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: ‘We will arrest them’: police warn against TAFE trespassing
The TAFE is a public site (belonging to the people) and it’s obvious that the managers (elected and appointed public servants) have abandoned the premises and land. I’m sure under common law you all have the right to make safe the public area/land.
Arresting, charging and processing people with trespass, for the intent to make safe and clean an area of public space, is not a crime.
Kym Jerome
- Read the story: A ‘win for domestic aviation’ but a bumpy ride for airline
I noticed your enthusiasm in your article about Bonza. There has recently been a current affairs program where thousands of travellers had their holiday ruined by Bonza. We are in our 80s and were supposed to travel to Melbourne to be with the family for what may be the last Christmas we have. Bonza saw fit to cancel the flight to Melbourne and also cancel the return flight.
We have no phone and no email address so we lost our money and perhaps our last chance to see the family in Melbourne. Bonza should be banned completely.
Ole Jensen, Brisbane
I flew from the Gold Coast to Rockhampton, which was okay. But on September 8 I booked a return flight from Rockhampton to the Gold Coast for December 4, which was cancelled just a few days before the flight. With the cancellation they said I would be refunded within two weeks. I am still waiting for the refund and find it impossible to get in touch with them.
I realise that they are having teething problems but I am not happy about the refund and they need to smarten up a bit.
Alan Barrett, Elanora
I flew from the Gold Coast to Melbourne with Bonza in December. We went down to attend a friend’s wedding over the weekend. I would simply like to point out that our experience with Bonza had some positives (great price for such a small trip, great snacks during the flight for a good price, lots of space between the seats and wonderful brand new airplanes), but the negatives definitely ruined everything for us.
First of all, our first flight got delayed, which is fine of course. No problem there. We tried to contact them to see if we could fly earlier rather than later, but with no response at all for the three days I tried to contact them before our flight. All good. These things happen and we understand it was okay.
We went on and boarded our flight anyway, got very excited about all the positives I listed before. But as we landed, we received a text stating that our return flight was cancelled because they could not meet “staff requirements”. They said they would refund us our return flight. We tried to contact them to see if we would get a compensation, since it was very last minute and we were already there, but still to this day we haven’t heard anything back. I once left my live chat window open for a whole morning while working to see if someone would connect and talk to me, to no avail. We also sent a lengthy email, with no reply to this day, in which we explained how we ended up having to book a last-minute return flight that cost over three times the price of our first one that got cancelled, and that also came with extra costs for the extension of our car parking space in the Gold Coast.
What was infuriating was the level of care and respect we received from the airline, which was completely nonexistent. We tried to contact them many times and never got a response. Still, no one has got back to me from the support team. There has been no sign of any customer support in the last month since our trip. And for all the trouble and extra costs this brought us, it clearly showed us how unprepared and unorganised the airline was, and how it’s definitely not worth the risk.
Rachel Tremblay, Suffolk Park, NSW
- Read the story: New rules for dog owners at popular point
I’ve owned dogs all my life and consider myself a dog lover. I totally agree with council’s new dog rules relating to off and on-lead restrictions.
A few weeks ago, following the implementation of the new rules, I was jumped and slobbered on by no less than four dogs on my morning walk, and almost knocked over by another cyclist with a dog on a lead.
A recent trip to Point Lookout (North Stradbroke Island) revealed dog laws much more strict than those implemented by Sunshine Coast Council, and dog owners on the Coast I feel are to be grateful the new laws weren’t more restrictive.
Sunshine Coast councillors did get it right.
Matt, Buddina
- Read the story: Mayor seeks ‘genuine commitment’ to fund growing population
How refreshing to see a local mayor calling on the state government to “do much more to improve public transport and infrastructure” before accepting large population growth.
Clare Stewart is exactly right. The state government must commit to better roads, rail and buses at the very minimum before forcing more than 150,000 extra people onto the Sunshine Coast. Noosa and the Sunshine Coast will need to present a united, strong voice moving forward. It’s our best chance at getting the infrastructure we so desperately need and rightly deserve.
If I am elected mayor of the Sunshine Coast, I will work with the Noosa Council to deliver the infrastructure we need for the region.
Rosanna Natoli
- Read the story: Media personality announces run for mayor
I have a concern with Joe Natoli and Rosanna Natoli both running in this year’s council elections.
There seems to me to be a real perceived conflict of interest here. I’m not sure if the public realise that if they were both successful there could be a situation (under Section 254E of the Local Government Regulation 2012) where if voting on a matter was equal, they would essentially have three votes (with the mayor having a deciding vote).
I urge ratepayers to consider this when voting.
Bob Clements, Buddina
- Read the story: Well-known community advocate to run for mayor
It was with a profound sense of relief to read of Ashley Robinson’s nomination for mayor of the Sunshine Coast.
The nominations to date have been truly disappointing and have represented vested interests and personal ambition above all else. It will be nice to have a real son of the Coast in charge. ‘Tugboat’ has been a champion of the Coast and its people for as long as I can remember. His selfless dedication to charity and helping the less fortunate has been inspiring and he represents all that we can wish for in mayor.
He will bring enormous local commercial, managerial and community experience, along with a very likeable and kind, collegiate persona. I wish him every success and encourage the people of the Sunshine Coast to back him for the future of our region.
Tony Millroy, Mapleton
I am pleased to see Ashley throwing his hat in the ring for mayor.
Based on what I can perceive of him to date he appears to be down to earth and from the common sense brigade. A nice change from many woke socialists who seem to be keen to be in positions of power at all levels of government these days. I do not see any mention of a political party involved either, which is as it should be.
In reality, I will be surprised if he makes it in to office as it seems many in our society feel you need a legal degree to be in politics. Not sure why that is deemed a good yardstick given the state of the country achieved at all levels with so many lawyers in politics already.
