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 Cross her Heart by Sarah Pinborough. Some secrets are worth dying for – the mind-blowing thriller from the author of the bestselling Behind Her Eyes.
WE are neither whingers nor negative people, but long-term residents of Kingscliff who have raised our families in this little piece of paradise.
We are not greenies or professional activists, but positive people who believe that state significant farmland should remain food producing for the benefit of future generations forever.
We can see the detrimental affect that a huge hospital would have on our village, which is the exact opposite of “a wonderful boost for this town”.
Think gridlocked traffic, insufficient free parking so our streets would be clogged, and congested roads all day, not just at peak school times. Add helicopter flights, (underneath a designated flight path for our major airport) and 24/7 ambulance sirens to the mix and we have severe impacts on all residents’ quality of life.
We agree that a new hospital is necessary, but disagree with the proposed site, chosen by people with no local knowledge and without community consultation.
We all live with the fact that during serious flooding many areas in our river valley are cut off from one another; this is why we have helicopters for serious emergencies.
This state significant farmland is worth fighting for, as once it’s gone it’s gone forever!
Our hope is that future generations will be able to enjoy fresh healthy vegetables from our local farms, not frozen imports from overseas.
BARB ROUGHAN AND CHRIS EVANS, KINGSCLIFF
I HAVE just returned from my 67th cruise, landing this morning from Vancouver, to read the continued negative barrage about the proposed Gold Coast cruise ship terminal.
What is it about the Gold Coast media machine that it fails to recognise even the basic advantages of a cruise terminal such as jobs, prosperity, and what is good for our whole community?
Cities vie jealously to attract cruise ship operators as they know full well the benefits, but not our dopey media who always pander to the green minority, the whingers, moaners, malcontents and purveyors of bad news, as they think bad news sells.
All the submitted cruise ship terminal proposals have been criticised by the media and the greens. There is no pleasing them
As Australia’s tourism capital, the Gold Coast needs a cruise ship terminal. Last weekend alone at Canada Place in Vancouver, one
spectacular structure incorporating 4 berths, a convention centre and a hotel, they had 7 visiting cruise ships over the Saturday and Sunday.
Many Gold Coasters who have cruised will agree with me, stop the negativity and get on with it !
DR STUART BALLANTYNE, RUNAWAY BAY
SALLY SPAIN’S long-winded diatribe (‘Country has lost its way’,
GCB, 17/5/18) brings to mind a similar outburst (GCB, 26/11/15), this time on climate change. Calling for Climate Day to be observed at a UN conference in Paris, she urged us to “turn from a course which is scientifically validated as destructive.”
Not long afterwards a book was produced – “Climate Change, The Facts 2017” – presenting an entirely different view. Its 22 contributors, most of them scientists, warned against taking an apocalyptic stance on this extremely complex issue.
The book is now in its second edition. Perhaps Ms Spain should get a copy.
This time, it seems, everyone is to blame – tree-clearing graziers, the hard-hearted Federal Government down on the ABC, live sheep exporters, even our own Mayor. As before, plenty of accusations and bald statements. Not many facts.
P.C. WILSON, MIAMI