PUBLIC THANKS  

Dear editor,
Today I was accompanying my cousin when she realised she had inadvertently left her phone near the arts and crafts pavilion adjacent to the surf club. I would like to extend my gratitude to the two young gentlemen who noticed and returned the device to her. Thank you both.

Shaun Sayer,
Coolum Beach.

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THANKS TO SCRC 

Dear editor,
I would like to congratulate Sunshine Coast Council on their decisive action regarding vandalism of vegetation along David Low Way at Coolum Beach. The new sign erected opposite luxury units that wish to improve their view is brilliantly effective.

We moved from a beach area where poisoning of trees along a cliff top was a big issue, but  the local council there seemed incapable of stopping it.

Thank you, council.

L Stephens,
Mount Coolum.

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PARENTING 

Dear editor,
For many of us raised in the fifties and sixties, childhood was a wide-open paddock and being told to be home by tea. We rode our bikes until the streetlights blinked on, argued with friends, made up games out of boredom, and learned – sometimes the hard way – how to sort ourselves out.

Today, a parent can glance at a phone and know exactly where their child is – and often does. But research suggests that when parents hover too closely – stepping in fast, smoothing every bump – children tend to show slightly higher anxiety and depression as they grow older.

Overparenting isn’t the same as being involved. It’s more like being on permanent alert. It shows up when adults mediate every playground fallout, rewrite the school project, or pressure the netball coach because little Mia didn’t get enough court time.

It’s well-intentioned, of course. But an anxious child can lead to more parental control, and more control can feed anxiety, so the cycle can spin in both directions.

Kids need to learn self-regulation to build resilience, and it’s learned through practice. They need to try, fail, wobble, recover, and try again, with adults nearby but not always intervening.

The 1950s and 1960s come to mind not because they were perfect – they weren’t – but because free play gave us room to make choices, solve small problems, and test our limits.

I’m not saying we need to send kids back to roaming the neighbourhood barefoot until dusk. It’s more about giving them age-appropriate freedom to stretch their wings.

Maybe that’s the real lesson from our “be home by tea” childhoods. Not the nostalgia, but the reminder that confidence grows in the space between support and independence.

Sometimes the best thing an adult can do is take one small step back, so a child can take one small step forward.

Garry Reynolds,
Peregian Springs.

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COUNCIL WORKS

Dear editor,

With the road slippage repair work on David Low Way near First Bay, we were originally told it would start in February 2025 and be completed by June 30, 2025.

Work did not commence until April 2025, and here we are in May 2026, and the work is yet to be completed. There is still no access to the car park, parts of David Low Way are barricaded, and the beachside pedestrian pathway from First Bay to Second Bay is closed.

Also, the 70-meter fencing space beside the pathway has been constructed with two different styles of fencing and the gap in the middle of approx. 15 meters has no fence. For a premier beach and tourist site, it looks unprofessional and unsightly.

The chain-link fence near the temporary pedestrian crossing is ugly and attracts commercial signage, which hinders motorists’ view of pedestrians when they turn left from Mona Vista Court into David Low Way.

How can this happen? The Council engineers are experienced people who follow state planning guidelines, put the work out to tender and choose the most capable and best value quote. The Council-appointed architect would have designed the paving and landscaping. The Mayor and Councillors who represent us and act with good faith, approved both the engineers and the architect.

Yet, we are left with a comedy of errors, a project that is at least 10months late, doesn’t look good, has inconvenienced the local neighbourhood for the past 18months, and is still not yet complete.

When questioning the engineers, we’re informed there were extra piers, changes to the design and inclement weather slowed work. When speaking to the contractors, they say they don’t know what is going on, and they are doing what they are told. The Council tells us that the job is complete.

Everyone has an excuse; they have done their part, it’s someone else or an unforeseen circumstance that resulted in this situation. There is no accountability for the final outcome.

