Letter of the Week
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KEITH Woods (GCB 18/9) must be living under a rock if he cannot see the massive investment the Palaszczuk Government is making in education infrastructure on the Gold Coast.
Since 2015, the Palaszczuk Government has invested and is delivering a massive, near $500 million in school infrastructure across the Gold Coast. This half-a-billion-dollar investment is hardly the investment of a government that struggles to gaze beyond Brisbane, as claimed.
We delivered the new Picnic Creek State School in 2018 at a cost of $38 million and will deliver the new Foxwell State Secondary College next year ($64 million) and a new state primary school in Pimpama in 2021 ($54 million).
Eight Gold Coast state high schools have benefitted from the Palaszczuk Government’s 2020 Ready program, which is providing the additional classrooms needed to accommodate six full year levels of high school students from next year.
Thirteen schools on the Gold Coast are also included in phase one of the Advancing Clean Energy Schools program, which will see solar panels and other energy efficiency measures installed this year.
Keith was also quite unfair with his characterisation of my response to questions about carparking at Tallebudgera State School.
My department is investigating the viability of using land owned by Energex adjacent to the school for potential future parking.
However, initial advice provided to me is that the site floods, is traversed by overhead powerlines and is subject to an Energex easement which may make alternative use by the school problematic. HON GRACE GRACE MP, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION
KEN Johnson (GCB letters 19/9) rightly highlights some of past Labor’s failures to adequately provide for water in Queensland, to which should be added the plan by the great pretender Peter Beatie when Premier, who organised water be transferred from the Gold Coast regions to his home city Brisbane.
Hinze Dam, named after the minister in a former Coalition Government, was specifically constructed to support the southern Gold Coast region and Mr Beattie’s decision cost Queenslanders millions of dollars. RAY PAGE, VARSITY LAKES
ONCE again we have seen the superficial declaration of how desirable it would be to have a cruise ship terminal (CST) on the Gold Coast
(GCB letter by Gavin Harper 18/9). Leaving aside the argument previously stated in this newspaper that Surfers Paradise and Southport currently have little to offer the welltravelled mature-aged traveller, we need to remind the writer to go beyond the superficial “we want” attitude and remind himself of the
many good practical reasons why a CST on the Gold Coast is not a good idea.
The essential point is that we don’t have a deep natural harbour here, and the open ocean off-shore option brings its own batch of problems.
We don’t need any more waste of ratepayers’ money to justify the construction of this white elephant. DOROTHY LLOYD, GOLD COAST
THE Bulletin’s report (19/9) on the crime wave hitting this city is indeed of tremendous concern.
Innocent people of all ages are being attacked and robbed in what are in many cases a thrill experience. I’m sure the powers that be are aware of these antisocial events but what is being done to reduce these occurrences? We all know who to blame for this “do nothing” approach, so why don’t politicians show a degree of guilt and fix the issue?
Nothing short of a major crackdown will have any effect. Governments spend millions on benefits they enjoy and it behoves honest politicians to refuse five-star lifestyles and spend money saved on crime prevention strategies.
More police on active duty is a given along with our judicial system showing a toughness to discourage what many magistrates regard as petty offences.
Do something now Annastacia while there is still hope. KEN JOHNSTON, ROCHEDALE SOUTH