LETTERS: Get the beggars off Bundy's streets

"IT WOULD appear Bundaberg is catching up with the third world,” says a letter writer.

Homelessness Week is held throughout the first week of August each year. Picture: Katarzyna Bialasiewicz

Beggars belief

IT WOULD appear Bundaberg is catching up with the third world.

Not only do we have an ever increasing graffiti problem, but we are now also blessed with beggars on the street.

I may seem a little harsh to complain about the unfortunates who are down and out but when it comes to taking a prominent position, lying on the main street footpath within spitting distance of the Police Beat with pitiful cardboard signs begging for money, that is too much.

To see these people smoking cigarettes and using his expensive mobile phone while claiming to be poverty stricken is pathetic and fraudulent.

Naive young people putting money in the collection hats, thinking they are helping these scammers, is so sad.

Not so long ago these beggars were known as vagrants, but now the sympathy-evoking term "homeless” is used and abused.

There are genuine homeless people in distress who do need all the help available but they do not resort to lying on the footpaths like third-world street beggars.

Interestingly enough, the local council treat this as a throw-away complaint, saying it's not their business and to contact the police.

A complaint made to the police at the police station received a casual reply: "We are aware of it.” Really!

Someone has not passed the message as this illegal activity continues.

Anyone who has been to countries such as Thailand and India will be aware and able to tell you about beggars.

If this is the image Bundaberg is prepared to promote about itself, so be it. It's just the thin edge of the wedge.

K and C JUDD

Bundaberg

Boat drama annoys

THE confected outrage being expressed by the State Opposition at the navy ship dive site being compromised by the ship lying on its side shows how political debate has ebbed to the lowest level in decades.

The stark reality is that the number of people who might utilise this dive site is indeed minuscule and these people will dive there anyway, regardless of the position of the wreck.

We have many more interesting and tourist-friendly items, attracting many times the number of potential divers, including the Great Barrier Reef, that we should be working to protect from the preventable effects of global warming, by following the scientific advice rather than bowing to the dictates of the monolithic fossil fuel corporations and their political puppets.

MAX TANZER

Elliott Heads

Praise for council

LET'S face it, Bundaberg Regional Council has never performed better for us residents or visitors.

Following on the good work of Mayor Mal Forman and his previous council, now Mayor Jack Dempsey and his progressive, mainly united council have now embarked on a schedule of good works and development that will serve our whole of region well into its future.

This includes very visible footpaths where none existed, road improvements; major sewerage works; a much-needed streetscape upgrade to a newly busy Burnett Heads; and continuing beautification and upgrading of parks and gardens and children's play equipment. It could not be clearer that residents are observing better values for their rates money.

All of this comes at a time of worldwide political and financial instability and when our previous mainstay, sugar, is in a state of near collapse.

Rightly the council has grasped the need to diversify and grow its opportunities through development.

Furthermore, although this development does not suit everyone, those against are akin to King Canute commanding the tide to go back - it ain't going to happen.

The council must go for it and we must approve, not for their sake but for our own.

NOEL BOWMAN

Bargara

Reinstate program

EVERY year for the past 14 years, 10,000 Queensland students including students in Bundaberg have learnt about where their food and fibre comes from thanks to the School to Industry Partnership Program.

This hands-on program is unique to Queensland and has operated on a minuscule budget of just $181,000 a year, until now.

The Palaszczuk Government has now decided to cut the program's funding and after this school year, the program will no longer exist.

Affected Bundaberg teachers and parents are rightly devastated and have contacted me to seek my support in reversing the government's decision.

That's why in Queensland Parliament on Tuesday, I asked the Agricultural Industry Development Minister how the government plans to encourage students to pursue careers in agriculture without the program.

Unfortunately for Bundaberg and the rest of Queensland, the minister could not answer the question and would not commit to reinstating the funding from January 2019.

The School to Industry Partnership Program is vital and, at such a minor cost, it should never have been put on the chopping block.

Agriculture is the heart of the Bundaberg region and this program is essential in safeguarding the future of where we live.

The government needs to reinstate the School Industry Partnership funding to avoid detrimental consequences for the future of the Bundaberg region and the rest of Queensland.

DAVID BATT

Member for Bundaberg