Letter of the Week
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THIS week I wrote about responsible economic management, rising debt and the need for infrastructure that creates economic growth.
The extension of the light rail is one of those infrastructure projects. Treasurer Jackie Trad and Transport Minister Mark Bailey both lay the blame for no budget funding at the feet of the Federal Government for not putting in what they consider its fair share. They have a point, but we should also take a closer look.
The money the Federal Government spends also comes out of our pockets so while the three levels of government have different responsibilities, the money comes out of the same collective source.
The perception that the feds can afford it and should pay up is only as real as what we as a collective society can afford. And herein comes the political spin and play.
No, I’m not recanting my position that the feds should invest more in our light rail. It would generate economic growth that would benefit our city, state and nation. But I also question why we are in the position where the state cannot contribute more.
This is especially interesting when Mayor Tate states he only needs an additional $45 million than the state promised to proceed with the project.
Perhaps some of the decisions this government has made may explain our position. The almost fiveyear delay on Adani costing us royalties and jobs; the neglect of our country regions that are responsible for the majority of our export earnings; and a $4 billion-plus CST economic generating proposal sunk, not for the reasons claimed, but rather to bolster this government’s power base in Brisbane.
And we should not forget the significant cost of over 22,000 additional public service personnel employed by this government with more to come. It doesn’t end there by a long shot.
It’s a re-election budget on borrowed money we can ill afford and peppered with actions far too late.
A budget designed to appease a disgruntled electorate by a government that was forced to capitulate to public expectations revealed in what was considered an unlosable federal election for their party.
They failed to see what was coming, misjudging the mood and power of the silent majority, so how can we trust them to see what reckless borrowing will bring? BOB JANSSEN, GOLD COAST FURTHER to comments about the irrelevance of The Bible in today’s society, I just want to say that it is not just some “old book with little relevance”.
On the contrary, it is like the manual one gets when one buys a new car but it is written in code so that it can apply to all people in all societies in all times, if we bother to seek the information.
Jesus is the key to the code, not the Church or all those awful Christians who have failed over the years.
We all follow the road rules to keep ourselves and others safe and allow us to get to where we need to be as easily as we can. We may not agree with all of the rules but we obey them or suffer ... eventually.
The Bible is more and more being substantiated by history and archaeology etc and is the first plank of faith. Like the manufacturer’s manual in the car, you must accept it is true and then try to understand all the overwhelming stuff in there. We have to have faith that the manufacturer knows what He is talking about. BARBARA ELDRED, WORONGARY WHEN will the greens realise that people no longer take them seriously with their unproven climate change scaremongering?
Time and time again their socalled experts are proven wrong and everyone with a sound mind, expect Bill Shorten, knows that stopping coal mining will not stop one bushfire flood or drought.
Add to that the fact that the use of coal worldwide is increasingly yearly and we have the cleanest burning coal in the world. So please find another cause to get completely wrong and get out of the way of many people wanting to make a honest living for their self and family. ROD WATSON, SURFERS PARADISE ROBERT James Lee Hawke, love him or hate him, he was neither Labor or Liberal. He was not a green or anything other than a true blue Australian.
There is no doubt his life was spent in a quest to make the lives of all Australians better, a larrikin as well-loved as Hoges, a spokesman who only spoke Australian, not worried about political correctness.
He believed in us because he was one of us. Right or wrong you could never really hate him because he made his decisions based on the heart of an Australian.
Unlike many others his name will be remembered with those men who have shaped and served our country like McArthur, Hughes, Curtin and Menzies.
I personally believe, he would like all of us to sit down, lift a beer, look to the best we have and say “bugger the boss, here is to Bob. Mate you need another one”. RON NIGHTINGALE, BIGGERA WATERS THE Palaszczuk Government is regularly criticised, and rightly so, because of its inane, mistakenly focused policies (GCB 14/6).
The Gold Coast region has good reason to feel totally neglected. One would think Ms Palaszczuk and Jackie Trad, in their pseudo wisdom, would be taking all steps to increase the number of Labor seats on the Coast by at least providing much-needed infrastructure.
Queensland’s second-largest city deserves better. KEN JOHNSTON, ROCHEDALE SOUTH