St George letters: 'Ridiculous' closure of Rockdale Post Office

How can they state there has been a 20 per cent drop in customer visits? I go there twice aweek the line of people waiting to be served is at least 10 - 12 deep before me and onoccasions the line is to the entrance.

Banksia and Brighton Post Offices are small how are they going to cope with the influx ofcustomers. The queue will not only be out the door but up the street.

Linda Burney needs to step up and halt this ridiculous closure immediately!!!

News is that Rockdale Post Office staff have been advised that it will close the Princes Highway Post Office and there are no plans to relocate to a new address. Customers walk to this location as there is high density housing in the vicinity ,close by to public transport and many seniors use cash to pay their bills over the counter.

Further plans to increase housing density close to transport do not align with the closure a local post office service.

Ron Hoenig, Minister for Local Government, hated council mergers and amalgamations.

If the Bayside Council de-amalgamation into Botany Bay and Rockdale Councils costs $30 million to $50 million (Leader, May 29) then how much would a Georges River de-amalgation cost?

The home page of Georges River Council prominently displays in every Leader edition in June Pride Month a range of Pride activities. We have no objection whatsoever to the LGBTQI community, but we certainly object to Rainbow Storytime for young, impressionable minds.

I wrote to the Mayor of Georges River Council in early June and received a response from David Tuxford, the General Manager and we quote: "The Rainbow Storytimes at Georges River Libraries are consistent with the goals of Council's Social Justice Charter. Council is committed to creating an environment where all members of the Georges River community feel safe, secure, and supported. Our story time sessions are designed to be inclusive and welcoming for everyone in our diverse community and they often reflect days of cultural significance across the year, including Pride Month. We understand that parents and caregivers may wish to regulate their children's access to library programs, based on age appropriateness, family values or beliefs, and we trust them to do so."

Whilst Georges River Council may believe that the goals of the Council's Social Justice Charter need to be applied, we think these Rainbow Storytimes for young children goes way beyond what any Social Justice Charter should seek to enact.

Neither Bayside or Sutherland Councils have any such Rainbow Storytime and it is appalling that Georges River Council think that this accords with the wishes of their ratepayers. We would ask exactly how many Georges River households would be interested in taking their young child to such an event? Would the grandparents (parents) of these children want to take their grandchildren along, if they actually knew what was behind the Rainbow Storytimes?"

I happened to be in Oatley on Tuesday 4 June when the first of these Storytimes was being held. I sat next to a grandmother and quietly asked her if she knew about the Rainbow Storytime. She said she did not. In fact, there appeared to be all grandparents there. The librarian had a sheet that she referred to whilst conducting the Storytime and the book she was reading to the children was about "Love" - no harm in that. She then got up and handed each child a brightly, coloured scarf and the children all stood and followed her in using the scarf and waving it in the air and exclaiming 'love'. I only stayed for a short while and it was evident that the children and their grandparents/carers had absolutely NO IDEA that this 'love' theme had anything to do with Pride Month. I stood outside for a while and listened to the lady leading the children in a 'song' with words to the effect "Mum loves Dad"; "Grandma loves Grandpa"; Dad loves Dad etc. The children sang "We love Mum, I love Dad" etc etc. The whole thing was quite banal and any attempt to recognise Pride Month was totally absent. Our point, as stated to GRC, is that this whole exercise fell completely flat and we asked 'why is GRC so hell-bent on 'barking up this tree?'.

Young children, who, fortunately, had no idea what was going on at Oatley on 4 June and saw it merely as a Storytime. So why can't GRC abandon this idiocy?