I was saddened and disturbed to witness the Mayor of Maitland make a speech. There was very little OK about what he had to say and an awful lot wrong.

From his opening acknowledgment of the Mindaribba People (should be Wonnarua People) to saying he didn't like any form of violence including apprehended violence and domestic violence, to disclosing the whereabouts of our refuge, including naming the street and its close proximity to a well-known landmark, the Mayor showed an ignorance and insensitivity to all.

But the worst thing; he completely failed to acknowledge the presence of family members of two recently murdered Maitland women.

His glib reference to Santa, while waiting for the arrival of the Member for Maitland, underscores his complete insensitivity to the solemn nature of this event.  

His lack of preparation shows once again how little he really knows or cares about domestic violence in this LGA.

With leadership like this, no wonder the Maitland LGA is above the state’s average for domestic violence rates.

We need a serious change of culture within our local council if we are ever to make headway on this scourge which impacts our entire community.

My husband and I purchased our property on Merchants Road, Martins Creek, almost 14 years ago with our then four young children.

He was transferred to Newcastle from western Sydney with his job and has since been retrenched from his position after 17 years. He has just gotten another job back in western Sydney (due to no work in Newcastle). As all our children have grown and now have their own lives, we wish to sell our property.

When we first moved here we were told by neighbours and the explosions were only once to twice a week. Now they explode at the quarry every day and my whole house shakes. We have damage to our house which has been repaired over and over again, and we are afraid with the quarry and the explosions we will not get the money that we would like for our property.

I have written complaints and asked for a monitor to see how bad the explosions and noise are but nothing.

With the expansions I am afraid, with the continued explosions, my house will be damaged more.

I attended the Dungog Carols by Candlelight last Wednesday evening with high expectations and left very disappointed. The problem was not with the organisation and certainly not with the quality of  the bits of the music I could hear. The problem was that the event was attended by two completely different audiences.

There were lots of young children who were greatly enjoying the freedom of noisily running round with their friends, waving their lights and waiting for the arrival of the Fire Brigade Santa Claus and  who were, I think, completely oblivious of the real significance of the event.

The second and very different group were those who wanted to enjoy carols and the excellent choir and singers. This presented the organisers with an impossible task.

I suggest the solution is to hold two different events – one for those children who want to run around shouting and singing “Jingle Bells” and the other to involve quality singers with a repertoire of genuine Christmas carols.

These two events could be held at separate times or consecutively on the same evening.