I hope he makes it.
Eon Radley, Buderim
- Read the story: ‘I’m ready’: councillor launches campaign for mayor
It is pleasing to see a few worthy candidates for the mayor’s job, including ‘Tugboat’, as a strong field will make it difficult, if not impossible, for the current councillor for Division 8 to win the election, resulting in his departure from the Sunshine Coast Council.
As my councillor for two terms, I have found him to add no value to my complaints and inquiries to council on various matters. When I send him an email about an issue, he simply forwards it to council staff, without support or worthwhile comment, and fails to follow up any such matter, so I now deal directly with council staff.
Our next Division 8 councillor can only be an improvement.
Dr Kevin T. Farrell, Maroochydore
- Read the story: Changes to council awards draw ire of MP
In response to Robyn Dean’s missive on being “woke”, I would like to point out that our modern-day society has clearly swung the pendulum far too much towards being overly sensitive about everything and now barely anything can be said or done without somebody feeling offended by it.
Australia Day is a good example of this. We don’t just decide to change history because a segment of society doesn’t like it or doesn’t want to remember it that way. Christmas Day would easily be included as an “offensive” holiday to a good portion of society. Do we go ahead and abolish that too? No. The wokeness has indeed gone too far.
We don’t need society to be any more woke. We need it to uphold a relatively unified culture that makes us unique and unified, rather than fragmented. Otherwise we as a society would perish from a loss of identity and valour.
Ashraf Saleh, Yaroomba
- Read the story: Calls for more detail on bus rapid transit project
Have the council and state government considered EV buses built by Build Your Dreams (BYD)? They come in different lengths all electric buses. They could be made or assembled in Western Sydney. They have been sold in Europe and operating. The busway could be under bitumen electric and charging the batteries while driving the bus.
Greg Hayden, Logan
- Read the story: Mayoral candidate calls for community voice to council
Radical thinking isn’t always a bad thing. On the contrary, it has led to many progressive actions which we have benefited from, hence the reason for this opinion regarding our council. In more cases than not I have found that local government councillors, including the mayor of the day, will at times speak ‘with fork tongue using pollie babble’. This is more prevalent just months out from a local body election. We have been ‘proudly’ informed by the Sunshine Coast Council that it now has a billion-dollar budget, which of course goes without saying is climbing every day as new properties are filled by new ratepayers, both residential and business, coming to live and work on the Sunshine Coast, even before any inevitable rate rises. I personally believe that the council budget is certainly not a shoestring budget by any stretch of the imagination.
Maybe the time has come for a fully independent assessor, with no council, state and/or federal ties, to be employed by the council to do a six-monthly mayoral and councillor performance review. These reviews need to be collated over the four-year tenure of the mayor and councillors and they should be accessible free of charge to any ratepayer through the council website. The ability to review these performance reviews, especially prior to a local body election, would become a very valuable tool for ratepayers – allowing us to make an informed decision as to the overall effectiveness or otherwise of the work of the mayor and councillors. We need to be able to gauge if in fact our mayor and councillors are actually giving us value for money, particularly when these elected officials are being significantly remunerated by the ratepayers of the Sunshine Coast. The mayor and councillors are currently receiving on average $172,545 per year (including salary, super and allowances). That is $1.9 million per year. This amount will be increased by up to 3 per cent on July 1 under the Local Government Remuneration and Discipline Tribunal Act 2013.
According to the Local Government Remuneration and Discipline Tribunal, the SCC will decide, through a council resolution, as to what the salary percentage increase will be (3 per cent being the maximum increase allowed for the mayor and councillors from July 1). I personally have three issues regarding the salary resolution: whatever the salary increases, how do we ratepayers know that we are getting true value for our money from the mayor and councillors? Why is council making this resolution itself, when remuneration is supposed to be an independent process? Will the salary increase resolution council meeting be an open or closed-door affair, well notified in terms of date and time, trusting that the maximum 3 per cent salary increase decision has not already quietly been made?
I would imagine that a mayor and councillors would be unlikely to want to see regular public performance reviews introduced as this may not suit their personal or local government political ‘agendas’ since they would need to show how they have worked for the good of all Sunshine Coast ratepayers. However, as the lack of true public transparency prevails within the SCC the mayor and councillors do need to be far more accountable to the ratepayers and not just at an election time but throughout their entire council tenure. A publicly sighted regular performance review would go some way to holding our council representatives and mayor entirely accountable to the ratepayers of the Sunshine Coast during their four years of council tenure.
Phillip Adamson, Maroochydore
- Read the story: ‘Blatant, malicious’ tree warning prompts warning
I have lived at Marcoola for 14 years. When I first moved here there were ‘keep off the dunes signs’ around all the beach entrances. Not many people would venture into the dune area and the dune grass flourished. This meant during bad weather the dunes held together well. This is a turtle nesting area and over the years I have taken note of various nesting locations.
The signs have long gone and the new version is a tiny metal sign saying ‘turtle friendly area’ which I guarantee very few people notice. Nowadays, the dune area is like a public walkway, with people even flattening out areas for picnics and viewing areas. The dune grass dies off easily and, as a result, erosion is exacerbated (wind, rain, high tides).
The same areas that used to be nesting sites have gone. No one seems to be concerned?
Craig Smith, Marcoola
- Read the story: Saga over busy tourist car park continues
What about a multi-level car park at the existing small car park next to the park at the roundabout, just near Noosa Main Beach? Then it is a short walk to the beach and people don’t have to drive up and down congested Hastings Street looking for a park.
That park also holds a lot of sporting events and would benefit from extra carparking adjacent to it.
I realise a lot of people don’t want high-rise but it would help with traffic congestion.
Pip Grayburn, Melbourne
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.
