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 Those Other Women by Nicola Moriarty. Rivalries and resentments between mums and child-free women spiral wildly out of control in this compelling new book by the bestselling author of The Fifth Letter.

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MUCH has been said about the GC2018 opening and closing ceremonies but NOTHING has been said about the 4000-5000 volunteers who acted as the ceremonies’ casts and crew.

These people gladly volunteered many hours, 150 hours plus for some, of their time over many weeks to help the Games start and finish. We, I was one, had a lot of fun, laughed a lot, made new friends, learnt new skills and would probably do it all again, we just seem to love to volunteer.

It is very disappointing though, to not even get a simple “thank you” from anyone in officialdom. We did our bit for the Games and have just been cast aside and forgotten about. Disappointing too for some who did many hours rehearsal and missed a couple to be then told they weren’t needed. They had given their time already and then cast aside.

There has been very strong criticism of the opening and particularly the closing ceremonies. The ceremonies volunteer casts only did as they were rehearsed to do yet I wonder if we have been cast aside with the criticism.

The Games Shapers were given a thank you party on Saturday. Not ‘ceremonies’. We weren’t invited and enquirers were told it’s not for us. Some of the ceremonies’ cast will pay to go to a dance party. We have been promised a pin and certificate for our efforts. WOW. We were told we could keep some props but were then told we couldn’t take them on the night for WHS reasons. It appears those have disappeared into the official abyss so again we are just cast aside.

Australia runs on volunteers who gladly give their time over and over and look for no reward apart from a simple “thank you”. When we don’t even get a thank you it takes the gloss off the feeling of helping someone. PS:. It was a lot of fun though and a great experience. LINDSAY MITCHELL, REDBANK

THERE were some 15,000 volunteers who gave up 1 million hours of their own time, along with up to 1500 medical volunteers over the 50 medical facilities around the venues who gave up 84,000 medical hours, over the 11 days of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and without any of these people there would not even have been a Commonwealth Games.

The appreciation extended to all of these volunteers by Peter Beattie and his GOLDOC cronies was a party where these same hard-working volunteers were expected to put their hands in their pockets to supply their own food and drink.

On the other hand, the appreciation extended to Peter Beattie and his cronies is totally different. They not only got their very lucrative salaries, but bonuses are going to be paid to them for all their “hard work”. No “volunteer hours” here though.

This certainly is “the lucky country” where you can make constant blunders, tell people to “suck it up” or even call them “lunatics”, where you can change the way something has been done for many years on a whim, insulting 1000s of people in the process, and still get paid your grotesquely inflated salary and then bonuses on top and, the “man at the top” can then say “my work here is done” as he moves on to his other inflated salary with the ARL.

The only difference is this time the general public are not going to be footing the bill for his next onslaught of blunders, that will be at the expense of rugby league supporters. GAEL, MAUDSLAND

THE Palaszczuk Government has been known to exhibit disagreement among its ministers in the past and it appears that sport might be the catalyst to create more confusion. (‘Sports to drive new Gold Coast age’, Apr 20).

Premier Palaszczuk has suggested that Games sites will be used as the focus to create a major sporting hub and destination on the Gold Coast. Such ideas are welcome so that the aftermath of the Games doesn’t result in a sporting ghost town. Labor’s promise to host future major and minor sporting events must surely provide increased business confidence in the region.

Then there’s Sports Minister Mick de Brenni who has angered both the Titans and the Suns by suggesting their officials are no more than whingers by voicing concerns about costs imposed by Stadiums Queensland for the clubs’ hire of Robina and Carrara Stadiums.

The Minister has been labelled un-Australian by many interested parties and suggests the clubs need to dramatically improve their marketing strategies so that costs are allayed.

Mr de Brenni fails to appreciate that these clubs are already promoting their respective codes in an attempt to overcome the historical hoodoo many Gold Coast clubs have experienced.

The Government has provided funds to build these stadiums and yet now expects to recover costs endured by charging exorbitant fees for clubs to use these venues.

Minister de Brenni is surely at odds with his leader who needs to take him aside and spell out clearly her government’s sports policy.

Both the Titans and Suns must remain competitive forces in their respective national competitions. KEN JOHNSTON, ROCHEDALE SOUTH

FOLLOWING the tussle about whether General John Monash be denied posthumous elevation to field marshal, l am taken back to a momentous decision l had to make in November of 1968, as a ‘nasho’ private in 3 RAR’s last few days before flying home, when the company sergeant major offered me something l had never dared to dream of, to be promoted to lance corporal if l signed on for a threeyear stint in the regular army.

I politely declined the CSM’s most gracious offer. DAVID HALL, COOMBABAH