YOUR VIEWS

WELLCAMP is not just a place; it’s a symbol. A symbol of what is intrinsically wrong with the Queensland government, a total lack of transparency.

It was sad to watch the Deputy Premier twist and turn, trying to justify the spending of a quarter of a billion dollars of our money on a facility initially covered by the Premier with that iniquitous phrase “commercial in confidence”.

This facility has housed only 670 people and has now been made redundant and it’s evident that the Queensland government has no idea what to do with it.

In her election victory speech the Premier indicated that her government would give a new meaning to the word transparency, she was right there. DAVID LISSENDEN, MAIN BEACH

OUR new Prime Minister, Albanese, has spoken from the heart at the Northern Territory’s Garma Festival, with a determination to take an indigenous voice in our Constitution to a general referendum. Addressing the economic and social disparities of indigenous representation, requires more than a response on a ballot paper.

“Closing the Gap” means more equitable opportunities for indigenous Australians as a priority, after 250 years of settlement. With education and health facilities the keys to equal opportunity, perhaps these should be first addressed in remote communities where conditions are below par and found wanting.

Children in remote indigenous communities fall far behind the national average, in all aspects of education and social development, often being normalised to alcoholrelated violence. The demise of “intervention” by the Howard government, a practice to avoid alcohol-related violence in remote communities, where welfare dependence is the norm, now will become part of the problem, not the solution.

It’s time our remote indigenous communities expect better welfare standards, while facilitating access to the best education and health facilities for their people. The demand for a voice must have a willingness to expose their people to the same high standards as all Australians, if these communities are to flourish. It is a team effort and takes genuine commitment by both parties.

ELOISE ROWE, TANNUM SANDS

BEFORE the recent federal election Australians had lived through a decade of time where many, including some of those in the federal coalition government, treated climate change as being an annoying pest, that if ignored for long enough, may simply go away.

Well, rather than going away, human-induced climate change has grown considerably in its intensity and range. Years of lack of climate action are now coming home to roost, which for many may well come as a big surprise.

Continued life on planet Earth will now be in the hands of politicians and scientists across the world to deal with. They have a monumental task ahead of them. BRIAN MEASDAY, MYRTLE BANK