Do you have an opinion to share? Submit a Letter to the Editor at Sunshine Coast News via news@sunshinecoastnews.com.au. You must include your name and suburb.
- Read the story: ‘Sheer relief’: community group saved from looming closure
Yet again the incompetent state government and Department of Transport and Main Roads are forced to admit they got it wrong.
To evict the Nambour Men’s Shed organisation was always a nonsense. The rail expansion, if it ever happens, is way more than five years away and Minister for Transport and Main Roads Mark Bailey and State Member for Nicklin Rob Skelton both know that.
But that didn’t stop them grandstanding their backflip as a ‘win’!
What nonsense to pretend that site was needed now. It is the same with dozens of other resumptions by TMR for this rail work that will sit unused for years before anything is started. In an area with housing shortages and skyrocketing rents, even one unoccupied TMR resumed home is a disgrace.
Des George, Coolum Beach
- Read the story: Great divide: MP and developer at odds over roadworks
It’s great news to see the local council and a federal MP clashing. The land opposite Andrew Wallace’s office is and has been vacant for years – I believe owned by a hospital, but no future plans.
Why doesn’t either party buy the few metres needed for parking and a footpath? At this stage then no one is impacted.
I’d suggest as the road is controlled by Sunshine Coast Council it can legally do this. Mr Wallace should have checked this with local council before he moved in.
Mr Wallace knew nothing about our house acquisition by TMR to create dual roads and also enable his heavy rail to possibly progress in the same corridor. At least they’re not kicking him out of his castle like we are by TMR, it’s only an inconvenience to him.
Neil Herbert, Parrearra
- Road dangers
Tragic long weekends with multiple car crashes seem to be occurring more frequently. Yes, we are getting bigger and busier on the Sunshine Coast, but people are becoming less patient and the result is sometimes catastrophic.
Tailgating is a huge problem and, I believe, one of the main contributors to most of the multi-car accidents nearly every day. When there is a five-car pile-up, there are at least four of those cars travelling too close. This isn’t an accident, this is negligence.
What is being done? Do you ever see police cars on the road? Honestly, I know they have a huge job and I wouldn’t dare be a police officer. But drive around any other country in the world and you see a police vehicle at least every half hour when driving, if not more often. I drive 45 minutes every day and am lucky to see one per week.
There is no deterrent, there is no police presence on our roads. If one person is fined for tailgating, then they will tell their mates and people will start to slow down. I believe there needs to be a blitz on tailgaters and fines or nothing will change.
Inability to merge is another area where serious accidents occur. People are constantly trying to rush in and get that one car ahead – seriously? I have seen so many near misses while trying to merge, all because people are racing each other to be first. You are not going to get anywhere quicker by being six metres ahead, rather than letting that car in.
Our roads are getting scarier every day and people need to slow down and relax. Why is everyone in such a hurry? Some people aren’t even making it home, or suffering life-altering injuries.
What can we do?
Amy (surname withheld), Landsborough
- Read the story: Your say: retirement facility, interchange plans and more
I am surprised the Reverend Geddes does not wish celebrities or those with status, at least with a section of the community, to voice opinions on the Voice, when his own title carries a weight, at least in some quarters.
Lead pollution was reportedly 12 times the safe level at the water source at Yarrabah, an Indigenous settlement in Queensland. This dangerous situation has not had the shocked attention that the dire plight of kindy and school children may have had if it had existed elsewhere.
Indigenous children are five times more likely to contract an ear infection, severely affecting ability to learn. Life expectancy is nine years less; the chance of diabetes 10 times higher; chances of taking their own life double. Rheumatic heart disease is prevalent in Indigenous communities, but eliminated in the broader population.
Past efforts to address the stark contrast between life and health expectations with the wider community have not been remarkably successful.
With the impact on the health of many First Nations people, obviously a better way to address the inequity is necessary.
Yes to a Voice, communicating on real needs and ways to address them, advising from the remnant 4 per cent of population, who account for most of the unjust disadvantage in Australia.
S. Spain, Oxenford
- Read the story: Cash ‘withdrawals’: the trouble with everyday payments
I think it will be a very costly and sad thing if cash goes. Every transaction you use your card on, no matter how big or small, has some sort of fee on it via the bank or the service provider, so it will effect the poor immensely.
Cash is also a good saving tool as you see your money dwindling away and know when to cease buying. It is also a good training tool to teach children how to use their money, and how can anyone forget getting their first lot of money in a birthday card and the excitement they felt?
I could go on and on but I think societies, banks and the rich have made up their mind and how we feel does not matter.
But my question is why should we support an industry that allows so many people to lose their life savings through scams? All these scams are processed at some point via a bank and the accounts are set up through these banks without being picked up as a fraudulent account.
It has already started in country areas, where big banks are closing down branches, and will be even more widespread if they get their way with a cashless society. This will leave people only being able to access banks through the phone, which is how all these scams work, so how will anyone be able to protect themselves or know what is true and what is not? How about the banks work on providing a secure service and stop fraudulent accounts being opened and help their customers?
Name withheld
This is what the banks want because every time you use your card the retailer pays. They say that cash costs them millions of dollars to run but all they want to do is make more profit.
Also, who pays the cost, with all the people that will lose their job like the mint, security guards, cash-counting machine manufacturers, cash-dispensing manufacturers and so on.
Also, it not good for the rural community selling produce and plants at the roadside.
This mustn’t happen just yet and the banks must deliver some of the cost savings to its customers.
Vaughan Lane, Eugowra, NSW
I’ll use cash as long as I possibly can. At some businesses you’re charged per transaction, and banks charge for using your card.
I don’t want anyone to know what I spend my money on. What I spend my money on is my business, no one else’s. Cash is legal tender and if a shop refuses my cash I’ll go elsewhere.
Diane Derby, Marcoola
- Pets and aged care
There’s a proposal to allow our elderly to take a beloved pet into aged care homes. Have you ever seen the heartbreak of giving up your beloved pet companion? People are forced to do this when having to enter aged care facilities. The person suffers loss and pain, and the animal is a sentient being that also suffers loss and separation from the only one they love who has cared for them.
In today’s age technology has a big impact on helping the elderly to keep their pets in a clean environment by introducing self-cleaning feeders and litter boxes.
The government should provide funds for participating nursing homes and aged care facilities to hire a custodian to be full-time to assist the elderly in keeping their pets.
Lorraine Amede, Newport
Do you have an opinion to share? Submit a Letter to the Editor at Sunshine Coast News via news@sunshinecoastnews.com.au. You must include your name and suburb.
