Promises to benefit the city are needed
INSTEAD of pie in the sky promises that may never happen – how about promises that would benefit this city.
• Duplicate Bowen Road and Rooneys bridges.
• Build second Bohle River bridge.
• Finish stage 2 of Burdekin Falls dam.
• Remove rail corridor from Railway Avenue and divert as was once planned to behind Oonoonba and direct to port, as it is now because of being cheapskates bridge over river didn’t include rail line.
• Bypass road to be upgraded full length to four lanes.
• But if wanting big plans, divert treated sewerage inland rather than the environment-unfriendly Bradfield Scheme.
• It’s also time to end the use of our oceans as rubbish tips.
• No taxes paid by anyone under 18 years of age.
They can’t vote and have no say in decisions made so they shouldn’t be taxed.
• Registration of motor vehicles included in price of fuel, that way those who drive the most pay the most plus there’s the added bonus of interstate visitors helping to fund the roads
It works out at about a 2 cents
per litre increase.
• Widen the rail line from 3 foot 6 inches to 4 foot 8 and 1/2 inches and plan ahead for high speed rail – all it requires is for one rail line to be moved.
• End this city having a siding as a rail station. I’m sure this city deserves more than a siding.
This idiotic planning destroyed all business located adjacent to the old heritage station, plus had it remained as our central station, footy fans could have got off there to attend Cowboys matches.
And I’m sure many other cities would have similar ideas for their residents and nation, I would love to see a record of promises made at election time that have never been done, I’m sure there would be many, but they most likely captured many flies.
IAN BRAGG,
Wulguru.
SCHEME NO SOLUTION
IT is amazing that the LNP is pushing so hard to reignite the unviable Bradfield Scheme, when there are mountains of objective, science-based studies that expose the serious flaws. They seem to choose to ignore the reality of the following science:
• Modern instruments have proved that much of Bradfield’s
original calculations (using available instruments of his day), prove to be flawed.
• If the Flinders River is still to be a major conduit to transfer some of the very expensive water west, much of it will be lost via a section of the river, which is a recharge for the Great Artesian Basin. Suggested losses of 25 per cent.
• Modern studies have established that much of the suggested irrigateable soils (excluding the river flood plain of deeper soils) would experience an intolerable rise in the water table along with destructive salination, within 10 years.
One must accept what has occurred in the Burdekin irrigation scheme, where the water table has risen from 10m to 2m and worse, which is accompanied by inevitable salination.
• There is a serious absence of suitable water storage locations, such as the unviable O’connell Creek scheme near Richmond. Further, there are a series of seriously accredited drilling programs along much of the Flinders, which show an unfortunate absence of suitable soils for constructing on farm ring tanks.
The LNP can ignore these facts,
and more, at their peril.
JOHN KERSH, Giru.
SLOGAN QUESTIONS
CAN someone explain what the slogan “Keeping Queensland
Safe” actually means.
Is it not having or accepting any cases or deaths from (not just with) COVID-19, despite these deaths representing only a small fraction of deaths annually from other causes? Does it mean keeping safe from job loses, financial ruin, bank foreclosures, bankruptcies, forfeited homes, family breakups, domestic violence, mental health issues, litigation etc?
Maybe it means keeping people safe from the hundreds if not thousands of suicides that will inevitably occur as a result of any of the above. Or perhaps it’s keeping safe from undiagnosed and often fatal medical conditions, like cancer, as a direct result of COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions? Or could it mean freeing up police from border checkpoints to help keep people safe on our roads from the drunken and drugged idiots who can’t handle many of the stresses already mentioned?
DAVID HALL, Mount Louisa.