YOUR SAY: ‘Fireys do an incredible job protecting the public’

‘So many locals have questions and Labor isn’t answering them’

LOADING UP: Vic Axiak (on truck) and his son Sam load equipment onto a Rural Fire Service Queensland truck prior to departing Mackay for Biloela.

Land management

QUEENSLANDERS are being given a chance to have their say on the effectiveness of land management policy and the frequency of bushfires.

The opening of the Federal Government inquiry has been welcomed, after the Palaszczuk Labor Government shut down attempts by the LNP to establish a State Parliamentary Inquiry on behalf of those who have suffered the impacts of two intense fire seasons.

I’ve visited communities that have been in the crosshair of these ferocious blazes and so many locals have questions and Labor isn’t answering them.

Stories of mismanaged state-controlled land and issues with getting approvals for hazard reduction burns are frequently raised.

Queenslanders deserve to know why Annastacia Palaszczuk has overseen an 83 per cent reduction in overall fire prevention activities.

Queenslanders deserve to know why this Labor Government has slashed funding for the Rural Fire Service by $13 million.

Our fireys do an incredible job protecting the public and property, but they’re being let down by a Labor government that is failing to ensure they’re being backed up by suitable fire preparedness and land management practices.

It is outrageous that it takes the Federal Coalition to undertake an inquiry into an area of responsibility that the State Labor Government should be managing.

The LNP encourages all Queenslanders to make a submission to the Federal inquiry into the recent bushfires.

Lachlan Millar, LNP Fire shadow minister

Equality for males

IS IT bias in the media when it’s reported that when a woman murders her partner it’s murder, but when a man kills his partner it’s labelled domestic violence?

This subtlety gives the appearance of men being the bad guys even though Senator Hanson in a recent parliamentary speech stated that men make up nearly 30 per cent of the victims of domestic violence.

In her speech she said what nobody else has stated, by highlighting the jobs done by men that women don’t usually want to do, and thanked them for their willingness to work in areas of low female participation such as interstate truck drivers, mining and as recently observed, volunteer firefighters putting their lives at risk.

Senator Hanson also pointed out the push for women in jobs other than those mentioned, such as CEOs and other highly paid work with less risk, but makes the headlines.

Good on you Senator Hanson for bringing to our attention this inequality and not just for women.

Jay Nauss, Glen Aplin

Dogs vs turkeys

GW, ANDERGROVE is incensed by my “offensive” letter encouraging kindness to turkeys (DM, 17/12/19).

But would he be equally incensed if I’d been encouraging kindness to dogs at Christmas? I think not.

Comparing the cruel slaughter of intelligent, sensitive turkeys with the harvesting of vegetables is absurd. Plants don’t have the receptors that are programmed to respond to pain, and nor do they have brains.

But if the writer genuinely believes plants suffer he should be shunning meat because a meat eater is responsible for the death of far more plants than a person who eats plant food only. This is because the animals he consumes eat plants for their entire lifetime.

Jenny Moxham, Monbulk Victoria

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