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 for accountability, credibility and transparency.
- Read the story: Fate of ‘Fluffy’ decided after parks service receives complaints
Let it live safely, happily and in peace, as we may be able benefit from this. We can learn so much from all species that are compliant and cooperative. If they are not fearful nor tentative of us, it clearly depicts the trust they have in us. We are demonstrating our care for them and they are positively responding.
Lindsay Terrens, Alexandra Headland
How can an emu be dangerous? It has precisely nil teeth. The pretty beak is actually soft to semi soft, hence can’t hurt you. Don’t be spooked by its appearance as it would be you that spooks the horse – be confident. If in doubt, you could arm yourself with a butterfly catcher net for personal protection. We all live together on this beautiful continent, no need to kill one another.
Erich Stark, Maroochydore
- Read the story: Caravan sellers on notice over dodgy pricing
When caravans are made they weigh them bare for tare weight. No batteries, no gas bottles, nothing. That tare weight goes on the compliance plate. Then the new owner puts more batteries on, more gas, water tanks, solar panels and everything else. It’s then overweight, and some people are towing vans with cars.
Colin Deer, Pinaroo, South Australia (full-time traveller for 10 years)
It’s great to hear that something is finally being done about dodgy van dealers.
Daryl Morgan, Sydney, NSW
- Read the story: Police officer in bid to reclaim seat at state election
Will voters buy the idea that the LNP is the go-to party “to make housing accessible and affordable” and “improve access to health services”? Their candidate for Nicklin at next year’s state election is hoping so – but he was the complacent sitting member who lost it for them last time, to a then-virtually unknown Rob Skelton, who has since established a reputation for enthusiasm and approachability.
Peter Baulch, North Arm
- Read the story: Incidents lead to calls for shift in our e-scooter focus
E-scooter and e-bike riders in the Kawana Island area present a real danger to walkers on our footpaths. Recently we have had teenage boys pass us riding at about 40km/h on the section of path between the bridge over the Mooloolah River at Kawana Way and the dog park on Grand Parade. I called out for them to slow down as they barrelled towards us, only for one of them to call out foul obscenities as they went past.
Bad language is one thing but the real danger they present to others and themselves (usually they’re not wearing helmets) is going unchecked. We have never seen any police presence on foot or bicycle anywhere in Kawana. There are no cameras, there is apparently no accountability. We have seen teens and pre-teens doing burnouts on the footpath around Brightwater Lake, oblivious to the danger they pose to other footpath users, which include young children and parents with prams.
Today, we were driving at Glenview and a teenager was riding his e-scooter on the adjacent footpath at speeds of well over 60km/h, faster than we were driving. I imagine a lot of the more elderly community has already stopped using some of these paths for genuine fear of what could happen. If the government knew they could not police the rules around e-scooters and e-bikes, they should not have permitted them to be sold.
Ann Knight, Parrearra
- Read the story: Local MP welcomes outcome on Voice referendum
I would like to submit a response to the missive by Christine Bennett from Woombye in last edition’s opinion, regarding the Voice.
The fact that Indigenous Australians comprise only 3 per cent of the Australian population does not mean the remaining 97 per cent of Australia is responsible for the adverse outcomes they may suffer. In fact, there are a plethora of programs and funding bodies available to Indigenous Australians above and beyond those available to non-Indigenous Australians, to provide them with the opportunities to improve their lot in life. The fact that health and socio-economic disparities continue to exist between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians is not a failure to provide, but a combination of disinterest in this provision as well as intergenerational acceptance of the status quo.
There have been community-led efforts for many years, involving most of the Indigenous communities across this vast land, funded by both state and federal governments, which have barely benefitted even a small minority of our fellow Indigenous people. This is despite them heavily involving the local Indigenous communities and their elders in their development and implementation. The Voice was never going to make a meaningful difference in the outcome of those programs. In every Indigenous community that I have worked in, not one was subject to “unwelcome policies” as was claimed. Rather, many of the community-based decisions that I have seen actually deepened the social ills of those communities.
With freedoms come personal responsibility, and social justice actually has to take a back seat to the consequences of those freedoms, because it proffers choice over equality. This is not to say we shouldn’t work towards better health and well-being for our Indigenous brethren, but that has to be desired by the recipients first and foremost, otherwise all efforts are wastefully squandered. Our perspective ought to be realistically shifted from seeking equality of outcome towards providing equality of opportunity for all Australians regardless of their heritage.
Ashraf Saleh, Yaroomba
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 for accountability, credibility and transparency.