Apart from the financial cost carried by rate payers, the real cost for this mismanaged project is the loss of public trust in local government, their representatives and contractors in giving value and maintaining a duty of care to the constituents of the Sunshine Coast.

There is a systematic breakdown in the way Council is organised, how tenders are allocated, and how projects are managed. The Sunshine Coast Council prides itself on being a forward and progressive organisation, yet its systems and the standard of care it demonstrates are very mediocre.

Michael Adamedes,
Coolum Beach.

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INFRASTRUCTURE 

Dear editor,

We talk a lot about “futureproofing” Australia, but on the ground, the reality is one of delayed projects, broken promises, and short-term political thinking.

In our own backyard on the Sunshine Coast, we have been talking about a direct rail line for decades, yet only now are we moving into the first stage of a Beerwah–Caloundra line, with later stages to Birtinya and Maroochydore still years behind our population growth.

This is welcome, but it is not the bold, fast-track network that “futureproofing” should mean.

We also talk about road safety, yet we are still waiting for the Bruce Highway from Gympie to Cairns to be fully upgraded to a four-lane, dual-carriageway standard with proper separation between traffic directions. Deadly head-on and run-off-road crashes remain far too common.

Queensland has some of the worst-performing corridors and its fastest-growing regions, yet our national-level transport planning consistently fails to match the scale of need.

The same pattern appears in schemes like the Bradfield Plan to “green” parts of Australia through water diversion and irrigation: ideas that could reshape land use and water security have been repeatedly shelved as “too expensive”.

Meanwhile, countries such as China have built enormous infrastructure projects because they prioritised long-term economic and social benefit over short-term cost.

Nowhere is this short-term thinking more obvious than in our oil and fuel security decisions. Australia is a resource-rich nation, yet we have closed refineries, underbuilt strategic fuel reserves, and allowed ourselves to become almost totally dependent on imported refined fuel.

When global shocks hit, we feel every price spike at the bowser.

The real failure is not that these ideas are wrong; it is that federal and state leaders consistently choose the short-term, the politically safe, and the budget-light option.

That is why “futureproofing” sounds like a slogan, not a reality. It is time we demanded that every discussion about growth, housing, fuel, roads, and rail be matched by a binding, funded plan—so our grandchildren are not left picking up the pieces of decisions we dodged in our own time.

Colin Caudell,
Coolum Beach.

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POLITICS 

Dear editor,

To enhance their scientific credentials, does Sir Pository of Wisdom have one notion to join the trumpeting of the Red Queen, the Mad King and Don Quixote in a  crusade to slay windfarms? Just asking.

Margaret Wilkie,
Peregian Beach.

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SOCIAL MEDIA BAN 

Dear editor,

Those who believed the government ban on social media for children under 16 would automatically change the culture and reverse or reduce the damage the internet can inflict on the naive and vulnerable have underestimated this demographic.

Politicians and those in authority, including parents, cannot control the motivation for these underage social-media experts to continue their online lives as usual. Many have online lives which they value in their own spheres, as much as, or more than, real life. They know their way around shortcuts and how to beat the system, which has tried to control the uncontrollable. They are more adept at finding their way online than the older generation.

Problem-solving in their online world makes connections and enhances their lives. So the government ban will not stop what they perceive as vital to their lives. Anyone with a phone can be accessed and coerced into handing over access, even for the interim. Imposing rules and regulations can easily be overcome.

Let’s not kid ourselves. The illegality of the ban is not their priority. It’s all the older generations’ concern for the mental welfare of this under-16 demographic, while they themselves see it as an interruption to their existence. Older generations have a lot to learn about online lives that previously did not exist. It is a whole new world they had little or no fear of.

Children’s innocence makes them targets for the unscrupulous. Being young and naive has its pitfalls, which they don’t comprehend, as they don’t contemplate the risks and fallout of online lives, which become vital to their social connections. They are too clever for their own good.

E. Rowe,
Marcoola.
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