With regard to the Sunshine Coast News article on the youth remand centre proposed for Caloundra:
I do not know enough about the youth justice system, but I am not a reflexly NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) person.
I believe that all communities should share in the responsible care of youth.
Is literacy and numeracy checked and delivered to youths held in custody, whether they like it or not?
I wonder what, if any, facilities are made available to foster their individual talents (apart from those that have landed them here, of course).
To ask for an opinion on the matter without adequate discussion and explanation is like asking us to draw an elephant if we have never seen one alive, or in a picture.
This trite attitude seems to support the belief that whatever we think, it will go ahead anyway.
It would also be of interest to know what an anonymous survey of our police think about it.
PHIL BENJAMIN, Dicky Beach
For the edification of the Member for Caloundra Jason Hunt, who insists that the proposed youth justice facility is not a jail, he could do well to consult the Oxford Dictionary, which defines a jail as “a place of confinement for people accused of, or convicted of, a crime”.
Traditionally, youth justice centres (youth jails) bring to mind many incidents of young inmates trashing, burning and protesting from the rooftops.
As a beautiful tourist town, is this what Caloundra really needs?
TERRY FOREMAN
Many thanks to both Sunshine Coast News and MP Jason Hunt for the information re: the youth detention/remand centre.
With this information, I am quite happy to see this facility in beside the police station, but being run by the youth detention officers.
Thanks Jason & SC News for keeping us properly informed.
BARBIE SMITH, Golden Beach
So, it appears our local politician believes having this facility to house the unfortunates and the dregs of society in the middle of Caloundra is a smart planning move for a tourism zone. So nothing else came to mind?
EON RADLEY, Buderim
It would be better placed remotely, say out in Kilcoy. The country air would do them good and would bring much-needed money and jobs to the remote regions.
SIMON LATTIMER
SPER a government ‘money stream’
I write with regard to Jane Stephens’ column “Fine mess as millions owed by offenders and no lessons learned” in Sunshine Coast News about the State Penalties Enforcement Registry (SPER).
It is a government money stream. And they’re often dishonest about it.
Someone I know got a low-range speeding ticket driving their personal vehicle. They’re a truck driver and so updated their address when they moved. Yet, the initial fine never arrived.
Their first notice was the fine with the SPER fee attached. They were happy to cop the fine, not the SPER fee. They had to get the traffic camera office to reissue it, without the fee and they paid and took the demerit point.
They’re the partner of my sibling, so, yeah. Real case.
I can think of a former neighbour with an alcohol interlock fitted. Continued to drive drunk, got their kid to blow in the device. Didn’t care about fines: “Just add it to SPER, $10 a fortnight hahahaha!”.
This isn’t a Liberal/Labor thing. To be honest, government bureaucracy is addicted to revenue. The reason why it is seen as a black-line budget entry is a certain amount of non-compliance is allowed for. The money that is received is a financial golden goose for consolidated revenue.
We can’t jail these people, as these are petty incidents and not crimes. Some might argue it is the price we pay for civilisation. I’m not sure what the “fix” is.
RYAN McCONKEY, Mooloolah Valley
Mysterious world of Mass Transit
One has to ask again: what were the numerical results of the questions in the mass transit survey?
Surely these numbers would be the first information obtained from the survey.
Why haven’t we been given them?
Perhaps they didn’t provide the answers the promoters were seeking? Perhaps they disclose a desire to retain the present lifestyle NOT one which is imported by a huge influx of new residents?
Who knows?
We now have the 2032 Olympics to deal with, so it is more important that the residents are provided with what they want. They will be the legatees of the infrastructure that is left behind. They will have to service it, maintain it, repair it and, hopefully, put it to good use.
It may seem a developer’s dream outcome BUT, unless it is managed responsibly, all it will be is more money down the drain.
BRIAN BOLTON, Twin Waters
Coles in battle for Beerwah
So Coles is fighting to overturn a Sunshine Coast Council decision to deny it a foothold in one of our hinterland towns.
Why should a “money-grabbing” corporate have the right to wreck a local community like Beerwah?
Hopefully, the legal system will see the proposal for what it is. It is not what the local community wants OR needs.
RICHARD MELLOR, Sunshine Coast
Control development or lose our charm
I bought a simple Queensland hardwood 1940s built house in 2013. I moved in during 2017. Both my husband and I are retired.
While I love it here, I was shocked to discover the extent and rate of development, particularly of ill-considered housing estates, industrial estates replacing forests and parallel roads to the same destination, carving up the forests and destroying wildlife habitats and movement.
Without a re-ordering of priorities, in a few short years I can see that the Sunshine Coast will become just another choked, congested metropolitan zone like the Gold Coast.
ELIZABETH BARRATT, Yandina
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