Letter of the Week

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 The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn. It debuted at No 1 on the NYT best seller list in the US and is a gripping psychological thriller about an agoraphobic woman who believes she has witnessed a horrible crime in a neighbouring house.

Rules: Best letter competition runs till January 19 next year. Entries close each Thursday at 5pm. The winner is selected by 2pm each Friday. Book of the month valued up to $49.00. 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.

LEAVING the Carrara Sports Centre, the return lanes to Broadbeach were stopped.

No detour signs.

The traffic warden directed me into a dead end road system. 15K later I found my way home.

Is it too difficult to train a traffic warden to tell people the alternative route home?

As a resident the hype and inconvenience surrounding the Commonwealth Games is starting to be a little pain in the neck and moving downward.

However, I know the pain, will be all worth it, as the millions and millions of dollars coming into the Gold Coast will be reflected in your next annual rates.

Believe me, yes pigs do fly. GEORGE SAALMANN, BROADBEACH

PAUL Weston’s article (‘Finetuning the art of turning a profit’, GCB, 23/3) on the HOTA funding crisis highlights the idiocy of the decision to sell the Bruce Bishop carpark.

Why is the council selling a profitable asset – the car park and transit centre – to fund what is and always will be a loss-making venture?

This sort of short-term thinking is financially irresponsible. I’m not suggesting that arts activities should not be funded, because everybody recognises that they are usually loss-makers in financial terms, but selling a financially viable, income producing asset to pay for them is madness.

Councillors who voted for this should take a longer-term view, rather than looking for cheap and easy fixes for the financial problems due to a lack of proper forethought and budget planning.

Thank God the Save Surfers Paradise group is taking them to task over this.

GD, SURFERS PARADISE IN reference to Terry Keane’s letter commenting on my letter (GCB, 21/3) regarding indigenous welfare payments, I apologise if my letter read as if I was, in his words, “Spruiking nonsense”.

I sought out an indigenous newspaper, The Koori Mail, to understand indigenous welfare payments in the belief that Michael Gravener who governs 1200 people living in 16 homelands must, like Terry (who was lived and worked in 17 aboriginal communities), have a thorough understanding of the need for welfare payments in homeland communities (whether by cash or The Basics Card).

Mr Gravener, who is the chief executive of Urapuntja Aboriginal Corporation, commenting on the Basics Card reported that indigenous people are responsible and able to manage their welfare payments.

The Basics Card, according to Centrelink, is where 80 per cent of a person’s welfare payment is put onto a cashless debit card which cannot be used to gamble, buy alcohol or withdraw cash.

The remaining 20 per cent is put into a bank account which can be withdrawn for cash – not 80 per cent which can be withdrawn for cash which Terry Keane had accidentally put in his letter.

Terry Keane, when commenting on The Basics Card said it was an absolute necessity, “because if it did not happen, the actual real children would not eat”.

I am not a policy maker and do not have the depth of understanding of homeland communities that Terry Keane and Michael Gravener have.

All I was trying to understand was why Centrelink was giving welfare recipients to some indigenous Australians via the Basics Card which Mr Gravener (who should be an expert in indigenous affairs) stated is “treating people like children, not allowing them to be responsible for their own money”.

My family allowed me to have a brief look at two homeland communities while visiting, and one did indeed curl my hair.

I apologise if I have upset Mr

Keane or others with my letter, I have a lot of empathy for all people, particularly First Nations Peoples. I look forward to reading his book. JOELLA DRURY

HOW can we look at identifying the extreme left Neo Marxists in the Australian political world from the extremist rights activist quickly labelled as fascists and Nazis?

I have watched television, listened to the radio, commercial and public like the ABC and SBS, and read papers and believe I can now label who the radical lefties are by using the sources of income and the benchmark.

Let’s compare those in business for themselves, including tradesfolk and small business shop owners, and those who have a paid employment position with private or commercial and industrial world and those who are paid or obtain grants for the public purse.

The public purse is us, the folk who are taxed by governments, all governments from local councils, state and federal government in Australia.

Therefore, I have deemed that radical lefties are the central core within all tax-funded groups like the ABC and SBS, all arts funded by us, and especially all levels of education establishments funded by the state.

It is from these main groupings that all the left initiatives were generated and developed later through governments and eventually into law and regulation.

Of course, the Lefties will attack this letter and defend their view of the world through their rose coloured glasses, that is their right.

Should they do this, it will be interesting to read their alternatives to defining extreme lefties and righties.

ROBERT S BUICK MM JP, MOUNTAIN CREEK