The law for 3D printed firearms is tough, according to the Police Minister, with really tough penalties up to 15 years in jail and up to a $75,000 fine (‘Port Lincoln man charged over 3D printed firearm’, Port Lincoln Times, 30 October).
Labor has been the predominant state government since the 1970s and its record of being tough on crime has been pathetic – matched equally by the courts.
Bail, home detention and often a get out of jail free card has been the result of their tough on crime together with the judiciary.
Words are not being matched by action.
Peter Lock, Port Lincoln
Stick desalination plant where it is needed
Port Lincoln consumes about 2.5 gigalitres of mains water per year on average.
The Draft Water Allocation Plan recently released by the Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board states that 3.5 gigalitres per year can be sustainably pumped from the Uley South basin to and beyond the Northside Tanks at Port Lincoln.
It is obvious therefore that there is no need for a desalination plant to be built in or anywhere near the city to supply water to Port Lincoln.
There is an urgent need for an Eyre Peninsula Desalination Plant to supply consumers in central and northern Eyre Peninsula.
It should feed into the water grid at the Polda to Lock trunk main.
The plant should be located on the Tungketta Coast south east of Elliston, with about 7 kilometres of pipeline to an elevated storage tank on one of the nearby Tungketta hills.
The pipes and much of the equipment already ordered could be suitable for installation at Tungketta instead of at Billy Lights Point, Port Lincoln.
It is very late but not too late to cease construction at Billy Lights Point and not bury 7km of pipeline under roads between that site and tanks on Northside Hill.
Let’s get this right at last!
John Scott, Louth Bay
Overpaid
Amid our ongoing cost of living crisis, the largesse of our SA Government continues (‘H-Bomb as plant worker receives $830k as payout’, The Advertiser, 29 October).
As a result of the hydrogen project being abandoned, this extremely generous termination payment included 10 months’ salary, superannuation contributions and leave entitlements.
To manage the now-defunct Office of Hydrogen Power SA, Mr Sam Crafter was paid nearly $600,000, close to double what our Premier currently earns, an amount not commensurate with Mr Malinauskas’ level of responsibility in discharging his statewide duties.
Mr Crafter has now been appointed to lead the Whyalla Steelworks Industrial Transformation, with his salary and entitlements supposedly maintained at a comparable level to his previous one.
Salaries, entitlements and perks of CEOs of government agencies and heads of departments, both local and state, need to be reined in and show greater respect and accountability for taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars used to fund them.
Government expenditure should benefit our state, not just the pay packets of a few.
Ian Macgowan, Ceduna
