YOUR VIEWS
ON behalf of all ratepayers and businesses I thank the candidate for Division 10 Mr Winlaw for his clarity, “Tourism sector too vital to our city’s future to ignore“(GCB 19 February) in relation to his promise of an additional $15 million war chest for the Gold Coast tourism sector.
If elected to Council Mr Winlaw will have his hand in every ratepayer’s and business’s pocket on the Gold Coast creaming another $15 million on top of the existing $16.8 million for the city’s tourism industry. A staggering $31.8 million or about $50 bucks for every Gold Coaster!
Mr Winlaw stands for higher rates and charges or reduced infrastructure and services, he can’t have his cake ($15 million) and eat it too. RICHARD HOLLIDAY, SURFERS PARADISE
RE Broadbeach Cats AFL Club: What an unfortunate position the club finds itself in following the resignation of senior coach Beau Zorko.
Our family have been active members at Broady for over 35 years.
Please remove me as a club member and also as a club life member. My life members medallion has been filed accordingly. DOUG BURGESS, ROBINA
TWO green-dream fantasies are heading for a massive and costly collision.
Firstly they dream of generating all grid power from wind/solar propped up by battery storage (such as lots of giant Tesla batteries and pumped hydro).
Secondly they dream of replacing all petrol/diesel/gas cars, trucks and buses with electric vehicles, powered
by more batteries.
But wind farms do well if they can average about 35 per cent of their rated capacity with low predictability, while solar panels average just 25 per cent of their capacity, produced intermittently. To generate zero emissions energy for Australia, we would need hills covered with turbines, flats covered with solar panels, the countryside spider-webbed with access roads and transmission lines, and much more hydro.
To stabilise a green energy system without using hydrocarbons will require an eye-watering quantity of batteries, costing as much as 200 times the cost of any wind/solar facility needing backup. Every home will need a battery in the basement (and sensible ones will also have a diesel in the shed).
Add to this battery bonanza millions of batteries will be needed to electrify and replace our fleet of petrol/diesel vehicles.
No wonder cynical mining companies like BHP are going green – they smell a jackpot from the coming green boom. And no wonder Tesla supports green energy – the total annual output of the world’s biggest battery factory in Nevada would store less than five minutes of annual US electricity demand.
The carbon dioxide emitted by all the extra mining, transport, manufacture and disposal of green energy generators and batteries would far exceed the CO2 allegedly saved by the threatened green upheaval.
All Australians rely on trucks to deliver their daily food to towns and cities – in road trains, semi-trailers, refrigerated trucks and electric trains, almost all powered by diesel, coal or gas. If they were all-electric
and powered by batteries, where will the electricity come from to recharge all of these batteries? In tomorrow’s Australia it must come from an unreliable wind/solar grid, hydro power or diesel generators.
Even if they just focus on forcing electrification of private cars where does the real power come from every night when most of them plug in to re-charge? If it is a still night, ZERO electricity will be coming from wind and solar.
Forget energy-wasting nonsense like capture and burial of CO2, and the energy-consuming roundabout of generating and then burning hydrogen. The zero-emissions delusion is impossible without nuclear power, but this can only happen if people can be reassured on nuclear safety and waste disposal. Are the Greens going to lead that education process?
And if we get global cooling instead of global warming, what will keep us warm on long still winter nights? Any state or country reaching for these impossible green dreams is destined for blackouts and energy riots on the streets.
It’s time for Australian politicians to stop frolicking with green fairies around the zero emissions maypole. They must remove all barriers and climate taxes on safe, reliable, trusted energy sources – coal, gas and oil.
We need more reliable cheap power for jobs and industry and more CO2 in the atmosphere to make green plants grow faster with less water. VIV FORBES, WASHPOOL
IT was pleasing to read in the Bulletin (20/2) about Eddy Sarroff standing for Division 10 for the upcoming council elections.
Based on his previous term on the council we believe he will do as he says and “hold Mayor Tate accountable”.
Good on you Eddy – go for it! DAVID AND LIA HUTLEY MAIN BEACH
JUST so we don’t get into an overly jingoistic lather, Holden was never really a fair dinkum Australian car.
No greater proof is the DNA behind its patriotic jingle “Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars”.
It actually started out in America in 1974 as “Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie and Chevrolet”.
Holden has been Australian as left hand drive for a long, long time.
So for all you Holden bogans, give us all a break and go and shed your tears elsewhere. TONY CAVUOTO, PALM BEACH
THERE are no words strong enough to describe what happened on Wednesday morning on the streets of Brisbane.
How any scenario could drive a father and husband to burn his family alive is unthinkable.
The family photo shows an obviously once extremely happy and beautiful family which is no more.
The grandparents must be at a total loss to imagine the tragedy could happen to them.
Their pain will now be with them for life and the memory will haunt their every thought.
This act by Rowan Baxter was callous, selfish and unimaginable.
God rest their souls. KEN JOHNSTON, ROCHEDALE SOUTH