Letter of the Week

Have strong opinions, write in an engaging way? You could win our Letter of the Week, and with it a book from our friends and sponsors, the publishers HarperCollins. This month’s book prize is The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn. It debuted at No 1 on the NYT best seller list in the US and is a gripping psychological thriller about an agoraphobic woman who believes she has witnessed a horrible crime in a neighbouring house.

Rules: Best letter competition runs till January 19 next year. Entries close each Thursday at 5pm. The winner is selected by 2pm each Friday. Book of the month valued up to $49.00. Entrants agree to the Competition Terms and Conditions located at www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/

entertainment/competitions, and our privacy policy. Entrants consent to their information being shared with HarperCollins for the express purpose of delivering prizes.

MY name is Sonja and I like all the others who have been fighting to Save Black Swan Lake have watched helplessly as this haven for wildlife is turned into a jail surrounded by steel fences and trucks full of dirt dump on top of nesting vegetation.

We have watched with tears as birdlife lose their homes, watching them trying to escape the bulldozers. The poor turtles found dead on the hot road with nowhere to go.

The banks I sat watching the black swans and ducks swimming with their babies are now piles of dirt, there are traps to try and catch wildlife – it’s heartbreaking.

I’m writing, as I have many times, because I want the Gold Coast to know the truth!

Mayor Tom Tate says none of this is happening. He says it’s not a lake and no animals are losing their lives. That the photos of the dead animals are questionable.

I am writing this to tell all of the Gold Coast the destruction is real and the dead animals are real! Because I was the woman who found the poor lifeless body of the bird in the bin. And I stood there and cried. It was very real. SONJA

WHAT the council have done to Black Swan Lake is disgraceful. I am outraged now to find this gift is only going benefit the taxpayer at $1 per year for the next 10 years. Once filled the current agreement makes usage limited to stormwater management or car parking. So much for all the community and horse activities spruiked by the turf club, until our representatives change this rule. Why did they not can it whilst it was an issue?

Obviously our councillors are not fully informed, or more to the point chose to ignore the issue. They are too dumb to get it! We

need to remove them at the next council election. GEOFF REEVE, BURLEIGH WATERS

REGARDING the letter from J.W.M. Hall regarding eggs from caged chickens (GCB, 24/02/18).

I agree wholeheartedly with your comments on caged pet birds. However I disagree with you when it comes to caged chickens. They show stress by feather plucking etc. If kept in a more normal area such as a backyard they can continue to lay for many more years. Most people in the world have somewhere big enough for 1 to 2 chooks.

Also, instead of intensive farming how about humans stop reproducing at such alarming rates and destroying the earth for all, not just animals in cages. As a species we are eating ourselves out of house and home and soiling our own beds!

Also on the same subject matter (Anthropomorphise) we need to stop treating pets like children – it is disrespectful. W WILSON, OXENFORD

AUSTRALIA may seem just like a quiet little country that plays a bit of cricket and rugby but in some ways we lead the world, especially in parliamentary behaviour or misbehaviour!

The Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull has put forward a ban on sexual relationships between ministers and their staff as a consequence of the (now deposed) Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce getting a former staff member pregnant.

There are too many potential jokes about this, although looking at a formal photograph of the parliamentary ministers would raise the question of why is this neccessary as most are middle aged men in boring suits.

The only thing wrong with this is it doesn’t go far enough – any politician who has ever done anything wrong should be expelled. Most parliaments in the world would be lonely places. DENNIS FITZGERALD I READ a letter here recently, in

which the writer was asking why priests need to be involved as marriage celebrants.

From my understanding of the Catholic Church’s teaching on marriage, it is one of the seven Sacraments of the Church and it is exclusively between a man and a woman.

It is the only Sacrament that is administered by the participants themselves, the Bride and Groom. As it is a religious ceremony it is preferably held in a Church.

The role of the priest is as a witness on behalf of the Church, so that the Church has a record of their marriage for future reference, if required. For example, if the couple want the marriage annulled in the future, a record of the circumstances of the marriage is readily available.

Priests are also required to be registered with the Government as celebrants so that the marriage is in the public domain also.

I hope this clarifies the role of the priest for the writer of the earlier letter. DONALD ROBERTSON

ALL aboard for Tweed Heads. NSW interest in our G:Link tram network shows just what a wonderful initiative this has been for the Gold Coast City Council. (‘NSW bid

for $400m tram’ Feb 26). Has another recent transport project taken off so successfully? The Tweed has long suffered from the Gold Coast’s success over the past decade or so and certainly needs an injection of funds to remove it from further ‘ghost towning’. As transport and parking issues increase, a light rail is the obvious answer to bring people back to this once thriving centre. KEN JOHNSTON, ROCHEDALE SOUTH