Letter of the Week

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THERE are no doubt lots of parents who think their teenage school children, some in their early teens, are being so responsible by going on strike today in the name of climate change (GCB Nov. 29).

I cannot warm to this behaviour as it’s simply taking advantage of the trend to strike for strike’s sake.

They are mostly uninformed of the efforts of the government and are not sufficiently qualified to take this issue into their own hands.

One or two outspoken school students are behind this action and use social media to boost numbers.

Kids, your place is in school.

KEN JOHNSTON ROCHEDALE SOUTH

PREMIER Annastacia Palaszcuk and her government deserve congratulations for establishing a cross-party parliamentary inquiry into end-of-life issues including voluntary assisted dying (VAD) law reform.

The Clem Jones Group is working with Dying With Dignity Queensland to pursue law reforms.

We believe VAD law reform is urgent which is why we are concerned that the government seems intent on deferring any new legislation until after the next state election due in October 2020.

Evidence from state coroners at the Victorian and West Australian inquiries into voluntary assisted dying underlined the need to take action sooner not later.

In both states coroners handle about one case week where a person diagnosed with a terminal or debilitating physical condition has died as a result of an act of intentional self-harm.

The horrendous methods often used by those taking their own lives in the absence of a legal and strongly regulated voluntary assisted dying regime have impacts on their families but also on first responders such as police, ambulance, and fire and emergency

personnel. This is just one reason any law reforms need to be undertaken in this term of the Queensland Parliament, not the next.

DAVID MUIR CHAIRMAN CLEM JONES TRUST

COURIER-MAIL 29/11/2018 figures on exports to India has coal at $7.3 billion, far above second place vegetables/fruit.

My question is why would any Queenslander vote for a Labor or Green member of the federal government who want to stop this?

Plus why does the State Government have to be dragged kicking and screaming to approve any new mines?

ROD WATSON SURFERS PARADISE

SOME would be appalled that the Queensland government is offering interest-free loans to install a domestic solar system and battery.

Interest-free loans mean that for lower or non-existent electricity bills, many wealthier Australians living in single detached dwellings have installed solar.

They incur debt owed to the

government to cover the cost of installing solar and eventually pay the money back.

Meanwhile they also provide extra energy to the grid.

New providers only get 8 cents a kilowatt hour for nett generation or whatever their energy retailer believes this extra energy is worth.

It’s certainly a way that high energy users can lower their energy usage which should logically make electricity prices for the low-income families cheaper because of lower demand.

For low-income families it’s win-win because they see lower electricity prices along with their lower income tax.

So solar is a way to redistribute income from high to low income households.

Unfortunately, we can’t see the lowering of energy prices by solar against the trend of increasing energy prices due to the huge demand for fossil fuels when this resource is in decline.

This is the real price of carbon.

ED DONOVAN LABRADOR

AUSTRALIA should cop out of

COP24 climate change conference in Katowice, Poland and PM Morrison should make no new commitments to reduce emissions.

Nothing of benefit to Australian consumers, taxpayers or business will come out of COP24.

It will just extend the UN’s war on our cheap, reliable hydrocarbon fuels and the backbone industries that rely on them – primary industries, transport, processing and manufacturing.

Australia is particularly vulnerable with no nuclear power, no geothermal power and limited hydropower. This war on reliable hydrocarbon fuels and the promotion of unreliable wind and solar power will increasingly deny our industries and consumers cheap reliable energy.

There is no justification for the war on carbon dioxide – there is no proof that CO2 drives global temperature and it is a delusion to believe that Earth’s climate can be tweaked by erecting windmills or putting taxes on carbon dioxide.

COP24 will descend into a grab for cash, and Australia is one of the fat pullets they plan to pluck.

As American atmospheric physicist Dr Richard Lindzen said: “Believing carbon dioxide is the planet’s climate control knob is pretty close to believing in magic.”

VIV FORBES EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR THE SALTBUSH CLUB

l WAS desperately hoping to give all media a miss for a while, but the latest shenanigans over Julia Banks has brought me back to the News Corp fold in quick order.

ScoMo is going to panic his little bogan heart out now, Shorten has his number, and Richo’s mob have his number.

Instead of an early budget, why not call an early election for, say, Boxing Day?

DAVID HALL COOMBABAH