A meaty issue for Gold Coast shoppers

THE humble snag, sizzled to perfection atop a backyard barbecue, has long been as Aussie as Boxing Day cricket and red and yellow flags. Lamb chops, too, have a place in the national consciousness – so much so that the annual summer lamb ad on television is eagerly awaited.

And who doesn’t like a well-crafted meat pie or chicken parmigiana?

But despite our carnivorous leanings, butchers have disappeared from shopping centres in many parts of the Gold Coast.

Westfield Helensvale lost its only butcher late last year when Saville’s shut up shop – although customers can still purchase its quality meats at its nearby factory store or Harbour Town outlet.

Shoppers at Southport Park and Labrador Central shopping centres have also lost their local butcher shops recently due to the closure of Whitwicky meats, as reported in today’s paper.

Even Woolworths has been getting in on the act, announcing this week the closure of the majority of butcher counters across its stores.

At a time when cost of living pressures are rising, it’s a retrograde step.

Not everyone wants to buy their meat in shrink-wrapped four-packs, when two serves will do.

And meat presented in those cheerless plastic casings will never have the same great taste and freshness a local butcher can provide.

We are fortunate that a number of great butchers remain on the Gold Coast, including the aforementioned Saville’s, which has been serving the community since 1913. But it’s clear the industry is under pressure.

If we wish to continue enjoying great Aussie meals we must resist the lure of supermarket tricks and give local butchers our support.

IT is reasonably clear to even the most inattentive that parking issues are of paramount importance in Gold Coast City.

Re Bruce Bishop Carpark – the contemplated sale of a public property, which has the capacity for 1400 sheltered car parking spaces adjacent to tourist facilities, restaurants, beach and hotels in an iconic destination, beggars belief.

It is helpful that the locally owned facility is apparently making a profit, a not unlikely event as tourist and residential numbers continue to increase.

This may well help with the maintenance of a site that, like a number or others in the city, was gifted to the public by a local philanthropist, not bought by council.

But, even without profit, it is beyond imagination that some councillors have contemplated selling what once belonged to community as open space parkland and was later controversially converted to a car park, presumably to save council expenditure by providing this necessity.

This heist, the loss of open recreational space and then later possible sell-off of the converted asset, should have been only the material of comic fiction.

Insult to injury was added as even the proposed conditions of this extraordinarily contemplated sell-off of the community property apparently had zilch provision to provide parking.

It is heartening to find that some sanity may prevail among those commissioned to represent their community. There would be sustained and resonating public ire if the only thing left of the parking facility was possibly to have been a couple of signs at the entrances to Surfers Paradise, optimistically advertising the parking spaces available but fictional – their existence replaced by yet another private profit business, surrounded by circling vehicles looking for a place to park.

SALLY SPAIN, OXENFORD

TEENAGE crime is out of control and not just in Queensland.

We have the academics and dogooders all crying out that incarceration doesn’t work and we need early intervention.

Then they go silent or quote stats that are meaningless to the communities and victims.

We have too few police and weak legislation. The premier’s answer, raise the maximum penalties.

I thought this was a joke because it’s simply meaningless.

The judiciary sets its own guidelines on sentencing, therefore the government needs to bring in some form of mandatory sentencing for a range of offences.

Breaching bail should have serious consequences, but daily we see the same offenders committing offences on bail, then bailed again, offenders with no fixed address bailed.

It appears Queensland simply doesn’t have enough prison beds so the easy fix is bail.

DAVE GILMOUR, SOUTHPORT

magistrate who would lock them up. But hand-wringing loony-left dogooders, manipulated by the forces that seek to destroy Western nations, took away our right to self defence. Francine, Ashmore

I don’t think most people have a problem with changing the constitution to recognise First Nations people. But we already have multiple agencies and government officials representing Aboriginal people. Obviously they are not doing their job effectively. So maybe this is where we need to start reform and change processes for better outcomes. We all have a voice as Australians through our democracy. Any changes to that will be very divisive and create far more problems going forward.

Terrys (GCB 25/1/23), thanks and a fine response to my error regarding perhaps what I intended to point out about diagonals not diameter. But oops! Perhaps we’re both nonbrainiacs as we forgot that a square (in the physical realm) can’t

manifest as a peg anyway or it would be be a cube, having four square faces. Um, therefore wouldn’t fit in a, err, tube? I still suggest the hammer. It’s great to have a light hearted debate Rev SF.

To Angry Local re EFTPOS fees. If you are using a debit card, ie your own money, you are not charged a fee. You are only charged if using a Credit Card. Retailers are only allowed to charge you the same amount as they are charged by the terminal provider. The fee charged goes back to the person supplying the EFTPOS terminal and not the retailer. So, it is the person providing the EFTPOS facility who makes the money as they charge both the retailer a fee and also the card holder. Joan

Being born in a first world nation as good as Australia is like winning the lottery of life. Having good parents who love and care for you and give you guidance is the cream on top. But the rest is up to you, to make the most of the opportunities that

lay ahead. Opportunities that millions, if not billions, of people born in third world countries will never have.

It’s time to cut to the chase. Most children are a product of their environmental upbringing. If they are raised in a household where drugs, alcoholism, abuse and welfare dependency are the norm the only way to break this cycle is to remove them from that environment. No matter whether these people are white black or brindle it should be the way of government. This could be called positve racism and discrimination. Bluey

This case must be appealed by the D.P.P. No conviction recorded?? Did not the unprovoked assault on the victim count for anything and the horrible injuries. How can anyone in the justice system allow this to happen.do the crime do the time. G.B.

Michael Maguire (GC Bulletin 25/1)

what is ‘genuinely astonishing’ is that someone like Ashleigh Gardner freely chooses to participate in a sport that is the epitome of colonialism, namely, cricket. - Sheridan Whitehead

James Morrow’s opening points in his article’pride in the Past’ defy logic as he compares ‘Bastille Day’ and ‘4th of July’ to Australia Day. The inherent difference is the former two are both celebrating freedom from oppression. France from the monarchy and US from foreign British rule. Australia Day is instead celebrating what could be seen as the beginning of oppression. A more logical comparison would be France celebrating the beginning of the monarchy and US celebrating British settlement. I don’t think either exists. The Australia Day issue is difficult and the right and left with their simple answers and inflammatory rhetoric are as bad as each other. B2

If we are one nation how come there is two flags