YOUR VIEWS

I LOVE the Gold Coast but it is not a port city. It has no natural harbour and this is the major stumbling block for any cruise ship terminal proposal.

Any large ship owner would want to be confident their ships could enter, berth and leave a port safely and easily. They would not like to risk their vessels being driven ashore by wind, tide or currents.

An earlier proposal for an offshore terminal incorporated a man-made breakwater to provide a harbour – but this concept has apparently been discarded.

Now there’s just a long pier jutting into the open ocean. I suppose the pier length may be elements of the environmental study.

Referring to the business case, I suppose some attempt at risk assessment has been made, eg: what would be the effect of increased cost of building and operating the pier and onshore facilities? RON SKEATES, SURFERS PARADISE WHO is going to operate the proposed GC Cruise Terminal? Also is the proposed public private partnership just for the construction?

Some 65 ships in the first year of operation – where will they come from? Brisbane is basically an allweather port, GC port will not be.

What conditions has the harbour master put on shipping using the proposed terminal and if they can’t use it due to weather conditions where do they go?

No matter how big the jetty or the rock break wall is the ships will need tugs. Will they be stationed on the GC or come from Brisbane?

Either way large cost for a single commodity port with no other shipping. Who pays? The cruise companies, then the customer. MM WELCOME home Schapelle after nearly 13 years of incarceration in an Indonesian hellhole.

Indonesian Judge Linton Strait was adamant that as 4.2kg of marijuana couldn’t fly itself then there was no other choice but to sentence Schapelle to 20 years.

To Linton, there was no way she might have been an innocent victim of drug traffickers in Australia.

To strengthen the judge’s conviction, Winata the baggage handler who gave Schapelle the boggie board bag, is adamant she was ner- vous and confessed she had the stuff. Winata’s account was responsible for this travesty of justice.

Now sections of the Australian media are cruelly insisting Schapelle confess.

Would you confess to the stupidity of taking a large amount of marijuana through two Australian airports to a Bali airport where they would be worth considerably less but probably cost you your life?

I believe some day someone who was at Brisbane Airport in October 2004 will discover a photo of a young Schapelle with her boogie board bag minus the excess baggage given to her.

I believe there should be a full inquiry into Australia’s handling of this ghastly Indonesian farce.

This would not be the first time drugs have appeared in innocent travellers’ baggage … it could be you or your loved ones next. JAMES MARSHALL GORDON ROBINA