Letters to the editor

I fear Mr Cowin is defending Redland City Council’s J. Oberhardt’s February 7 letter which justifies council’s whacky Raby Bay consultation.

Cowin’s argument is that he does not want his rates used to fix canals and that Raby Bay owners pay for it all themselves like apartment owners with building defects do when the developer has left.

Trouble is that apartment owners own the apartments not the government as in the case of Raby Bay. Canal front owners own the small wall on the edge if it’s within their property but not the canals.

Cowin’s argument is off beam. Raby Bay ratepayers have been paying the lion’s share.

In 2016-17 Raby Bay’s 1194 ratepayers (1.8 per cent of all 66,128 ratepayers) paid $3.2 million in rates.

This is 3.8 per cent of the $83.6 million in total rates. In other words the average council general rates paid by all ratepayers are $1264 and Raby Bay average rates are $2680. This extra amount of $1.691 million is about three times council’s contribution to the canal wall fund of $530,000.

On top of extra general rates, all Raby Bay ratepayers paid a canal levy, most paying $2780 per annum for canal management. A few paid less. In 2016-17 this levy came to more than $3 million.

At budget planning time for 2016-17 council did not know what it had spent in 2015-16 and it had no major or works planned for 2016-17. There is no progress report yet on this year’s program.

This to-ing and fro-ing in letters to the editor is confusing. Why cannot council clear the air by saying what its statutory obligations are and who pays for what?

It can be easy and quick. It need not be a blame game, just an accurate statement of finances and canal wall status descriptions so we can move forward with a works program based on predicting canal wall failures according to present slippages instead of reacting to catastrophic failures as they happen. It can be done. I could do it, why not council?

- Z. Johnston, Raby Bay

JOYCE Webb was the honorary secretary, treasurer and chief fundraiser for the Russell Island Bridge Lobby for more than 33 years.

She worked tirelessly for people living on Russell. She, her husband Ron and committee members have been instrumental in getting police, ambulance and fire brigade services, with their main objective of building a bridge to North Stradbroke Island via Russell Island.

After Ron passed away in 2002, Joyce continued, writing to politicians, developers and land owners. She remained positive a bridge would come to pass.

With the retirement and passing of Joyce, there are vacancies on the committee for a secretary and treasurer who also becomes chief fundraiser. Anyone who may be interested should contact in writing Rose Reidlinger, 199 Railway Parade, Thorneside.

A meeting will be held in June.

- R. Reidlinger, Thorneside

ALMOST six months ago I resigned from the ALP after six years as a member due to the party’s stance on the Adani and Toondah Harbor issues.

I have since been barred for a year due to my comments during the state election.

In my time with the party it became clear that many rank and file struggle to have a say in policy processes and pre-selections – particularly regarding senate candidates.

As the former secretary of the reform group Local Labor (the party’s largest state association) I worked hard with the committee and the Australian Fabians Society to encourage an overhaul of how the party campaigns, fundraises and functions.

This process is under review at the upcoming state conference. Some ideas are to merge electoral campaign bodies into a single body to combat bullying and to introduce a disputes tribunal ombudsman to avoid factionalism and ensure transparency.

With the national conference soon under way, the federal presidential ballot is shaping up to be a testament of what direction the party will take. On one hand the left is running front bencher Mark Butler who is promising widespread reforms to increase the say of rank and file in pre-selections and on the other hand the right is running former treasurer Wayne Swan who is campaigning on a platform of fighting inequality.

While Swan was a good treasurer, it should be noted his faction opposed reform in previous years. Swan may do well to battle socio-economic issues but if the party wants to move forward and grow Butler’s election is a no brainer. Will members choose growth or bust? Time will tell.

- C. Sorensen-Karklis, Victoria Point

S. Barnes (RCB, April 4) warned us about council’s contentious splitting of a Victoria Point block to benefit developers.

One wonders how the average resident can possibly have a life and be informed of council activities that might impact ratepayers. What disturbed me most was that the local councillor did not know of it.

I recently read the latest council fluff sheet. Would it not be nice to have a report on what has or will be discussed in council in each division, how each councillor voted on issues and what issues they raised?

In that way the councillor would be judged accordingly. As it stands the resident has no idea. Judging from some stories in the Bulletin, the council performance has not been very successful.

I wonder why all this could not be a regular supplement in the Bulletin. It would have to be less expensive and even recyclable.

- R. Murray, Redland Bay