YOUR SAY: ‘Now’s the time for state governments to step up’

‘Anna Bligh sold our state forests without a mandate from the people’

Smoke coming from Pechey State Forest in southern Queensland in November. . Picture: Kevin Farmer

State should take stand

THE Greens are the backbone of State Labor and Labor wouldn’t have been in power without Green support.

At one time, most states were under Labor leadership and they had to conform to Green wishes to shut down grazing, maintaining or trash burning in all national parks and state forests if they wanted Green support to stay in power.

Labor’s Anna Bligh sold our state forests, without a mandate from the people, and these once well-maintained areas with their own fire service were allowed to fall into major disrepair when the new owners took over.

If you go near a national park or state forest nowadays you would not be able to penetrate them a metre because of the dense trash undergrowth.

State governments are fully in control of all fire services, not federal so it’s a bit tough to blame Scomo for this disaster.

And with all this passionate debate about who is to blame and then most throwing their hands in the air and saying: “climate change” there doesn’t seem to be any ideas on how to combat this disaster.

Well let’s talk to our indigenous brothers about how to combat this – 60,000 years of yearly burn-offs across the country might give us an idea.

Leave no trash unburned, allow grazing which would help drought stricken graziers, open up the locked parks and forests, conduct full maintenance of fire trails and provide a lot more money for rural fire brigades.

Scomo has already addressed the funding with a two billion dollar commitment, even though fire services are a state responsibility.

Now’s the time for state governments to step up and take responsibility for their inaction and step up to full maintenance of our entire country to the standards that our First Australians practised for 60,000 years.

And the new owners of the state forests should be forced to maintain their own areas that they bought for a song.

Rafe McCormack, Walkerston

Water whys

WATER everywhere and not a drop to drink. Well, it depends on where the water is, as we shall see.

At Elbow Valley, Queensland, there’s a resort tapping into the aquifer for bottled water. Bottled water has been the craze for a long time now. But the water from Elbow Valley is being extracted for the Chinese market.

Then there’s the selling of water from the Murray Darling River system.

These goings on have been proliferating since council amalgamations. Peter Beattie said it would save money and we’d need fewer workers.

Now it’s seen as a huge failure, with cost skyrocketing as well as our rates. But never mind, councillors are enjoying an easy ride on the gravy train, with good benefits, while ratepayers suffer.

Instead of Peter Beattie being held accountable for his failings, he’s had appointments: running the Commonwealth Games, a failure but no accountability.

When I reincarnate can I come back as one of the protected species, like a politician? Democracy is supposed to represent the people, however, it doesn’t seem to work that way.

Jay Nauss, Glen Aplin

Bombs for peace?

THE killing of Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force, has raised a number of concerns about the consequences for the relationship between America and Iran and it will certainly not bring them any closer to a peaceful resolution.

You can’t bomb yourself to peace.

The imagery that President Trump is putting forward seems wrong to many. The surprise bombing is the modern-day equivalent of a sheriff shooting the bad guy in the back, and that was never the way of the hero.

Wars and any dispute need to be solved by words, not weapons.

Dennis Fitzgerald, Box Hill, Vic

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