Commenting on the story: New push to transform Lockleys site into four-storey housing

A small three bedroom, one bathroom house in Lockleys is a million dollars, and there’s plenty of houses selling for over two million.

There’s demand for housing close to the city and Nick Champion should be enabling the supply. Instead, people who would buy in Lockleys are forced to buy in outer suburbs, adding to the affordability crisis throughout Adelaide.

Refusing six storeys was silly, refusing four would be ridiculous, and would show the Labor Party supporting the exclusionary and privileged points raised by the locals opposed. – Patrick Sandeman

Commenting on the story: Ageing SA’s challenge to growing defence sector

I found this article deeply troubling in several ways. Primarily because the implication is that aging South Australians are responsible for the potential economic impacts related to the defence sector. By detailing the increase in healthcare resources over the recent past and upcoming demand growth, it is implied that it is a surprise.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The boomer generation has been front and centre for decades, and the implications of that have been written and talked about endlessly at state and federal level. What is true is the total lack of effective planning for the upcoming two decades. It is quite clear that denial is firmly entrenched in the corridors of power. And now the following generations are in control of those corridors they’re looking for ways to evade their responsibilities to the aged.

Suggesting that changing preferences will cause a shift in traditional aged care because of differing housing demands is problematic rather than an opportunity to bolster the economy is thoroughly repugnant. The aging population is not the problem, it’s the societal attitudes toward them that is.

I don’t believe the report is biased in this manner, but the reporting of it is. Between the lines is the implication that SA needs to focus on defence rather than look after the boomers, who have ‘suddenly’ become the antagonists in the story. Let’s not forget it’s the boomers who have kept this state funded for the past 55 years, something the following generations have yet have a huge impact upon. – Bob Sibson

Commenting on the story: ‘Dear Mrs Kennedy’: This is what grief sounds like

I was only 10 years old at the time and the assassination was being covered by radio.

I remember my whole family gathered around the radio waiting to hear news of JFK after he was taken to hospital. Our anxiety was great as was our fear. On hearing the announcement of his death, I remember the distress and grief of my entire family. It was indeed as if one of our close family members had been killed.

But it was more, we feared what the future would like without JFK who was not only the President of the USA but the leader of the whole western world.

To this day, I remember this radio coverage, and I carry within me the feelings of anxiety, supreme grief and fear of that moment undiluted and I am sure that there thousands if not millions who experienced the same phenomenon. I am glad we are able to finally address this terrible grief. – Helen Vassos

Commenting on the story: Aussies tipped to splurge billions on Black Friday sales 

For those retailers having a sale and for shoppers getting themselves a “bargain”, good for you – but “Black Friday” outside the US makes no sense.

Thanks to online shopping, whether a shop is physically open is irrelevant – meaning even in the US, Black Friday now makes no sense. Weekend-long, week-long and month-long Black Friday “sales events” make even less sense.

For anyone who doesn’t know, “Black Friday” is the day after America’s Thursday Thanksgiving holiday, which is relevant nowhere else in the world. Lots of Americans take a four-day weekend, so must be enticed by bargains to shop instead of having a day off.

Everywhere else, it’s just an opportunity to buy a bunch of stuff you don’t need for a bit less money, which in Australia will probably mean high discretionary spending figures for November and another interest rate rise when the November inflation data is released. Well done, everybody. – Tony Dawkins