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 Harper Collins. 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.

APPARENTLY 12-year-old Drew, who used his parents’ credit card to take a trip to Bali after an argument with his mother, doesn’t like to be told “no”.

Tough luck kid, get used to it because it’s a word you’ll hear many more times in your life and you can’t run away from them all. because at some stage you’re going to have to take responsibility for your actions and learn that along with actions come reactions and with age the consequences will also increase.

The parents need to take full responsibility for the fact that this brat’s little tanty happened at all. How did he have access to the family credit card details? This story also highlights the irresponsibility of people who are not keeping their credit card information secure.

We’ve read the stories where children as young as five years old are accessing the internet, logging on to all manner of sites with ease, because parents are allowing them unsupervised access and it doesn’t take children of today long to work out “the correct buttons to press”, both digitally and emotionally.

The fact that this Drew was able to dupe so many people with relative ease just goes to show how inadequate the checks and balances are at airports for both internal and international flights.

Another aspect this tantrum trip has highlighted is how easily more sinister actions can happen in a world where terrorism is rife and there are also incidences involving child custody cases, where children are being taken out of the country, especially where one or other of the parents is a citizen of another country.

I’m really surprised that all it took is a passport and a student ID, because even with what little travel I have undertaken, there seems to be so much red tape and so many access checking points, where you almost have to be able to give a complete rundown on what you had for dinner the night before prior to getting to the boarding gates.

I daresay this wasn’t Drew’s first temper tantrum at being told “no” and it certainly won’t be the last, so he’ll simply do further online research and make sure that he covers all his bases. GAEL, MAUDSLAND

YESTERDAY, April 26, 2018, Alan Jones of 2GB interviewed Josh Frydenberg MP and Minter for the Environment on the radio, when the subject of climate change arose.

The Minister said he believed in climate change and did not reply to Jones’s question of what is it?

The question “what is climate change” is one millions have asked over the decades and has never been defined. The typical reply for all believers is that it is global warming.

Well, global warming is not climate change and neither is climate change global warming.

The warming and cooling cycle is recorded on ice and reef cores, and according to records the earth is now cooling. If in the next decade the cooling graph continues to head down, what will the believers do and say then?

They will never apologise for the wrongdoing they are responsible for, like backing solar and wind and vilifying fossil fuel for electricity generation. Just as they never apologised for pushing Labor governments to spend billions of dollars on desalination plants in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland.

Half a century ago the people of Australia would never accept the smoke being blown up their daks with unproven science.

We have been sold lies and deliberate falsehood by the environmentalists, the United Nations and naive governments both here and in Western Europe.

Turnbull must dump the Paris Agreement and develop the political will and public support for nuclear

and coal/gas electricity generation.

ROBERT S BUICK, MOUNTAIN CREEK

THE Gold Coast’s growing pains are increasingly evident with green space, koala habitat, lakes and waterways neglected and plundered in the name of progress.

What a delight to read of our neighbour’s restoration plan for the 20km Oxley Creek corridor, from a history of unregulated landfilling and illegal dumping of waste water treatment operations (sound familiar) to a world-class wildlife sanctuary and green space.

What a breath of fresh air it would be for our local council to grow up from provincial, backward thinking arrogance to genuinely embracing and showcasing our world-class wildlife and natural environment destination. CHRIS, SURFERS PARADISE

YASMIN Abdel-Magied, who has worked for the ABC, is so smart to have been appointed Young Queenslander of the Year 2015. With respect, that committee got it very wrong as she is not worthy of this award which should be rescinded. She has not learned, nor accepts the important ideals of this country. GEOFF REEVE, BURLEIGH WATERS

DONALD Trump could assign Stormy Daniels to Canberra. She claims to be so close to him that she would be valuably in sync with his thinking and the outcomes he seeks. DAVID HALL, COOMBABAH

COULD Channel Nine please halve the volume of those stupid Sportsbet ads, because our ears are assaulted on a much too regular basis. Over it. VERN EVES