Letter of the Week

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AFTER watching Four Corners the other night regarding Australia’s aged care facilities, it was disturbing to say the least!

How is it we are the only country that has no accountability for carers’ actions, assaults, lies and senior abuse to elders that have been in these establishments for years?

After due diligence by some families a few sickening cases were brought to the courts, only for the offenders to get a slap on the wrist and home detention.

If you did that to a child in this day and age you would be jailed.

Australia’s attention to its elderly is pathetic after all those years supporting their country.

Just remember you offenders – you too will be old one day. P. LAZER, BILAMBIL

ALL parents are different, all kids are different.

When it comes to pocket money, there is no hard and fast rule. Commonsense should prevail but doesn’t always (GCB, 24/9).

If the pocket money is designed to familiarise kids with the spending or saving game, they only need to receive a relatively modest amount.

Kids under 12 or so might be encouraged to spend it when out with a parent.

Teenagers with more responsibility might be allowed the freedom to spend it on a personal outing.

I like the idea of giving older kids a ‘retainer’ of, say, $5 and to encourage earning more by doing sensible tasks at home.

Basic chores like washing up must be part of the deal for the retainer. Chores like washing the car can be rewarded.

Over-rewarding is seen as a copout for parents and should not encouraged unless sensible saving is the ultimate goal. KEN JOHNSTON, ROCHEDALE SOUTH

THIS proposed light rail extension is a monument to bureaucratic folly.

I drove up from Palm Beach to Broadbeach yesterday and the devastation and disruption that would occur to locals and small businesses is the stuff of nightmares.

Take a look at Southport now, it is nearly a graveyard for small business.

Do you remember what a thriving retail hub it used to be?

Businesses forced to close, unimaginable financial hardship and staff redundancies everywhere.

We hear of surveys taken etc ... what about taking a survey of the people who were affected during and after the existing light rail implementation?

Talk of recouping lost profits for businesses after construction is nonsense.

Many of these bureaucrats have never run their own business and have no idea of the courage it takes to start a business, the degree of personal responsibility that goes with employing staff, never had the financial stress, and would not know what it is like to have their neck on the line.

Unless a business can make a profit, there is no business, no employment, no wages, no super, no holiday pay, nothing.

The solution for Gold Coast transport is to upgrade our bus system, with modern electric buses.

Buses offer enormous flexibility, they can go anywhere, any time.

Re-positioning of bus stops and timetables is easy. Breakdowns or accidents do not stop the whole network. The Airport bus 777 works well and is really efficient. DICK SAYER, ROBINA

WHEN will this stagnant Queensland Labor Government learn to deal with its violent criminals who are growing at an alarming rate, and completely out of control?

The latest news in a Brisbane newspaper wrote, “Convicted criminals will be allowed to walk free under a radical Labor plan, aimed at reducing the soaring number of prisoners in Queensland jails’’.

Has it not occurred to Labor to build more prisons?

During the years of the legendary Bjelke-Petersen National Party, crime was extremely rare, courthouses were closed most of the year and the notorious Boggo Road prison in Brisbane was mostly empty, because Joh had introduced tough new laws, and also a life sentence for anyone caught selling drugs.

To Joh’s delight, drugs in Queensland virtually vanished overnight.

But when Labor won the election in 1989, they immediately watered down the life sentence for drug pushers to a paltry fine, and drugs began to reappear, and have progressed to the drug epidemic it is in Queensland today.

So how can Queensland rid itself of criminals when they are treated with so much kindness and leniency, and protected by this current Labor Government? KEN WADE, TWEED HEADS

WELL, what a mess.

The Federal Parliament members are in constant turmoil, and now the NSW Government are constantly bickering.

So when the hell are they all going to learn to get on together, for the good of the country, instead of concentrating on their overblown egos. VERN EVES, TWEED