Letter to the editor

These cars were parked in such a fashion as to make it almost impossible for a vehicle to pass.

Two men on their way to work tried to help, spending 10 minutes with me but were unable to assist. One of them advised calling the RACQ to tow the other vehicles out but it would have been impossible to get a truck into the space.

A lovely young woman offered help, saying she was pretty good at this sort of thing. After 10 minutes inching back and forth she extricated me. These lovely people know who they are and I would like to thank them for their kindness.

I photographed the number plates of the offending vehicles and will pass them on to Redland City Council for what may or may not be some action.

- Alice, Russell Island

Opposition leader Bill Shorten plans to plunder the hard-earned retirement funds of 5799 retirees in Bowman.

In the meantime drought stricken farmers and flooded-out Australians in north and western Queensland are left largely to fend for themselves. Please explain the fairness of those priorities Dr Tom Baster.

- V. Mahony-Hodges, Raby Bay

I built my house in 1973 and joined the Redland Shire Council as an employee in 1974.

General meetings minutes were circulated to staff to read, and, on reading that a bus stop shelter had cost almost as much as my three-bedroom home, I was dumbfounded and queried the minutes. The circulation of minutes to staff ceased forthwith.

One problem with our democratic system is that people pre-selected for election to government appear to not have the necessary skills to do the job.

One officer put in charge of the rates section said he did not need to know anything about rating.

Presumably, by extension it is not necessary for the finance minister to know anything about financial management.

The provision of artwork at a cost of $150,000 to the community, in preference to infrastructure, is an indication of a need for financial management skills in our council.

Perhaps it is time that, instead of electing people to make financial decisions for us, the community should have a say on how our money is spent.

One other thing, I find readers' letters the most interesting part of the paper, which I have received free for many years, for which I thank you.

- D. Skiggs, Birkdale

A culture of blame is never far from the surface, we’d all agree.

How ironic it was that the editor (RCB, Feb 20) chose to blame those who rightly question the performance of people who are handsomely paid by them.

The audacity of those ingrates. Do they not know they have the best servants money can buy?

The only problem was that the editorial did not go anywhere near far enough in apportioning blame toward the guilty parties, because if it did, it would be doing the job it’s handsomely paid to do as well – report local events of interest and “keep the bastards honest”.

It’s been a long time since Don Chipp and his Australian Democrats ran a ruler across government to make sure we were getting reasonable value for money.

In fact, the party died a natural death because we did not think we needed them or anyone else to keep anyone honest.

The irony is that most of us are still of that opinion despite witnessing lots of blame being laid lately.

Maybe it is too much. So much, we’ve become shell-shocked by the size and scope of what’s hidden in plain sight today, for anyone with eyes to see just below the surface.

- P. Callil, Capalaba

According to S. Davies (RCB, Feb 20) my letter criticising MP Andrew Laming’s behaviour regarding the removal of homeless people living in the makeshift refuge known as tent city was “an ALP-inspired fiction”.

I have never had an affiliation with any political party. My letter was written based on the RCB’s informative article and on my experiences as a volunteer with the Redland Community Centre’s Homeless United program where I witnessed the anguish caused by Mr Laming’s actions.

This is a wealthy country and it is unconscionable that so many Australians do not have adequate housing. Unfortunately, until the homeless stop being used as pawns in the political process, nothing is likely to change.

And S. Davis, freedom of speech is a fundamental right in a democracy. Do not assume that because someone is critical of a politician’s actions that they are inspired by politics. Sometimes people speak out just because it seems the right thing to do.

- L. See, Cleveland

Having read your front page article, I noted that the Grand View Hotel name changed from Brighton Hotel in 1910, which seems to be common knowledge.

However a search of Trove reveals an advertisement that suggests it was operating as the Grand View Hotel in April 1909.

The menu list shown makes interesting reading, no bangers and mash my favourite, unfortunately, which I had there recently.

- K. Murtagh, Redlands

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