Letters to the editor

What does mayor Karen Williams mean by saying “Capalaba holds tremendous potential as the entry to Redlands, that the project will help open up the area’s untapped potential to deliver a high quality, innovative and creative outcome”? What will the innovative and creative outcome really be like when disruption to people and traffic by building operators making renovations are completed?

Is the plan to tear the existing library down or renovate? It seems that renovating the facility by opening it up to create added space is what’s needed.

What comes through loudly with commuters, is the need for fast transport into Brisbane. With population explosion, Labor politicians moved the bus terminal beside the library, a dark, inappropriate place, then later to its present location. The Eastern Busway is not a priority with the state government, as Cross River Rail is. Rail also needs serious attention, with Cleveland line referred to by commuters as the misery line.

During the time locals were asked to give views on how they wanted Capalaba central developed people were unanimous in going along with original plan to build an overhead walkway connecting the two shopping centres. This would have saved having to cross busy Redland Bay Road, but what we finished up with was a central area transformed into one king-sized concrete car park between strip shops and the creek, which also had tonnes of earth bulldozed into it to support a man-made ugly walkway on the creek bank with a tavern and bottle shop we did not want. 

So yes, let’s see new life breathed into a cluttered central area. To me and countless others, it would seem like a miracle.

- A. Glade, Capalaba

I HAVE just hung up the phone from an obvious would-be scammer, wanting to discuss a fictitious car accident I’m supposed to have had. Having had too much of this, and I don’t suppose I’m the only one, I strung him along a bit, hoping to wear him out.

But I was subjected to a string of abuse and swearing. In these high-tech days cannot authorities track-down and eradicate these parasitic pests?

- L. Watson, Redland Bay

I HAVE read with interest the ever increasingly virulent opposition to the Toondah Harbour development on the grounds of environmental impact, and I cannot but wonder at the shortsightedness of these quasi-environmentalists. 

Developments like this are not going to stop because of the impact on a handful of eastern curlews or bartailed godwits. There is only one way that this and other developments are going to be stopped for certain and that is to stop population growth. Curtail immigration to a sustainable level. Bring in laws whereby the first three children in a family get free schooling and medical care, parents of the fourth child should have to pay 50 per cent of these costs and 100 per cent for the fifth child onwards. Once their schooling is over then they should be back on a level playing field with their siblings (that is, punish the parents not the kids). Only then developments will stop for certain.

Developments are going to happen whether it is in Cleveland or elsewhere as long as the population increases. It is as inevitable as dying. By stopping it at Cleveland you are just shifting it to another locality. If you are a true environmentalist then you should be concerned for the world, not just a few hundred square metres of dead mudflats – and the world is dying because of unsustainable population growth and all its associated problems like pollution, climate change and depleted fish stocks.

- B. Wills, Cleveland

KATE Jones, the Tourism Minister and responsible for the implementation of the North Stradbroke Island Economic Transition Strategy, made an unannounced visit to the island, no doubt at the invitation of QYAC, to preside at the turning of the sod at the proposed site of the Cultural Centre (RCB, Dec 19). She was reported as saying, “This cultural centre will showcase the island's and First Nations iconic talent and art from across the world” and “we're working with Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation to deliver projects that we know will create jobs for the Quandamooka people”.

I note the emphasis on working with QYAC and creating jobs for the Quandamooka people. That is the mindset she inevitably trots out every time she is interviewed about planning for NSI’s future post sand mining. Where do most island residents who also face an uncertain future fit into her scheme of things? Or should the NSI ETS be renamed QYAC ETS?

Will the taxpayers on the island who seemingly do not have a voice be called on to contribute to the purchase of international art as well as the multi-million dollar construction cost?

Is she aware that Walker Corp’s development at Toondah Harbour will include a cultural centre?

Finally an extract from The Australian newspaper last week: “The Queensland government has been accused by the state Auditor-General of hastily announcing half-baked unsolicited proposals from the corporate sector (here one could include QYAC), creating undue pressure to advance projects that haven’t cleared basic hurdles.” That resonates with most North Stradbroke residents.

- B. Giles, Dunwich