Letters to the Editor, The Courier-Mail, Monday, February 4, 2019

Today readers have their say on the Mt Coot-tha zipline decision, parents shirking their responsibilities and harnessing the floodwaters in the north of Queensland.

THE zipline at Mt Coot-tha (C-M, Feb 2) has been approved by Brisbane City Council, tossing aside the protests of 90 per cent of 3600 submissions against destroying the area.

This echoes the decision by the Newman state government to “call in” the Jewel Project – now a huge monstrosity on the Surfers Paradise beachfront – dwarfing all around it. Locals nicknamed it “Darth Vader”.

So often we hear excuses for supposed progress citing tourism dollars – what about environment dollars? By destroying the beauty of pristine areas, we are also destroying the main reasons for people to visit us.

Carol Pearce, Surfers Paradise

IN A welcome move the Brisbane City Council has announced that it has approved the development application for the Mt Coot-tha zipline. Of course, the usual crowd of environmentalists are up in arms.

The project will involve minimal clearing and trimming of trees and will provide a low-impact, environmentally sensitive, world-class eco-tourism experience and, according to the council, will promote the ecological and cultural values of the site.

The zipline is expected to attract about 350,000 visitors each year and generate more than 100 new jobs.

Bob Meadows, Mansfield

THE report on Brisbane City Council’s approval for the Mt Coot-tha zipline failed to mention that the State Government has yet to rule on the project.

The council pretends the project is a “done deal” – far from it. I hope Minister Anthony Lynham will refuse this privatisation of public land that has been expressly designated as “a public park and for no other use whatsoever”.

John Griffiths, Pullenvale

IGNORING submissions opposing the zipline project is a display of total arrogance by the council.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk states that it would attract about 350,000 visitors each year. Just what sort of visitors does he envisage using the zipline? I bet they will not be the type who appreciate nature in serene surroundings.

A skyrail similar to the one at Kuranda would be a more preferable option surely.

Put this on hold and let the electorate decide at the upcoming 2020 election and not ramrod this through against the wishes of the majority.

Mike Flanigan, Toowoomba

QUITE apart from heritage and environmental considerations, which were the subject of the great majority of objections, Brisbane City Council’s approval of the Mt Coot-tha zipline raises serious issues of transparency and a lack of financial details about the viability of the project.

Has the assessment of this application been the subject of an independent probity audit? If so, it should be made public so that ratepayers know the rationale whereby it is legitimate for the council, as the owner of land that has been dedicated as a reserve for a public park, to submit an application to its own planning department for a development that will benefit a private operator. If not, an independent audit of the approval process should be undertaken.

Where is the business case for the zipline? Not in the development application which only contains a community cost benefit analysis and an optimistic economic impact statement with no operating projections to underpin it.

Richard Bramley, Taringa

Parents shun duty

Mothers and fathers expect teachers to bring up their children for them. Picture: iStock

WHY has the task of parenting today become so overwhelming that mothers and fathers expect teachers to bring up their children for them (C-M, Feb 2)?

Because the excuses offered up such as both parents working, “people are so busy”, “time is crucial”, are I’m sorry to say, lame.

When I was at school in the early ’70s, my mother worked full time to support me at a time when being a single parent was quite rare. Her job entailed a lot of travel, very late nights as well as weekend work.

Yet while there were some school and extra curricular events she had to miss, she was always present if I was receiving an award, had a major role in a school musical, choral event, sitting a ballet exam or there was a parent-teacher night.

Then there was my best friend whose parents owned a convenience store which they worked in seven days a week. In the five years we were at school together, they never had a single family holiday and when my friend got home she would help in the shop until after dinner.

Nevertheless, neither my mother nor my friend’s parents expected the private school to teach us how to blow our noses. Even if they were paying fees.

Furthermore, when we started at school in Year 8, I was 12 and she was 11. While we were taught by our teachers about the importance of timetables and being organised, when it came to our homework, if either of us had had to wait for our parents “to get more involved” by helping us out with our homework, we’d still be there.

And being a parent is not a popularity contest. Kids don’t want a best friend, they want a father and/or mother.

Carol da Costa-Roque, Annerley

Time to harness flooding rain to break the drought

Townsville floods as heavy monsoonal rain continues. Picture: Alix Sweeney

IF EVER there was a “no-brainer” of a choice, it is this: Record rainfall is flooding north Queensland while drought is devastating west and south Queensland.

What to do? Store that vast excess of water in the north and get it to where it is needed.

The cost for the dams and pipelines will be billions, not millions, but these floods and droughts will happen forever as they have in the past.

Which is more important, water to grow our food and our future exports to Asia, or a vote-catching cross-river tunnel in Brisbane? Both will cost about the same.

What is stopping this?

The answer is that there are more votes in Brisbane; there is a “no-brainer” of a Greens movement and a “no-brainer” of a State Labor Government, neither of which get their votes from the bush.

Neil Munro, Toowoomba

GIVEN the unfolding disaster in the north with flooding; the equally distressing crippling drought in the west; and the environmental disaster of the Murray-Darling Basin fish kills, would now be the appropriate time to reconsider the scheme devised by Lewis Beaton Sangster Reid?

His vision for the nation was to turn the floodwaters of north Queensland inland. He reviewed John Bradfield’s water scheme and came up with his own proposal. And given the knowledge and technology we have today, compared with the 1940s, is it now time to reconsider his plan? Or part of it?

Reid maintained that the combined Reid/Bradfield scheme would cost no more than you would destroy in one year of war. He had served in France in World War I.

The spin-off is not only food security, but it would provide Australians and immigrants with employment. And then there’s exports. In this way we could sensibly plan for “Big Australia”.

Pamela Odijk, Toowoomba

WITH record rainfall in north Queensland, what a pity that there are no extra dams to capture this water for future use.

Instead, we have the State Government more concerned with spending $5 billion on a Cross River Rail link to save commuters a possible seven minutes in travel time.

The State Government has its priorities completely wrong.

Peter Johnson, Robina

THE reason the State Government has not built any water catchments is because they had no idea this deluge would occur!

The standard excuse is “it’s a one in 100 years event”.

So are they going to be ready for the next one? Dam idiots.

C. Dicker, Bracken Ridge

WHY does the media, like parrots, repeat the “once in a hundred years flood” excuse over and over?

Brisbane experienced flooding in 1927, 1974 and 2011.

By their rhetoric we should be safe for the next 100 years plus. Yeah, right.

Gunter Blum, Toowong

WHILE I have total sympathy for the victims of the floods, I am not surprised.

After a 15-year absence, I visited Townsville, and was stunned by the new suburbs on land I had been told was flood plain.

Warwick Elsey, Wooloowin

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