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. Preference will be given to letters of 100 words or less.
- Read the story: Aussies’ latest car choices are driving down pollution
Tom Swann, Currimundi: The point you have missed, Russell, is that Australian emissions per capita are amongst the highest in the world. If we don’t cut our emissions, what incentive do places like China and India have to reduce theirs? Each of those countries, for example, create massive amounts of greenhouse gasses, but the emissions of individual persons are far less than those of individual Australians.
Climate change is a worldwide problem, all people have to make an effort to reduce their emissions and first and foremost in these efforts are countries where the per capita emissions are the highest. Australia is one of those.
It’s our children and their children who will suffer, to say nothing of the wildlife. Earth has suffered a massive extinction event in the past. Do you wish, by your selfishness, to be a contributor to the next one?
Robyn Deane, Nambour: Reducing carbon emissions and switching to electric or hybrid vehicles is crucial for meeting Net Zero targets and will have the added benefit of improving public health, even for those like Russell Parker who see no need to act on climate change. Air pollution from particulate matter(PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and tyre or brake wear can cause inflammation and is linked to heart, lung, diabetes and asthma health issues.
Australians’ ”piddling emissions” may not count to some, however it is obvious that action to reduce emissions is accepted by the majority of Australians. Our worldwide leadership in rooftop solar installations and now the outstandingly successful uptake of the Albanese government’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program is sending a message to the world that we all need to act against the existential threat of climate change and we are stepping up to play a part as responsible global citizens.
- Read the story: Another business owner speaks out on seawall works
Courtney Wilkie, Caloundra: Council not waiving foot traffic fees or reducing or waving rates during the restoration is woeful.
I was a regular every weekend at Moffat and we bought and ate brekky from the various cafes nearly every week. I can 100 per cent confirm we have not been to Moffat Beach or eaten since the works began. There is nothing to see while the whole front section is cordoned off.
How can we help these businesses survive? Council definitely should have waived some business fees.
I have zero businesses in the area. I have zero professional interest in this. It’s all personal because I love Moffat and this story is heartbreaking for a small business.
- Read the stories: Next breakthrough closed, second dredge arrives and New maps released for Sunshine Coast rail line
Danyelle Guyatt, Adjunct Research Fellow UniSC: I wanted to share some musings, inspired by the late Kathleen McArthur’s drawings and observations. The local community has largely accepted the next phase of destruction of the fragile habitat of the Wallum forest that remain, but I wonder what Kathleen would say,if she was with us now? Would she agree or would she stand up for nature before it is too late?
Kathleen McArthur spoke with clarity, humour, as well as emotion and rising irritation. She was seeking a connection to nature through her prose and pictures, to inspire others to appreciate and love our surroundings, as she did. She explained the origin of the name, Caloundra, comes from an indigenous word Kal’owen, meaning Beech tree place. There are no beech trees here anymore. She also documented some observations that are important today, of species and plants that no longer exist due to the folly of our ways.
She explained the perils of dredging. The rise of humans and their toys and pastimes, wanting nature to bend to their will, rather than to work within nature’s bounds. Let’s dredge the Pumicestone Passageway so the boats can move freely. This is man’s want, make it happen. What of the dugong and turtles that need the sea grass to survive? What of the oyster beds that would be destroyed? Human needs and wants on top of the pyramid, to our peril. There are no longer any dugongs, turtles, oyster beds or emus on Bribie Island. Humans and their pets have seen the end to all of that. We don’t cry or bemoan this loss, no one speaks of it. When I mention this in conversation people say that is depressing. And yes, it is, but it is the truth. This is the outcome of us bending nature to our ways.
Then there are the plant species. Where for art thou Beech trees, from which this town was named? And of the Christmas bells that dotted the Wallum coastline, a distant memory now, recorded in dusty books that are borrowed by the few in the local library. I mourn for this loss, and there is more to come.
What would Kathleen say now if she was still with us?
The canals that have replaced mangroves, the protectors of coastlines and life, removed to our collective detriment. We dredge and move sand about, building false walls, hoping that the next cyclone will be kept at bay. Pray that humans and their houses are not taken away, just as we took away the habitat of so many species and life forms over the decades.
