LETTERS: Career expo, ABC, plane concerns

LAST month more than 1300 students and 200 general public attendees engaged with teams from more than 55 separate organisations...

CAREER OPTIONS: Organisers of this year's careers expo have thanked those who supported the event and made it a big success. Picture: Mike Knott BUN260515CAREERS3

Focus on careers

LAST month more than 1300 students and 200 general public attendees engaged with teams from more than 55 separate organisations to be inspired to achieve their future pathways at the 2018 Bundaberg Careers Expo.

The eight-hour long event catered for young people from Bundaberg State High School, Bundaberg North State High School, Kepnock State High School, Rosedale State School, Gin Gin State High School, Isis District State School, St Luke's Anglican School, Bundaberg Special School, Burnett Youth Learning Centre as well as members of the general public during a separate evening session.

The Bundaberg Regional Youth Hub and the 2018 Careers Expo Committee, would like to thank all organisations who gave their time to discuss future opportunities with our district's young people and in particular want to acknowledge the generosity and support of CQU, headspace, Knauf Plasterboards Australia, Workability, Triple M, W & T Goodfellow Electrical, Bundaberg Regional Council, TAFE Queensland, Rotary Club of Bundaberg East and Bundaberg Brewed Drinks.

We would also like to extend our thanks to the NewsMail and WIN News for the fantastic coverage of the event.

Students should also be commended on their attitudes and enthusiasm in making the most of this annual opportunity.

Without all of these people, the day could not have achieved the same success and we wish our region's youth every success as they embark on their future careers.

ROBYN KENT

Career Expo Committee Chair

Acting principal - Bundaberg North SHS

Don't sell the ABC

AT a conference of Liberal Party members last week, a proposal was put forward and supported by the majority of attendees to sell off the ABC, which includes SBS.

Some Turnbull politicians and even Malcolm Turnbull himself immediately dismissed the idea by saying there were no plans to sell off the ABC.

But don't let that fool you. These words came across as totally hollow without an emphatic guarantee that the ABC is safe from commercialisation.

Governments use this tactic all the time as a softening-up process to lull the public into a false sense of security before leading them to the privatisation guillotine.

And waiting in the wings are the salivating media barons who can't wait to get their hands on such a prize as the ABC.

Privatisation of public assets has been a total disaster for this country. Failure after failure of government interference in the sale of public assets has only brought chaos and hardship to the majority of ordinary Australians.

The sell-off of electricity generators, water, the Comm bank, state insurance offices, railways, jails, etc, has proven to be an unmitigated shambles that failed to deliver one single benefit for the owners of these assets; the Australian taxpayers.

But a lot of top-level government people made money from selling public assets to private enterprise.

If the Turnbull government doesn't unconditionally pledge the safety of the ABC, then it's almost a certainty it will join the other privatisation disasters.

B BARRY

Bundaberg

Plane concerns

WITH regard to both the Bundaberg Regional Council and Member for Bundaberg David Batt supporting the establishment of the Qantas Pilot Training Academy in Bundaberg, it leaves no doubt in my mind that they will not be adversely affected by any aircraft noise should Bundaberg be selected as the training site.

Recently Air Queensland conducted pilot training at the airport and residents living under the flight path and in close proximity to the airport were subjected to aircraft noise every four minutes from training aircraft doing touch and go short circuits for long periods.

I have written confirmation of hours of operation for training circuits as follows:

Training circuits permitted between 06:00 (local time) and 19:00, for Bundaberg-based operators, night training circuits are permitted until 22:00 (local night time).

If Qantas select Bundaberg is this the training hours residents are going to be subjected to?

As far as anyone saying the airport was in place before residents who live in close proximity, well on the other side of the coin, residents have also been living here for many years well before a Qantas Training Academy.

Constant aircraft training noise could effect peoples' property values.

R ROBERTSON

Avoca