Politicians not listening to the community and failing to care for our natural environment are key themes of letters published this week.
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Will Toondah be a precedent?
Will the Toondah PDA and 3600 apartment mega development be lauded as a precedent that others will seek to follow should the project be approved?
It could mean open slather for other projects that would destroy large areas of Moreton Bay.
Moreton Bay is unique and needs to be valued not trashed!
What is really worrying with Toondah Harbour is the effect on the shorebirds who migrate each year and build up their strength for another epic flight to breed in Siberia.
A further issue is the destruction of the environment and the pollution of the bay.
At the end of the day, what could we be left with? Another glut of units in Cleveland. Why does money seem to take precedence over the environment?
JF
NSI
Council should be working for the whole community
As a resident of the Redlands and a former team building consultant, from my perspective the Redland City Council is still in the storming stage of team development. This stage should have been over several months ago.
If the Council continues in this stage I don’t feel at all confident that its aspirations delineated in its Corporate Plan can possibly be achieved.
Whilst the Council should be coming together to work for the whole community, there are community groups that are showing them how to do it.
Community groups such as Redlands2030, Redland Museum, the Australian Conservation Foundation, Birdlife Australia, the Queensland Wader Study Group, the Wilderness Society, the National Trust, Birkdale Progress Association, the Koala Action Group and others are working together for the good of the community.
These groups and their many supporters are interested in protecting Australia and its heritage – not just for themselves but for future generations.
JD
Cleveland
Politicians should respect the views of all citizens
We are privileged to live in a stable liberal democracy. Recent events in America remind us we cannot take orderly and civil political processes for granted.
The 2020 Queensland election gave us the opportunity to exercise our right to have a voice in shaping our government. The strength of our democracy comes from sharing a diversity of views and ideas and participating in reasoned debate.
A range of topics were canvassed by candidates in Oodgeroo.
I was disappointed to read in the Redland City Bulletin that our re-elected member, Dr Mark Robinson, has “dismissed” the views of many of his constituents around coronavirus and Toondah Harbour as “fear campaigns”.
Almost 60% of voters gave their first preference to candidates other than Dr Robinson. More than one in four voters supported candidates explicitly opposed to the current Toondah proposal.
Politicians treating differing views as irrelevant or fear campaigns is an insult to so many people who have carefully and deliberately exercised their democratic right.
The LNP is licking its wounds on a Statewide basis and wondering what went wrong in their campaign to win government. But all political stripes are struggling to connect with voters.
Perhaps the starting point is for politicians to genuinely listen to and respect the views of all citizens, not just hearing the echo chamber of their rusted-on supporters.
Should we look to our representatives to govern for the whole community, or are we doomed to follow the USA path of blind partisanship and division? Our actions (or lack of) will determine which way we go.
PH
Wellington Point
Possums and other wildlife!
Some people hate possums.
A nearby resident has a dog with the longest legs I’ve ever seen on a dog. I hear it jumps up trying to catch possums in a mango tree. I heard that it got one last week …and ate it.
I love possums but now they are rarely seen. I still place fruit out late each evening into the box tied to tree and hope that helps sustain possums in my area.
We have very few koalas, less possums, a few but scattered bats but I know what we had in Capalaba when I moved here in 1986! The familiar story and the rhetoric of the development industry has always been….but…’where will people live?’
But now we can seriously ask our politicians – where will our native animals live?
AG
Capalaba
More Letters To Redlands2030
Property Development Register Needed
Holey Moley, Corporate Plan Gobbledegook And Toondah
Redlands Corporate Plan gets a serve
Featured image
We note that this artist’s impression, provided by a member of the local community, is not intended to be an accurate representation of Walker Group’s proposal to construct 3,600 apartments on wetlands next to G.J. Walter Park.
In particular, the Norfolk pines should have been drawn a little bit taller.
Redlands2030 – 20 January 2021
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