And now nature is bursting at the seams. She is overheating, in the air and the sea. She is overflowing the banks, swallowing Bribie Island, approaching the manicured gardens and homes. We try hard to keep her at bay: people talk about their homes, they look worried, futile efforts with sandbags at the ready for the next storm event. People working hard night and day with machines and dredgers at much time and cost, trying to build up a barrier to preserve the mess that we have created.
Fixing without reflection, that is where the madness of the human really shows itself. We do not stand back and ask why the coast is eroding so quickly, especially in the pockets and areas where there are no mangroves to hold the coastline together. We do not weep for the Wallum forest and its beauty as we plan the next stage of destruction.
Progress, they say. The pathway of destruction earmarked for the environmental reserves stretching from Beerwah to Pelican Waters, Caloundra, Kawana and Birtinya – the small corridor of nature that remains, supporting so much life and biodiversity in our fragile ecosystem.
Make way for us humans as we now need a train, to bring people in, to move faster, quicker, to stretch far and beyond our existing bounds. The reserves have been earmarked for a possible train since 1999 aka the CAMCOS corridor, although that corridor line has changed and been shelved many times, this time is different, for the Olympic of 2032 approaches.
We humans love a deadline, especially one that involves sport. We would do anything for our beloved sport. As the deadline approaches, I wonder has the wildlife and wildflowers of the small patch of remaining Wallum forest received this deadly memo? Where will they live when the bulldozers come in, to clear the forest, to fill the wetlands with concrete and steel, to make more way for humans and their progress? When the honeyeaters no longer sing, only the craw from crows to be heard. When the native bees can no longer feed on the banksia and callistemon that grow no more, when the home of the black swans, purple moorehens, pacific ducks and the wallum frogs are destroyed.
Getting out of our cars and onto trains is a good thing, if only we would. But, alas, could we not extend this corridor of concrete and steel to sit alongside the existing road infrastructure, where nature has already been cleared and removed? Why remove more of her, to risk harming her ability to support life and for species to survive? Many people enjoy the pockets of nature and Wallum forest that remain, let them speak up for her now. Let them rise before the first shovel of dirt is moved. Let them.
This note has been inspired by the reading of material produced by Kathleen McArthur over the holiday period.
- Read the story: Coast hospitals brace for surge in emergency visits
Garry Reynolds, Peregian Springs: Amid all the funding disputes and finger-pointing between federal and state governments, it is indisputable that our hospital system is facing a crisis. The AMA says, “Chronic underfunding has locked public hospitals into a cycle of crisis, putting lives at risk.”
When it comes to public hospitals, everyone seems to be waiting – waiting for emergency care, waiting for elective surgery and waiting to be admitted to a ward. A decade ago, three-quarters of emergency patients in public hospitals were seen within the clinically recommended time. Now, only two-thirds are seen on time.
The same pattern occurs in elective surgery. Ten years ago, the median waiting time was around 35 days between a doctor deciding you needed surgery and the operation. Today, it’s 45 days. Frustratingly, the share of patients waiting more than a year for surgery has tripled. Around 10 per cent of patents waiting for an inpatient bed spend 19 or more hours in an ED – six hours longer than four years ago.
The aged care crisis is exacerbating the impact, with the number of patients 65 and over admitted to EDs ballooning from a third to more than half. Some public hospital patients waiting for aged care or disability support placements are forced to stay long after they’re medically ready for discharge, clogging an overloaded system.
When wards are full, new patients can’t be admitted. This creates a chain reaction with clogged EDs backing up, ambulances queuing outside – ramping – stressing staff struggling with a shrinking capacity to treat new arrivals. On top of clogging chaos, patients experiencing mental health meltdowns often have nowhere else to go apart from overcrowded hospital EDs.
Prioritising hospitals and care for seniors in a rapidly ageing population would surely rank as joint national priorities in 2026. What is needed are collaborative system-wide reforms between the federal and state governments, not a plethora of political finger-pointing and five-minutes-to-midnight Band-Aid patch-ups.
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. Preference will be given to letters of 100 words or less.
