomed like Throb, even though they keep trying. There are dozens of empty buildings in Darwin Central City, but Kon and Simon and Michael want to turn back the clock to the 1960s and in the face of all of the opposite opinions and evidence. They would have you believe that thousands of Asians, without an airline, in competition with the major southern universities, that we in the NT would get a share of the Asian student market. We need a big change in greening and protection of city trees. The milkwood, murdered by this lot will not help them in the forthcoming election. Roger Steele, Darwin On this day IN THE TERRITORY FIVE YEARS AGO A DARWIN mum has urged parents to talk to their kids after a man tried to coax her seven-year-old daughter into his car. It was one of three reports investigated by police involving students harassed by men in two days. 10 YEARS AGO JETSTAR is to halve the number of flights from Darwin to Singapore. But it denied the move was the start of a wider pullback from the NT. A spokesman said the airline was still committed to Darwin.