CONDITIONS Please keep your letters under 300 words, your name, address and daytime phone number must be supplied. Letters must focus on issues and not be personal attacks on individuals. Letters may be edited.
Post-election relief
Thank goodness the elections are over and congratulations to our re-elected representative (GC&M News, May 22). We can now travel our local area without faces beaming at us from the posters, no more babies being snatched up and kissed, no barrages of promises ranging from realistic to rash to ridiculous. I don't understand why, with an election looming, an incumbent government will make endless promises of what it will do. Why aren't they already doing it? Presumably we are about to enter the postelection phase of broken promises. Ian Pollock Witta
Election coverage
I note an oddity in your editorial last week about the federal election results for the Conondale and Maleny booths. In each of these booths the Greens gained more first preference votes than the ALP. Hence, in a two-party preferred for each booth, the Greens will have won the booth. The lack of live forums for Fisher during the campaign concerned many people as they did not get a chance to witness and query candidates. The only live forum that I know of was conducted by Solar Citizens at Kawana, whereas this newspaper was a significant source of candidate information thank you very much for this public service. Garry Claridge Maleny Editor’s note: Thanks for the feedback Garry. Just to clarify for all of the readers, the figures we included in the page 3 story in the May 22 edition were from the official Australian Electoral Commission website and, as stated, reflected the two candidate preferred results. From the official AEC Maleny booth figures, the LNP gained 512 votes, Greens 340, Labor 321, One Nation 70, Love Australia 31, United Australia 26 and Fraser Anning’s party 25. After preference distribution, the result was Labor 664 and LNP 661. The figures from the Conondale booth were LNP 105, Greens 105, Labor 69, One Nation 32, Love Australia 12, Fraser Anning’s party 9 and United Australia 7. After the allocation of preferences, the AEC reported that the result was Labor 184 and LNP 155.
Disheartening
We just went through an election. Did you notice, apart from temperature/climate issues, not one major party mentioned any of the current massive planetary life crises? We are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction with 26,000 species now threatened say scientists. Almost 200 species are becoming extinct each day. There has been a 70% world decline of seabirds since 1970 due to over fishing, habitat destruction and pollution. According to the research team, they used the annual consumption of just three prey fish species for nearly 300 varieties of seabird based on population counts and models to get these figures. All seabirds are losing food sources. Land birds are also in trouble with 74% of 1,470 globally threatened birds affected primarily by farming. A report says at least 40% of bird species worldwide are in decline due to farming, urbanisation and logging. Over the past ten years we've produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century
Glasshouse Country & Maleny News
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– 50% of the plastic we use just once and throw away. Enough plastic is thrown yearly to circle the Earth four times. Fish are dying across the planet due to ingesting plastics. A recent report in the UK Guardian (October 19, 2017) stated the biomass of flying insects has dropped by 75% since 1989, threatening "serious ecological loss". This scale of insect loss has prompted warnings that the world is on course for ecological disaster, with profound impacts on all of us. Chris Darwin, Charles Darwin's great-greatgrandson, said: "We are living in a car crash moment of natural catastrophes, with climate disasters meeting mass extinctions and leading to human hunger on an unimaginable scale." Western politics is bereft of leaders who have any understanding of what's happening, with no vision of what can be done to turn it around. Australian politics is still stuck in that dead end. Richard Giles Conondale
Heartfelt thanks
On behalf of myself and the Malcolm family I wish to thank everyone who attended and helped with Gwen’s celebration of life on Saturday, May 18. I would particularly like to thank the Glasshouse Mountains Advancement Network (GMAN) committee and community, John and Aileen Winterhoff of the Glass House Mountains Hall Committee, the Glasshouse Country RSL and all of those who spoke on the day of their memories of Gwen. It was a wonderful experience. A special thanks also to the Glasshouse Country & Maleny News for their support of Gwen for many years. Bob Malcolm Glass House Mountains
Pragmatic policies required
I would like to congratulate Andrew Wallace on his re-election as the federal Member for Fisher. I only hope that Andrew and the Morrison government do not bask too long in the reflected glory of the election win. There are many problems, both economic and social, the government will face in the next three years and I hope its polices to combat these problems are not ideological but pragmatic. For a start, global economic growth is slowing and there are indications that there may be a global recession, particularly given the US-China trade conflict and Trump's dysfunctional and erratic policies. Economic growth in Australia is slowing and, as the RBA claims, the economy is fragile given falling property prices, slow wages growth and record levels of household debt. The Morrison government has to tackle the disparity in wealth between the bush and the cities, it needs to resolve the phenomenal growth in income inequality, implement policies on climate change and the environment that balances our economic and climate interests, and reinstate the National Energy Guarantee now that Turnbull and Abbott are no longer in Parliament. Lastly, the government could do the Australian public a favour by posting Tony Abbott to Tuvalu rather than the US. While sitting on the beach
You Said It in Tarawa he could observe at close hand the impact climate change is having on our Pacific neighbours. Roy Clogstoun Maleny
Commuter parking in Landsborough
Landsborough locals continue to report that the all-day commuter cars spilling out of the Queensland Rail (QR) car parks (which are generally full by around 7am) have really become a problem for the town. Every day the 40-60 cars that cannot fit into the station car parks find spots in the surrounding streets and this directly affects access to local businesses, residential homes and the museum! Council has done what it can by introducing localised regulated parking (time limits) in response to local requests but the real solution lies with the state government’s Beerburrum to Nambour rail upgrade project (B2N), which includes a large additional car park to cater for the growth in passenger numbers. This proposed additional car park is a relatively small part of the overall $700-800 million B2N project, which is being delivered by the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) in partnership with QR. I have requested that they bring forward this expansion of the commuter parking but only on the non-town side of the station. This would really take the pressure off the escalating shortfall in commuter parking and demonstrate that the state government understands the impacts on Landsborough. I’d like to encourage anyone who agrees to let TMR know how you feel by sending a letter/email to the attention of the regional director via email at northcoast@tmr.qld.gov.au and B2N@tmr.qld.gov.au. This is a very important time for the state to act early and show they understand how much we need their help to support our country town of Landsborough. Rick Baberowski Division 1 councillor Sunshine Coast Council
National Volunteer Week
Last week was National Volunteer Week and last Friday, May 24, was P&C Appreciation Day so I want to particularly acknowledge the efforts of our hardworking P&C volunteers right across Queensland. School communities came together to pay tribute to a group of tireless volunteers who work hard to fundraise and support their local schools. Whether it be running the tuckshop, organising the school disco or annual trivia night, our P&C volunteers do an amazing job. I am lucky to support some wonderful P&C volunteers in my local electorate. The LNP supports P&Cs and believes that more needs to be done to lighten their workload. That's why we have announced a policy to air condition every state school classroom because we believe that volunteers shouldn't have to fundraise for something that should already be provided - particularly in a state like Queensland. It's part of ensuring our kids have access to a world-class public education system because we think cool kids are smart kids. On behalf of LNP leader Deb Frecklington and the LNP team, I want to thank all the P&Cs across Queensland for the work you do in supporting our local schools. Andrew Powell Member for Glass House 21
