FATAL CRASH
Dear Editor,
Dear Mr Purdie, forensic crash investigators last week charged a 36-year-old male with two counts of dangerous operation of a vehicle and one count each of drug driving and driver failing to restrain a child under four…. You may recall blaming our motorway for this head-on collision when it is obvious to anyone that head-ons are caused by one driver being in the wrong (opposing) lane! I cannot believe you were unaware of the circumstances and to blame the motorway/roundabout was a misplaced political action that did you no credit.
Linese Norrish,
Coolum Beach.
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ROBODEBT
Dear Editor,
The Dutton LNP Opposition are calling the Royal Commission into the robodebt scandal a witch-hunt. The LNP’s much discredited automated robodebt scheme caused extreme stress to around 400,000 Centrelink clients, of which some 2,000 died, many by suicide. Human oversight of the scheme was removed on the watch of then Social Services Minister Scott Morrison. Robodebt was finally ended in 2021 after being found illegal by the High Court.
In December 2013, the Abbott LNP government instigated a Royal Commission into the Home Insulation Program, commonly called the ‘Pink Batts Royal Commission’. The program began in 2009 and ended in February 2010 after four tragic deaths. All deaths were found to have been caused by dodgy companies’ work practices. Was that a witch-hunt?
What about the Trade Union Royal Commission which looked back twenty years into Julia Gillard’s relationship with a trade union official among other things? No charges were ever laid from its findings. Was that a witch-hunt?
Or is a Royal Commission only a witch-hunt when it is called by a Labor government looking into a massive public administrative failure by a previous LNP government?
Robyn Deane,
Bli Bli.
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TAXES WINDFALL
Dear Editor,
As our State Labor Government’s spending escalates out of control, it turns to manipulating fixed government charges, to increase income. Labor is notorious for high taxing and big spending.
Registration, licences, and utilities can all increase in cost, to feed Labor’s predictable, insatiable, spending spree. Historical borrowing to maintain Labor’s agenda, interest on historical borrowing, spin doctors, maintaining empty buildings and enhancing Brisbane and the Gold Coast, (centre of Labor’s universe for the 2032 Olympics), create a generational, financial Everest for our future.
Queenslanders living outside the capital, in regional areas, pay the same charges as Brisbane, without the benefits. The non-discriminatory, unavoidable added cost of utilities for householders, social groups, and businesses, are fixed, daily supply charges, on top of consumption charges for electricity and water.
Utilities are the geese, laying golden eggs, a perpetual goldmine for this government. Daily supply charges, recently introduced this millennium by Labor, have reached historic levels. Charges are euphemisms for taxes, which all levels of socio-economic strata pay, regardless. No one is exempt. To add insult to injury, this created indirect tax is increased at whim.
This adds significant hikes in utility costs for consumers. Recent privatisation of electricity and Unity Water, guarantee our Labor Government set returns from every household and business, ad infinitum. Government for the Party by the Party?
E. Rowe,
Marcoola.
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SCAMMERS
Dear Editor,
Police and authorities have issued many warnings about scammers so if a large well-known organisation demands money from you and they say (without proof) that you owe them lots of money, is it a scam or is it Robodebt? Just asking.
Margaret Wilkie,
Peregian Beach.
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