LetteroftheWeek
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ISN’T time up for former school teacher and current Queensland Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey?
He has proved inept in all departments under his leadership.
Train debacles are never ending. Gold Coast tram development and motorway improvements are bogged down because of his excuses and negative, out of reality comments.
Every facet of his portfolio has the thumbprint of the pontificating, indecisive and blundering Mark Bailey. Yet the media, in my mind, appear to protect him.
He has shown to be obviously out of his depth in a ministerial office and especially dangerous in a serious one, such as roads and transport.
I believe it’s high time he went back to school. DOUG HARVEY, PARADISE WATERS
MINISTER Mark Bailey we are over your party politics. If your party had not put Queensland into debt the following infrastructure and more would be in place now:
Fast, direct rail from Gold Coast (Coolangatta) to Brisbane and airport not way out west where you want to spend $5 billion to cut five minutes off the trip. It will still be way too slow.
The Bruce Highway totally upgraded Brisbane to Cairns.
The western highway to Dalby upgrades.
An eight-lane M1 from Brisbane CBD to Tweed.
Fast rail Brisbane to Cairns maximum 10 hours.
New coal and nuclear power stations and not the useless solar and wind green rubbish.
Dams to provide water to agriculture and farming lands.
In other words: concentrate on what the people need and stop the inter-party brawling which achieves nothing. STAN FORGHAM, TALLAI
IT’S often not helpful to engage in a “tit for tat” exchange of letters but just as Dr Sayer of Gold Coast (Letters, July 18) felt he could not allow a letter by Duncan of Elanora go “unchallenged”, I feel obliged to challenge him.
The subject at the heart of this is climate change – a debate sparked on these pages after the release of alarming flood predictions.
Dr Sayer comments that he is a “medical scientist” who has worked for the World Health Organisation. This, however, has clearly not protected him from a severe dose of climate change scepticism.
It was made abundantly clear when the expert he cited was Prof Ian Plimer – one of the greatest climate sceptics of all and author of books and papers that have been heavily criticised by the scientific community.
Indeed, according to NASA and many other reputable scientific groups, there is now a 97 per cent consensus that the earth is warming and this is caused by human activity. Why listen, therefore, to people like Prof Plimer?
This is important because adherence to faulty beliefs not only confuses the discussion but interferes with attempts to ameliorate the situation.
Let’s try to express balanced views and go with the consensus of reputable scientific information. YVETTE DEMPSEY, CARRARA
SLICING through the eco-babble that disfigures the energy debate – carbon neutral, dispatchable power, feed-in tariff, small-scale renewable energy scheme – two facts emerge: wind and solar don’t stack up; gas and coal does.
But try telling that to any green zealot, secure in an ivory tower, safe in a government job. P.C. WILSON, MIAMI
IT’S just another study from overseas, this time Italy, suggesting that moderate consumption of beer or wine might just assist men to get the ball rolling and start a family, (GCB July 19). Chemicals in beer hops apparently may slightly improve sperm counts.
As with most of these research “findings”, terms used are usually vague as if there is still considerable doubt as to the reliability of the results.
Mind you, a group of 323 men is hardly a great sample upon which to base their findings. KEN JOHNSTON, ROCHEDALE SOUTH
WHAT president Trump said or did not say at his meeting with the Russian president does not matter, it’s the result that counts.
Being polite to someone is hardly a crime. All the abuse and name calling by others in the past have done no good.
There seems like there are a lot of people who would rather have Trump fail than have a more peaceful world. Let’s hope most people see past this selfish ‘see I was right’ attitude. ROD WATSON, SURFERS PARADISE