I would like to respond to Mick Shea (GP, Oct 18) where he cited my letter and questioned my view on the legality of "special meetings" being held on the Marulan cemetery site. To wit: "comments that it would be illegal to hold ‘special events’ at a cemetery". I would like to point out that this is not my opinion, but a fact of law under the codes that pertain to cemetery usage as they stand in NSW and Goulburn Mulwaree shire. This is the case being pursued by opponents of the cemetery: that it is an illegal development advocating unlawful usage. The signaled desire to hold special meetings there runs contrary to any allowable usage.

I understand the emotive nature of this issue, but ideological persuasion does not trump law and codes. Those would have to be changed at NSW Government level. This has not happened, so the proposed usage is illegal. I would also point readers to an article published in the Goulburn Post (Nov 14, 2013), ‘Muslim cemetery won't be a mosque: planner’. The lead paragraph of that article states: "The proponents of a Muslim cemetery at Marulan have guaranteed the facility would not be used for larger events or ceremonies". Further on: "The Al Mabarrat Benevolent Society has its own mosque and community centre in Kingsgrove for all main religious services and events. The letter from Smyth Planning states the cemetery facilities will only be used for funerals."

That is unequivocal; that is black and white; that is the letter of the law, as Smyth Planning well knew. This is why they complied at first: it is the only permissible use. To now see how far Smyth Planning have moved from that permissible use is to understand how far the law is being bent to accommodate what many see as development by stealth. If the word of the proponents, given to the community via the Post, is not to be trusted, what can be?

In reply to Jarvis Hayman (GP, Nov 4), it would appear that unless you are a Liberal Party supporter, you are not entitled to have an opinion or a voice. If you had attended the Politics in the Pub, Mr Hayman, you would have heard a raucous and militant HSU nurse, as you have described them, suggesting that Bourke Street Health Service premises would make an excellent private health hospital once the promised upgrade of Goulburn Base Hospital is complete.

It also seems to be a great worry … that Goulburn is overrun with Labor Party supporters. You cannot have it both ways, Mr Hayman. On one hand you say you worked at the Base for 25 years with excellent staff. Now that staff seems out of favour because they are raucous militant union members who should be seen but not heard.

As far as your suggestion that visiting specialists have no commitment to the people of Goulburn, I find that offensive to specialists who have come to Goulburn for years and I can certainly say my specialists … are committed to their patients.

Mr Hayman goes on to criticise the Goulburn Post and says, due to staff cuts, those now doing the reporting lack intellectual rigour to be independent. The Post has been more than fair in its reporting of the matter at hand and … the reporting was in the interests of Goulburn.

You can blame who you wish, Mr Hayman, but it was ‘people power’ that forced the bureaucracy to do an about-turn. You would be most welcome to attend any future forums … You just might find you won’t be inundated by Labor people and raucous and militant people or unintelligent citizens. You would also learn that everybody is not against a private hospital. People are fed up … and entitled to stand up.

The day politics is taken out of our health system, the better. Whenever there is a change of government, the first services they stuff up are health, education and transport.