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.

BLACK Swan Lake here at Bundall is about to be destroyed by its leaseholder, the Turf Club.

Please use your power to save this rare freshwater refuge that provides shelter in surrounding bushland for nesting sites. It belongs to the public and has the potential to be wholly protected under the incoming swamp oak communities legislation.

There was no public consultation and no right of public submission when approval for the leaseholder to destroy the lake was pushed through council.

The land is zoned sport and recreation and public access is supposed to exist but that will be virtually impossible with carparking, horse team training yards, horse grazing and, possibly horse floats and unloading of horses at the nearby training facility.

The whole process of assessment and decision making regarding the lake needs to be reversed and revisited.

Decisions to destroy the lake have been made based on incorrect information and conflicted interests. Gold Coasters need transparency and confidence that decisions are made in their interests. SYLVIA COOPER, BUNDALL

YOU cannot judge a book by its cover and to say the so-called Black Swan Lake is safe by looking at it is a complete fallacy.

It is dangerous to children and at times toxic. Please fill it in. ROD WATSON, SURFERS PARADISE

WAYNE Moran, Chief of Staff, Office of the Mayor Tom Tate states in a letter to residents (GCB, 13/2) in response to Black Swan Lake concerns: “I can assure you there are no tourists and/or children coming to visit this borrow pit. I am one hundred per cent sure people would prefer to be enjoying time at the Botanic Gardens than walking around a toxic borrow pit.”

Wrong, wrong, wrong Mr Moran. How can ratepayers be paying for council staff to spruik such utter nonsense? CHRIS, SURFERS PARADISE

For more than 20 years the M1 has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. And for that same period both State and Federal governments on both sides have done nothing to fix the problem.

In all honesty something should have been done before the Gold Coast put in a bid for the Commonwealth Games. But no, it will be right mate. Wait and see what happens. And the Games are now less than 50 days away.

But wait, there may be a solution. Not for these 2018 Games but for the future ... way in the future. The Tourism, Trade and Investment minister Mr Stephen Ciobo has come up with a plan that could see us go from the GC to Brisbane in 10 minutes. It’s about using a futuristic 1000km/h rocket-like pod that will give us supersonic travel.

Puhlease. To his credit Mr Ciobo admitted the plan needed additional exploration. He also said the plan was unconventional and might sound far-fetched.

“If we are going to spend billions on a solution – and make no mistake, that is what it will take with another road – we should be looking at all options.”

And it had yet to be proven commercially.

So, after 20 years of do nothing that’s the result. I just don’t get it. ROCKY MILLER, BROADBEACH

THE council approval, using the ”no height limit” excuse, approving a proposal for a 40-storey concrete box monster in Hedges Ave are setting a precedent for future developments in the area.

Every time this happens, it is tearing out part of the heart of the Gold Coast, by systematically destroying the ambience of the area, effecting the life of the residents, some of who will lose thousands of

dollars, who will be overshadowed by a monster and lose their views.

The council call it progress, I consider it greed and disregard for the people who are effected by the “highrises at any costs” mentality. GEORGE SAALMANN, BROADBEACH

BARNABY Joyce’s position is untenable now.

He has to go and he knows it. He is unfit to be Deputy Prime Minister of this country.

He has betrayed all of those staunch National Party conservative traits of family values and the sanctity of marriage.

Additionally, his abuse of power and alleged misuse of public funds to create a job for his mistress also brings Malcolm Turnbull’s judgement into question once again.

An example of nepotism at its worst.Taxpayers demand a certain level of integrity when someone of such high office is on the public payroll. RAY ARMSTRONG, TWEED HEADS SOUTH

I AM an 88 year old pensioner and a customer of Australia’s largest power company, AGL.

I have been recieving a discount of 25 per cent off my power bill. Two bills ago it was cut to 18 per cent and my last one is down to 15 per cent, that’s a drop of 10 per cent over two account periods.

And I read in a report of the income of the CEO, Mr. Andrew Vesey, that he has recieved an increase of $240,000 a year and this calendar year his total income will exceed $6 million with bonuses etc. Well, bully for him.

And I guess by cutting the discounts of all pensioners and others, is how that increase can be achieved. The greed never stops. VERN EVES, TWEED