BUY LOCAL 
Dear editor,

The collapse of our last maker of architectural flat glass should ring alarm bells. The 169‑year‑old Australian manufacturer, Oceania Glass, has gone, 150 jobs are gone, and another chunk of our sovereign capability quietly shipped offshore as if it doesn’t matter.

Well, it does matter because too many of us are chasing foreign products and assuming “near enough” is good enough.

Builders see the fallout every day with cheap imported windows that break, fail, or don’t meet Australian standards. By the time replacements arrive from overseas, the job has blown out, and the “bargain” has become a very expensive mistake.

Oceania Glass didn’t fall because it was poorly run. It fell because it was left to fight a global price war with one hand tied behind its back.

All the while, Australian manufacturers are expected to compete with countries running on low wages, low taxes, and generous government support, while we pile on higher energy bills, insurance, compliance, and tax burdens. It’s hardly a fair fight.

We learned during COVID how fragile our supply chains are. Yet here we go again, sleepwalking toward a future where Australia can’t make the basics for itself.

How hollow do we want this country to become?

The government must level the playing field. But we consumers have power too. Let’s ask where products come from and choose local when we can. It may cost a little more up front, but we’re buying quality, accountability, and Australian jobs.

Once we lose the ability to make things, we won’t get it back easily.

Garry Reynolds,
Peregian Springs.
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RIDDLE OF THE TIMES 
Dear editor,

The old political party has lined-up its trusty old members to emerge from the shadows in a tailor- made team – Taxon Holmes, Costa Liven, Hyatt Axis as well as Warren Borders, Costa Lotta, Hyen Flayshon and one female, Laura Norder. Fair dinkum!

Margaret Wilkie,
Peregian Beach.
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HOUSING COSTS  
Dear editor,

If you wake in the morning and look outside (your rental), you will see rents in Coolum going up by 60 to 75 dollars every year! This illegal profiteering is supposedly “market-based”…but if you extrapolate this, it will mean that in Coolum by the Olympics, rents will have gone up 350 – 400 dollars per week!

So a small two-bedroom home will have gone from $700 to $1000 plus. Perhaps I do not need to tell you that this is not good for Coolum, perhaps you already know but I leave you with the chatbot summary … “10 per cent rent increases are generally a sign of a market in crisis rather than a sustainable economic model. Leading to long term issues for social stability and housing affordability.”

Dylan White,
Coolum Beach.
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FUEL PRICES  
Dear editor,

Fuel price gouging is hitting Coolum families hard. Petrol prices in Coolum Beach have soared to $1.95 per litre, despite wholesale costs sitting at just $1.41 – a 50c gouge per litre that’s crushing everyday Australians.

The Middle East tensions won’t disrupt supplies for weeks, if at all. Oil firms can easily source Russian refined petrol via India and China. Yet retailers are hiking prices now, exploiting the crisis while pocketing massive margins far above ACCC averages.

Commonwealth fuel excise alone is 52.6 cents per litre (plus 5.3c GST on that), yet if the ACCC can’t curb this profiteering on an essential like fuel, suspend these taxes during the conflict.

I urge our local MP Ted O’Brien to demand an ACCC probe into local gouging and push Canberra for tax relief if margins stay excessive. Fuel powers work, medical trips, and life on the Sunshine Coast – enough is enough!

Colin Caudell,
Coolum Beach.