Letters, March 15, 2023

Community interest

ONCE again, for possibly the third time in three years, the Mt Barker Council has said no to providing a video recording of council meetings (“Council to publish audio”, March 8).

What’s incomprehensible is the reason you reported from Councillor Seager saying “I’m not sure everyone in this (meeting) is necessarily in total control of their body language in a spirited debate ... we don’t want to have someone take something out of context”.

Well, sorry Cr Seager, that will happen whether or not a video recording is provided.

It will happen live in the room at the time and be witnessed by all present.

Plus of course it will be seen on the live video broadcast from the meeting.

So what is the difference between seeing it live and seeing it on a recording?

None that I can see.

Further, it will be easier to get things out of context listening to just an audio recording – just what the councillor wants to avoid.

Given the demonstrated community support for a video recording of meetings in recent years (from social media polls) and assuming the council wants to improve its engagement with the community as evidenced by council meetings in the regions, providing a video recording seems a no-brainer – also for all the other public meetings held by council.

The fixed time the live streaming council meeting video is broadcast is inconvenient to many, and an audio recording will be difficult to follow and see the body language.

Cr Seager perhaps should remember that body language and facial expression is a larger proportion of communicating than just the spoken word.

Thanks to the councillors who voted for this.

To those who voted against – please reconsider what is better for the community.

Brian Calvert, Mt Barker

Hard truth

IN my humble opinion, as long as political donations remain to be acceptable in Australia, human-caused climate change will continue to be an immense problem for all Australians.

Many Australians are now aware that an extremely large quantity of fossil fuels simply have to be eliminated from the energy producing fuels used by corporations, for climate change to be brought under control.

It is a most unfortunate fact that the big polluting corporations will ensure, by means of large political donations, that their   sources of income from polluting activities will continue well into the future.

There are times when the truth can be hard to accept.

Brian Measday, Myrtle Bank

Community interest

ONCE again, for possibly the third time in three years, the Mt Barker Council has said no to providing a video recording of council meetings (“Council to publish audio”, March 8).

What’s incomprehensible is the reason you reported from Councillor Seager saying “I’m not sure everyone in this (meeting) is necessarily in total control of their body language in a spirited debate ... we don’t want to have someone take something out of context”.

Well, sorry Cr Seager, that will happen whether or not a video recording is provided.

It will happen live in the room at the time and be witnessed by all present.

Plus of course it will be seen on the live video broadcast from the meeting.

So what is the difference between seeing it live and seeing it on a recording?

None that I can see.

Further, it will be easier to get things out of context listening to just an audio recording – just what the councillor wants to avoid.

Given the demonstrated community support for a video recording of meetings in recent years (from social media polls) and assuming the council wants to improve its engagement with the community as evidenced by council meetings in the regions, providing a video recording seems a no-brainer – also for all the other public meetings held by council.

The fixed time the live streaming council meeting video is broadcast is inconvenient to many, and an audio recording will be difficult to follow and see the body language.

Cr Seager perhaps should remember that body language and facial expression is a larger proportion of communicating than just the spoken word.

Thanks to the councillors who voted for this.

To those who voted against – please reconsider what is better for the community.

Brian Calvert, Mt Barker

Special days

LAST week’s editorial made mention of International Women’s Day.

I commend the editor for the article and details provided.

While we have special days to remember certain things or people, every day is a day to show respect to both women and men.

Just as young boys need to be trained by parents from an early age, the same applies to young girls to be trained in respect towards men.

While domestic violence against women is a terrible blight on our society, very little is said about domestic violence against men.

It appears to be ‘the elephant in the room’ that no one wants to talk about.

Numbers given for women being killed be their male partners in last week’s editorial was 50 per year in Australia.

What a horrific statistic!

Have we ever considered the number of innocent men who have taken their own lives because the ‘system’ has failed them?

I venture to say the number is much higher than 50 per year.

Let’s be fair and balanced in our reporting and show respect to everyone at all times not just on special days.

Many thanks to The Courier for printing differing views on all subjects.

Graeme Watts, Brukunga

Credit due

I WRITE regarding an article entitled “Bridgewater road safety plan” (The Courier, March 8).

This article was about Adelaide Hills Council accepting the recommendations of a traffic study undertaken on Wattle Tree Road at Bridgewater.

Upon reading the article, the reader may mistakenly believe that I was the councillor who initiated this study.

The original motion on notice to establish the study was the initiative of Councillor Kirsty Parkin working with local resident Carol Graham and they should take credit for this excellent proposal.

While I had previously worked with residents and staff on the issue of traffic and parking on Wattle Tree Road, it was Cr Parkin who proposed the study and I fully supported it.

Leith Mudge, Adelaide Hills Councillor

Ugly design

WHAT an ugly, characterless, grey slab of an eyesore proposed for the Cedars (The Courier, March 8). Hans Heysen would be rolling over in his grave!

Surely a design in character with the rest of Hahndorf would be much better suited for tourism appeal?

Anne Dowbnia, Woodside