Letters: Anti-Adani protesters threaten jobs

Today readers have their say on the anti-Adani convoy and how to tackle youth crime.

Conservationist and former Greens leader Bob Brown at a Stop Adani rally in Brisbane. Picture: AAP Image/Dave Hunt

BOB Brown and his anti-Adani convoy (C-M, Apr 26) are trying to destroy more jobs in Queensland, just as the state’s unemployment rate has risen to 6.1 per cent.

Like a lot of has-beens, he cannot let go of his glory days when he fought to save the Franklin River in the 1970s.

Subsequently, he destroyed most of the productive jobs in Tasmania.

Now, he’s on the road again, tilting at the Adani mine, as his band of ill-advised activists converge on the Galilee Basin in a fleet of petrol/diesel-powered vehicles that impact carbon emissions.

But this time the people in the towns where he seeks to destroy jobs are awake to him, and there is a good chance Brown will be shown up as an emissions hypocrite.

Les de Kretser, Indooroopilly

AS THE heat is turned up on both sides and the Stop Adani convoy nears its destination, let us all try to remain respectful, empathetic and compassionate to our fellow Australians.

As a paediatrician, parent and Queenslander, I care about the welfare of my patients, their families, my child and my country.

The issue at stake is not simply the proposed Adani mine, it is a far greater one.

Drought, floods, extreme weather and bushfires threaten our livelihood. We have seen the deleterious effects in the past 12 months.

Changes in climate do affect us, whether we believe in “climate change” or not.

Fossil fuels contribute to air pollution which affects our health, causing increased rates of lung and heart disease, stroke and cancer.

Renewable energy is safer for our health and sustainable.

Jacqueline Duc, Doctors for the Environment Australia, Tarragindi

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Jailing youth offenders is not the answer.

MENTORING HELPS BEAT YOUTH CRIME

ACCORDING to your front-page story (C-M, Apr 26), experts say drug use and high unemployment are to blame for Queensland’s youth crime crisis.

What about the lack of quality adult role models?

I strongly support Amnesty International spokesman Joel Clark’s comment that we should be investing in early intervention and prevention programs to keep kids out of prison.

I also suggest that informal voluntary youth mentoring would have to be one of the most cost-effective, untapped resources to address this issue.

Sure, we can invest in new detention facilities, as your Editorial recommended, but what do we do when they are also full?

Bob Helyar, Daisy Hill

I DO not believe that fitting tracking devices to juveniles to free up beds in detention centres is the answer.

If they reoffend while fitted with a device, do we fit them with another device every time they reoffend and go before a magistrate?

What is the deterrent?

There has to be some form of discipline-based punishment.

Adrian Surplice, Dayboro

A NATIONAL crime summit held in Queensland in 2008 indicated an alarming increase in youth crime among those aged 10-14.

Is it any wonder that this negative trend has spiralled out of control, with our State Government’s stubborn refusal to accept solid evidence of community-based youth prevention programs, which are proven to be an effective deterrent to youth anti-social behaviour?

Instead, the powers that be have implemented their own flawed solutions that have done little to curb the increase in youth crime, leading to the consequent overcrowding of police watchhouses and youth detention centres.

Solid evidence has shown community-based prevention and early intervention programs, implemented at an early age, form an effective deterrent to youth anti-social behaviour and crime.

This has been supported in a research report titled “Strengthening prevention and early intervention services for families into the future”, jointly released by Deakin University and Family and Relationship Services Australia in 2017.

Isn’t it about time the Government collaborated with organisations that have been effectively providing cost-effective solutions to this problem for decades?

Ben Brauer, president, New Beginnings International, Runaway Bay

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