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: Public urged to weigh in on busy Coast intersection
Andrew Moran, Battery Hill: The call for public feedback on the Caloundra Road–Nicklin Way intersection sounds constructive but residents have seen this pattern many times before. Announcements arrive, consultations open and yet the essential details – scope, costing, timelines and firm commitments – remain missing.
In the meantime, traffic volumes through this corridor have almost doubled and the surrounding population is planned to double again. An isolated intersection redesign cannot resolve pressures of that scale. Without a broader transport plan, this risks becoming another example of activity being presented as achievement.
The article notes that the project is “not expected to have a significant environmental impact”, with mitigation to occur elsewhere. Many locals will recognise that as a familiar promise and one that too often gets lost as time passes.
If the government wants meaningful engagement, the community needs more than another round of consultation. It needs clarity about what will be built, how it will be funded, when it will be delivered and how it fits into a long‑term plan for a region experiencing rapid growth. People are looking to see real progress, not more noise.
Ciaran Watt: Can you go over the top of it?
Jon Bryant: Google induced traffic demand to confirm the fixes will actually fix the congestion and are not the cause of the it! We have been trying to bust congestion for 50 years with more roads and fixes yet have never looked back and wondered why congestion is worse.
Scott Cuthbert: Just put a toll on the highway for tourists entering the Sunshine Coast. That will stop the traffic.
Karen Aucott Moran: Open for consultation? The local MP promised to fix Caloundra Road in the first six months of her term at the Caloundra Residents Association candidates forum and we’re still just talking about it.
Graham Robertson: Too many approvals for new developments and house sites… Infrastructure has not kept up… How about a freeze on new developments and a population cap to avoid destroying the Coast as we know it?
- Read the story: Nostalgic site proposed for three-lot subdivision
Mimi Heap: The proposed development will only exacerbate the existing traffic issues on Burnett Street, particularly at the intersection with Townsend Road during peak morning hours.
- Read the story: Teens arrested after disturbance in beachside suburb
Gloria Berwick: What happened to adult crime, adult time? Yeh right, should ask the judges and courts.
- Read the story: New Coles supermarket approved after court appeal
Gary Talbott, Palmwoods: I’m writing regarding the roundabout design at the entry to Coles. My block is number 5 Palmwoods-Montville Road. The entrance serves numbers: 5, 7 and 31. The preliminary layout approved shows a possible design problem at my exit. I would not be able to turn right to Palmwoods. Realignment of the existing driveway could be a solution! Could you please address this?
- Read the story: New dog access rules locked in
Barbara Naylor: Yes, I agree with the dog problem everywhere. How come people can’t feed their children before school but they have two and three dogs? Dogs in units is a big no and in cafes, and I think it’s disgusting in shopping trolleys when we put food in it after that, not very hygienic. Sorry, I’m not against dogs but there is a place for everything or not.
- Read the story: Prominent Australia Post facility to close
Kerry McLean, Valdora: I just wonder what will become of no man’s land? The strip of the Coast that does not belong to the Coast or the hinterland.
We pay rates but do not get the same recognition and services that are a given to everybody else. And no man’s land is booming! No bus services to bad bus services. Poor mail service. Now with the closure of the Nambour Delivery Centre, is Australia Post going to ensure mail and parcels are delivered to no man’s land?
How could any sane government expect its citizens to drive 40 minutes to collect something that should have been delivered in the first place? I think Australia Post should review its delivery services. I will not be driving the 40km but will redirect the mail to the sender!
- The real cost of 50 cent fares
Rodney Hansen, Bongaree: At the time of writing this, Queensland Rail workers are once again threatening to strike for higher pay – as if shutting down the state’s transport network is just another bargaining tactic. It’s remarkable how quickly “public service” turns into “public hostage situation” when unions want more money.
Here’s the part that really stretches belief. Queensland Rail is not exactly a profit‑making machine. It runs at a loss – a very large loss, every single year. So, when workers demand pay rises, where exactly is that money supposed to come from? Thin air? Or is the taxpayer expected to dig even deeper into their pockets to fund wage increases for a system that already can’t pay for itself?
Having recently taken a train into the city, I understand why the 50‑cent fares are popular. Who wouldn’t love bargain‑basement transport? But popularity doesn’t magically make a policy financially sustainable. Someone pays the difference and that someone is the Queensland taxpayer.
Public reporting shows the scheme costs around $300m every year in lost fare revenue. That’s not a trial. That’s not a temporary sweetener. That’s a permanent, recurring bill on top of the rising cost of running the network. And if more people use the system, the cost of extra services, maintenance and staffing only grows.
Nationally, the numbers get even more absurd. A Parliamentary Budget Office costing estimated that a nationwide version of 50‑cent fares would blow a $10.8 billion hole in the federal budget over four years. That’s money that has to come from somewhere – health, education, housing, infrastructure. Real services for real people.
Yet while taxpayers shoulder this enormous burden, we’re now told to brace for strikes from the very workers whose wages are already heavily subsidised. It’s a double hit: we pay more, we get less and we’re expected to quietly accept it.
Affordable transport matters, but a policy of this scale demands honesty. Where is the long‑term modelling? Where is the explanation of how a loss‑making system can hand out pay rises while slashing its own revenue? And why should Queenslanders tolerate being used as leverage every time a union wants to flex?
Before locking in 50‑cent fares forever, we need transparency, not slogans. We need costings, not wishful thinking. And we need a government willing to explain who pays because in the end, it’s always the public left footing the bill.
- Sunshine Coast airport
Dr Carolyn van Langenberg, Blackheath NSW: On May 4, I experienced the worst management of an airport imaginable. Travellers were directed to gate 2 for the Virgin flight from Maroochydore to Sydney at 11.20am. We crowded into an unairconditioned, unlit room set up like a yard for cattle. We waited for 40 minutes before we were instructed to board the plane. No explanation was given for this inconvenience.
The courtesy of an explanation costs nothing. Such courtesy complements Sunshine Coast friendliness. Travellers and airline staff benefit when no one, not a single person, is anxious.
- Empty boats
Garry Reynolds, Peregian Springs: A monk once said that if a boat hits you in the fog, you may shout in anger at the driver. But if the fog lifts and you see that the boat is empty, your anger disappears. There is no one to blame.
It strikes me that many of the people and institutions we’re furious with today are, in their own way, empty boats. Not malicious. Not plotting against us.
Rather, they’re drifting on currents shaped by old ideas, outdated systems and the momentum of “how things have always been done”.
Across Australia, we’re confronting big challenges in health, housing, education, the environment and the way we talk to one another.
It’s tempting to look for villains. Blame is quick and requires no imagination. But it rarely fixes anything.
Most people who frustrate us are not acting out of spite. They’re responding to pressures we don’t see, histories we don’t know and systems that no longer fit the world we live in.
Many of the structures we rely on aren’t broken because people don’t care. They’re broken because they were built for a different era.
Progress doesn’t begin with louder arguments or sharper accusations. It starts with better questions and the courage to rethink what we’ve taken for granted.
Instead of yelling at the boat, let’s ask what currents are steering it and how we might redesign the river.
Australia is at its best when we choose curiosity over cynicism and shared purpose over grievance. That’s the path forward.
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.
