LetteroftheWeek
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 In a Great Southern Land by Mary-Anne O’Connor. It’s 1851 in the new colonies and Eve Richards and Kieran Clancy face the decision of a lifetime: whether or not, when it comes to love, will blood remain thicker than water.
Rules: Entries close each Thursday at 5pm AEST. The winner is selected by 2pm AEST each Friday. Book of the month valued up to $49 (incl. of GST). Entrants agree to the Competition Terms and Conditions located at www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/entertainment/competitions, and our privacy policy. Entrants consent to their information being shared with HarperCollins for the express purpose of delivering prizes. Best letter competition runs until January 23 next year. View our privacy policy at https://preferences.news.com.au RE: Bill Shorten’s crazy obsession with having 50 per cent of all vehicles powered electrically by the year 2030.
Does this ex-union boss who for years preached, “Labor cares for the workers” have any remote idea of how many jobs will be lost by the introduction of electric cars? Try tens of thousands Bill. Do these pretend-intelligent greenies, who are behind this rediculous electric cars crusade, have any knowledge of electrical engineering, so as to understand how these vehicles will function?
Are we normal people who have a reasonably good IQ, expected to listen to the advice of greenies, with the disruptions they are creating around the country causing thousands to become unemployed. The Adani mine protesters are a classic example of the mentality of these greenies.
Thousands of oil company workers, tanker drivers, mechanics and anybody associated with the car industry, their jobs will hang in the balance, simply because fossil fuel-powered vehicles will eventually become unwanted and of no value to their owners.
Australia will become a graveyard for hundreds of thousands of unwanted petrol powered cars, and how many service stations will be forced to close down.
Bill Shorten was once a powerful union boss who preached for the protection of workers’ jobs. Now he is a weakling who takes orders from the Greens, and in doing so, is prepared to watch thousands of Australians lose their jobs.
A vote for Shorten could ‘shorten’ your employment career? KEN WADE, TWEED HEADS
LOIS Levy (GCB, 24/4) writes we should avoid the high cost and disruption of the extension of light rail by considering the trackless tram.
Lois also mentions her concerns that the light rail may encourage high-rise development along the Gold Coast highway, turning it into a canyon.
There’s nothing wrong with putting forward an idea and good on Lois for canvassing it, but in doing so she must also be prepared for the critiques that she and her organisation should by now be well accustomed to.
Extending the public transport route by utilising a trackless tram is not a seamless journey. It would require a physical change in conveyance. That in itself is a disruption of the journey.
As to the high-density development along the route, this would occur as demand requires, regardless of the mode of transportation.
Public transport, like development, services a community’s needs. Short of building a Trump fence around our city, we will continue to grow, and those needs will grow with it.
Like you Lois, I don’t want to see heavy encroachment into our Hinterland, an area that forms part of the character of our city.
This leaves us with those areas within the city precincts that are already developed.
I saw the Gold Coast as a boy in the late 50s. I hardly recognise it today. And in another 60 years the children of today will make the same observation.
That’s change, an inevitable process in human endeavour and nature.
Who knows how we will be travelling in 2079? What is fiction today may well become a reality tomorrow.
From my perspective, I find that exciting even though I will not be around to see it but my children and theirs will and that’s a comfort.
In the meantime, we work with the tools we have, plan with the best projections we can envisage and keep it as simple and seamless as we possibly can. It’s called building our future today. BOB JANSSEN, GOLD COAST
LOVE can truly find a way, reading no real harm was done to a Southport guy’s thingo by his female partner, with whom he is now reconciled.
This is right out of everyday Thailand where a woman, in a fit of jealousy (saving “face”, and all that), can take a sharp knife or scissors to her male partner, and throw his thingo out the window for the farmyard geese to fight over.
Thai surgeons are recognised world leaders at reattachment, so make sure it only happens to you, guys, in the Land of Smiles. DAVID HALL, COOMBABAH
AFTER the performance of Billy Shorten last week in not knowing what the costing of his promises are, which he has talking about for the last eight years, is beyond belief.
They have picked the wrong person to lead the party. LEO AGUGGIA, GOLD COAST
MORE than $40,000 for a bus shelter ... it must be made of gold.
Tom, please keep a eye on your councillors, they are not up to the job. ROD WATSON, SURFERS PARADISE
IN reply to Rod Watson’s letter
(GCB, 24/4).
A particularly flawed argument Rod, firstly the number of parks you quote is quite misleading, as many are basically unusable strips of grass in out-of-the-way places.
Next, once leased it is no longer public land.
Then of course the fact we already have a large and expanding casino not 10 minutes away.
So obviously Rod, living in Surfers you don’t have the concerns of Southport residents because it had no affect on you one way or another. DAVE GILMOUR, SOUTHPORT
GIVE me roosting bats and barking dogs any day over the white noise coming from my TV whenever Clive Palmer or his legion of ‘yellow drones’ read from the script.
Please make them go away. REG DAVID, MUDGEERABA