Support from Beyond Blue
Dear Echo News, 

The festive season can be a joyous time for many people, as they take a well-earned break from work and school and spend time with family and friends. It’s a time to rest and reset for the new year.

Yet for others, this time of year can be particularly difficult, and the holidays may not feel “jolly” at all.

It can bring additional financial pressures, relationship strain, or pressure to host the perfect Christmas.

he season to be merry can also amplify feelings of isolation and loneliness, especially for those who are separated from family or have lost a loved one.

So, as we head into the holiday break, regardless of what you’re dealing with, please know that you don’t have to face this time alone.

The Beyond Blue support service is free, confidential, and available around the clock, including on Christmas day.

It’s really common to put off seeking help because we can’t quite find the words to express our needs.

But when you contact us, you don’t have to know what to say.

Our skilled counsellors will meet you where you’re at and guide you towards where you need to be.

You can call 1300 22 46 36 or chat online to us at www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support

And finally, a big thank you to everyone who has donated to Beyond Blue this year.

Our support service is run purely on donations, so your kindness and generosity allow us to always be there when people need us the most.

G Harman
Beyond Blue CEO

Dutton nuke plan doomed
Dear Echo News,

Opposition leader, Peter Dutton’s attempts to distract attention from renewable energy, in his proposal to develop nuclear power stations across Australia, is dangerous, ill-conceived and doomed.

And the fossil fuel lobby cynically uses his desperation to gain government to urge him to delay the removal of oil, coal and gas from the energy mix.

Coal needs to go now.

Oil very soon and gas as soon as possible and when renewables are fully operational.

Anything else would be a travesty to the environment and is simply a ploy to extend the profits from environmentally dangerous fossil fuels.

The nuclear option is two to three decades too late and in any event, an unnecessary financial and environmental risk, as his failure to provide adequate, accurate costings demonstrates.

If only the Opposition could think, count and understand that we are not like France or Britain; we don’t need nuclear as they might.

We have a wide, brown, windy and sunlit land that is ideal for clean and renewable energy generation.

They have enough issues with which to beat Labor, without this stupid thought bubble.

P Carman
Hovea

Kalamunda FOGO review disappoints
Dear Echo News,

I feel disappointed by the City of Kalamunda’s recently carried motion to review the conditions of the FOGO arrangement, in particular in relation to the cost of additional landfill bins, and the frequency and size of landfill collections.

Whilst councillors may have been hearing from a particular cross section of our community that the FOGO system isn’t working for them – creating solutions to address these issues, such as more comprehensive community education, targeted to address the specific concerns should surely be the first port of call.

Some councillors instead have taken the stance we need to review all possible options to increase the volume or frequency of landfill collections and that the opt in cost of an additional landfill bin under the new structure is too high and needs to be reviewed.

One could argue the cost to send waste to landfill should be high – as a reflection of the ever-increasing environmental cost that excessive landfill waste creates.

There are many members of the community rolling up their sleeves and adapting to the new system.

I ask councillors acknowledge this, rather than trying to appease the vocal minority by advocating for the unsustainable continuation of upwards of 240L of mixed waste being rammed into landfill on a weekly basis.

H Lill
Kalamunda

EV cars to power houses
Dear Echo News,

Having listened to Opposition leader Peter Dutton and his spokesman Ted O’Brien try to defend their policy of building nuclear power to “lower the cost of power” have they considered the following?

The federal government is now allowing future electric vehicles to store excess power for later use; there are some four million households in this country with rooftop solar; with the decreasing cost of batteries, including reusing EV batteries to store power, as I have done over the past two years, in order to prevent the grid collapsing with too much power (nuclear power plants are not designed to ramp up and down easily).

Rather stay generating permanently households could be forced to stop generating or feeding to the grid.

Currently under almost all circumstances I am able to go off-grid at will.

If even 20 percent of the households decided to go off-grid, the costs of power would go up because of the reduction in the number of customers.

K Blake
Lesmurdie