No place for a youth ‘jail’
I want to convey my strong disagreement with the proposed building of a youth detention centre in the heart of Caloundra.
This will grossly effect the peace and liveability of our beautiful serene town.
Caloundra has a safe community and family feel, which will be ruined by this. It will also hugely impact our tourism industry.
KATRINA ASTILL, Caloundra
Painful wait for surgery on Coast
I hurt my knee in November, 2019, went to a physiotherapist and was told to get an MRI. Having done this, I was told I needed a knee replacement.
Not being in a health fund, I went through the public system and received a letter saying they wouldn’t even see me.
Months later I got to see a physio, who asked a load of questions and upgraded me to Category 2 and told me I would have to visit the Sunshine Coast University Hospital (SCUH).
So I went just to be given a heap of exercises to do which I already had from my own physio and was told to come back the following month.
At this point I was in so much pain I decided to join a health fund, which I couldn’t really afford.
Twelve months later in June, 2021, I had my knee replacement as a private patient.
I would have still been in pain and waiting for an operation in the public system.
Something is very wrong here. I know of people who have had knee surgery within weeks in small hospitals in NSW.
LAVINIA MASON THOMPSON
We need more affordable housing
The letter that was sent in from the 36-year-old single mother of two that “must be read” is not surprising.
She is just one of hundreds on the Coast and thousands around Australia.
We have a rental crisis and a lack of social housing because people are moving out of the expensive cities, and if you are a single mother or father, the situation is even worse.
Sadly, not much can be done in the short term, other than rental assistance and other welfare assistance but until more houses are built the problem will get worse.
Single parents are, of course, only on a single income which compounds the problem.
In the case of mothers, I’d like to know why the fathers of those children are not paying their way?
Some are forced to pay under the child support system through the tax office but a lot are escaping their responsibility.
The taxpayer can’t provide for all of them adequately.
I am not a landlord or a real estate agent but raised my own two children, fortunately within a stable marriage.
ALAN BROWNBILL, Maroochydore
Hotels not built for containing viruses
Our international borders are not closed, as stated by Dr Graham Pinn (Sunshine Coast News, 11 July). According to the ABS, in May alone there were 115,600 arrivals and 108,300 departures.
Not all were Australian citizens, some have made more than one trip in and out of the country. There have been around 30 leaks from hotel quarantine; none from the Howard Springs re-purposed miners’ camp in the Northern Territory.
Hotels are built for tourists, not for containing viruses.
The Morrison government is responsible for quarantine and vaccination. At the beginning of the pandemic, State leaders were astonished to learn the Prime Minister had no plans for quarantine. They stepped into the breach hoping it was a temporary measure.
To keep the virus out, especially as mutant strains appear, we must have purpose-built quarantine facilities.
Even without considering the health impacts, COVID breakouts and lockdowns costs the economy much more than building proper quarantine facilities.
At the present rate of vaccination, it will be some time mid-next year before enough of us are vaccinated to open our borders.
Even then, with new strains emerging, it is highly likely that quarantining will still be needed for a long time to come.
ROBYN DEANE, Bli Bli
NRL move poses ‘unacceptable risk’
The move of the NRL competition to Queensland, including the Sunshine Coast, is an unacceptable risk for the community.
We have seen multiple times that the NRL players just cannot abide by COVID rules.
What should we do to celebrate their arrival? We could always hold a house party and invite all our mates.
What guarantee are we going to get that the NSW NRL teams are going to respect Queensland residents and all of the good work our state has done to manage COVID-19?
What guarantee is our own State Government going to give us?
GRANT HUTSON
We need better hinterland connections
I was pleased the council gave the community an opportunity to ‘have a say’.
That was until I got to the end of the Mass Transit Survey only to find that they had already decided they were going ahead with duplicating the public transport system regardless of what the community wanted.
At the end of the survey, it was made clear the current efficient system of regular buses operating on the already established road transit network was not an option.
I had cause to use the local buses recently as my car was in the workshop.
What became clear very quickly was that the system is very good with a regular service of comfortable buses – but these buses are mostly empty. The most I saw on any bus trip was about six passengers.
Why then would we want to spend a fortune on another system to provide the same service?
If there is a need, it is for a more regular service between the hinterland towns and the coast, in particular the hospital.
So, service the hinterland more regularly, (electric Buses are available) look at carparks near the major bus stops and save a fortune of ratepayers’ money.
D.G. LIVERMORE
