LETTERS: Australia has no EU to save it from Labor

From rule-breakers and nanny states to homelessness and NRL’s latest hair styles – here are your letters to the editor.

CROSS ROADS: Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Picture: Peter Broelman

A MATTER OF STATE

The Daily's online letters to the editor (Daily, August 4) carried another of Michael Henderson's letters in which he says this: "What Whiteside fails to comprehend is that these end-of-life places are suffering derelict neglect by our capitalist society which prioritises the profits of commerce above the needs of the Welfare State, also called by some the 'nanny state'."

Henderson, like myself, is a community elder (we are past our seventieth birth date) who knows that making a statement as he has is adolescent and untrue because the ALP and unions are just as much part of our capitalist society as the rest of us.

Those societies that are "welfare states", such as Greece, Italy and Spain, are supported by the European Union capitalist states.

Here in Australia, Labor governments have never produced a budget in surplus during their term of governance.

But when one is a socialist blinded by ideology, this is unimportant.

There must be common ground that bypasses political ideologies.

For a social system to be generous to all, as promoted by Henderson, is the classic "nanny state".

Why should Australia follow Greece, Italy and Spain?

There is no EU to bail us out of failure.

All of us have responsibilities, and the primary is for the betterment of our family.

Then comes the advancement of the nation and its people.

Without this mindset, our society and the nation will never prosper to its maximum.

Bob Buick, Mountain Creek

*****

ACCORDING TO THE RULES

Even children know what "consequences" are.

They are a result of not obeying the rules, breaking the rules or being doggedly defiant about the rules not applying to them personally.

Basically: a law unto themselves, based on "pride" and arrogance.

The name "Karen" is now associated with these kinds of rule-breakers.

It is symptomatic of "oppositional defiance disorder". It is an attitude problem based on a warped interpretation of their "human right" to disobey, rebel and choose their own adventure, regardless of how it affects their peers, the environment and the broader community. Our jails are full of these recalcitrants.

Our highways and suburbs are subject to these rule-breakers who speed, drink-drive, drug-drive and cross boundaries. They just don't get it: that what one individual does affects the whole. It leads to unhappiness, fatalities, disruption and instability in our nation. What three Queensland teens thought was an ideal opportunity to make money, break away, cross boundaries, post their antics and flash their profiles on social media, like wannabe "Kardashians" for all the world to see how stupid they were and almost got away with it, has put our State in jeopardy and them on a criminal profile.

Throw the book at those who threaten our health in this precarious time. We are dealing with an unseen and insidious enemy of the state of our nation. So now Victorians know also what "consequences" are. For eight weeks they will feel the wrath of their Premier. Queenslanders are toeing the line and are being rewarded: free to travel in the State of Origin. Play with fire and you'll get burnt.

E Rowe, Marcoola

*****

INVISIBLE HOMELESS LEFT OUT IN COLD

Homelessness Week's "Everybody Needs a Home" campaign sees community groups pleading for more government cash to combat homelessness. But one section of the homeless population remains largely invisible, and they'll stay that way if banking and government policies aren't overhauled.

Minor changes to banking policy and government regulation, could see mum and dad investors create two million affordable places to live in under 12 months. A stark contrast to the mere 30,000 social housing properties being lobbied for by Homelessness Australia, costing the taxpayer $3.7 billion and taking four years.

A mix of red tape and outdated lending policies has hamstrung mum and dad investors who are in a position to help those who have more recently found themselves homeless - the 'invisible' homeless.

My solutions:

1. 500,000-plus Australian investors have two-plus properties

2. Each mum and dad investor convert just one of their investment properties into four micro-apartments (with a private bathroom, bedroom and kitchenette)

3. 500,000 properties times four micro-apartments equates to two million affordable places to live

4. Taxpayer cost = $0 (as opposed to the $3.7 billion requested from Homelessness Australia).

Homelessness Week is the perfect time for our banks and governments to step up and do their bit to redress outdated policies.

Ian Ugarte, Diddillibah

*****

'BOGANS WILL ALWAYS GIVE THE LAW THE BIRD'

Again the Sunshine Coast Daily (Daily, August 3) carried an opinion piece authored by George Helon (Smart Phone! Dead Driver!), must be a staff writer, on drivers using the mobile phone.

I have never seen any campaign by the media in offering a solution, so where is the media on this in the public interest? Missing, like the brains of the offenders?

While we have spineless politicians, the idiot bottom-feeders will flout that law.

To get fair dinkum to empower the police on to:

■ Confiscate the phone immediately for 30 days.

■ The second occasion remove the phone for 90 days and $3000 fine, and

■ On the third offence, confiscate phone and vehicle for 90 days.

I suggested these same actions some 10 years ago.

Still, all political parties are spineless and without real public concern and until we have leadership and enforceable punishments bogans and selfish people will always give the law "The Bird"!

Bob Buick, Mountain Creek

 

*****

V STANDS FOR VICTORY

There is definitely a likeness to the mane of the beautiful Spanish Andalusian horses some of our fashion conscious NRL players have had their hair styled on for this disastrous COVID-19 controlled season.

They have been given every opportunity to continue with their careers but have also had to sacrifice family life in an attempt to keep the game alive.

If for loyal supporters a season one that they would have preferred to have never happened others have had to sacrifice more.

Unfortunately it's been a lot harder on other sports and for those who have lost their jobs and even more so for those that have lost loved ones.

I wonder how next year's supporters will look back on this year and treat it as another hiccup and what will be the hair styles of some of our sports players.

I have a feeling it will be in the shape of a V for VICTORY.

Ernest Wright, Sunrise Beach

*****

RESOURCES NOT ENOUGH TO SUSTAIN HUMANITY

The alarmist article "'Demographic Disaster Tipped for Australia" (Daily, August 1) looks at future population levels purely from a conventional economics viewpoint, ignoring the long term adverse impacts of population growth. The human race is already using far more of Earth's resources than is sustainable.

Although minimising population growth (and even encouraging population reduction) will be a major problem, it is something that must be tackled on behalf of future generations. Otherwise, a time will come within a few generations when there just aren't the resources available to sustain humanity.

Adrian Prince, Peregian Beach

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