Letters to the editor | Pigeons demand multi-pronged approach

(It could be) a combination of shooting with either a quality air rifle or the special .22 bird shot rounds and also some mass netting after pre-feeding at a selected location for a few days, as well as single scoop netting on a long stick at night under the main eaves of the awnings outside Coles and the awnings outside Service NSW and Target.

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Council should also make some bylaws outlawing the poor structural designs of some street awnings which must have been designed to attract pigeons to roost. Also, that owners need to repair the holes in many of the other Auburn Street awnings that allow pigeons access to the awning interiors.

Another favourite roosting spot is the building on the corner of Auburn and Goldsmith Street. Some cement rendering to change the brickwork so that the edges that they sit on to a bevel edge would help.

Most of all, the culling needs to be done on a regular, ongoing basis as the birds breed so well and they also seem to come in from other local areas.

Australia has been known as an honest, compassionate, fair-go country with the reputation for quality service, manufacture and construction. Something has gone terribly wrong.

There are a number of high-rise apartment blocks crumbling, others with flammable cladding and some built on contaminated land.

Due to this, residents have been evacuated, becoming homeless and losing their life savings through unresolved liability. Construction workers are being injured and dying at work.

There is a high level of wage theft, some of which amount to millions of dollars. Some retirement villages have multiple versions of unfair contracts and some aged-care facilities are understaffed with poor treatment of residents. The authorities are throwing millions of dollars into inquiries to try to understand what is going wrong.

There was a time when a worker, without being labelled and ostracised as a 'whistleblower' could go to his/her union and report incidences of unfairness, unsafe work conditions, poor construction, underpayment or malpractice in general.

The union would go onsite to investigate and if proven, the members would decide on action to force the employer into resolving the complaints well before the rot spread through the industry at large.

Over the years though, various governments have stopped unions going onto work sites and instead, have blessed industry with 'self regulation'. It is clear self regulation is not working.

Instead of crushing the unions, perhaps the government should work with them. Concentrate on weeding out the bad individuals in unions but let the unions and their members resume the role of industry watch-dog.

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