COFFEE TIME?
Dear editor,
I was thinking about how much coffee consumption has changed in Australia, so I did a bit of googling. Australia is the second highest coffee drinking country in the world behind Russia (Germany is not far behind either). Statistics show that 75% of Australians drink coffee every day. But the surprising fact is that it is not tradies and millenniums etc. who drink the most, but people aged 51 to 70! So why cafes open at 6am and close at 3pm is beyond me. Going by these stats cafes would make more money opening later and staying open later for the 51-70 age group to have a coffee ‘catch-up’. It bugs me I can’t find a coffee after 3pm. Perhaps cafes could reconsider their opening hours?
Diana Korving,
Mount Coolum.
##
POLITICAL DIFFERENCES
Dear editor,
Why does the Liberal National Party have such a poor record of listening to genuine experts?
Last year the Dutton LNP was at odds with most of Australia’s constitutional law experts regarding the Voice to Parliament. Mr Dutton said there were not enough details and said if you don’t know, vote no.
Mr Dutton has criticised the international law experts on the International Criminal Court regarding their seeking arrest warrants for Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu, his defence minister and three Hamas leaders because of their actions in Palestine.
Last week he rejected the latest findings of the CSIRO’s GenCost Report that nuclear power is not an answer to our energy needs as it will be far too expensive, many times more expensive than renewables, and take too long to bring online – not to mention the waste problem. Climate change will not wait for Australia to develop a nuclear industry from scratch.
Even though Mr Dutton had said he’d release his nuclear policy details before the budget, we are yet to see them. Come on Mr Dutton or even LNP energy spokesman, Ted O’Brien, spell it out, where are the details? Where will you build the nuclear reactors? Who is going to pay for them? How much will nuclear powered energy cost consumers? For any doubters about the benefits of nuclear energy, I say “Don’t know. Vote no” to Mr Dutton and the LNP’s pipedream.
Robyn Deane,
Bli Bli.
##
Such hypocrisy!!! Our State Labor Government is using the bonus royalties windfall from our rich coal reserves, to pay for the 50c public transport rides from August 4, for six months. Australia wide, Federal Labor’s push is to replace coal-fired power with renewables they have yet to build and cost. Eliminating all coal mining, but currently reveling in the huge 40% coal royalties’ bonus for Queensland, pretending to do commuters a favour – shows how little they know on how to run our economy wisely.
The State’s imposed 40% coal royalties, are the highest globally. Exploiting high demand for coal, which brought wealth to our nation for decades, Labor thinks it can act liberally with the bonus royalties and splash out, prior to the October state election. We are not fooled. The writing is on the wall for Queensland Labor. Former Labor Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, had enough foresight to read between the lines.
To date, the undisclosed cost of the 2032 Olympic Games, will go down in history as the most unprepared and irresponsible spend for taxpayers. Taxpayers will be the last to know. Still determining and disputing where stadiums to hold international crowds are to be built, it is pie in the sky at present. Our public transport system needs to be modernised and upgraded, new lines built to transport to events and infrastructure for many participants in a variety of events, are yet to be designed.
We are living beyond our means. Those who brought this upon Queensland taxpayers will be long gone, with their highly paid superannuation and gold-cards intact. Our children’s children will face rising costs and state debt for decades, at high interest rates. We are living on borrowed money and borrowed time. This is Labor’s legacy for Queensland’s future.
E. Rowe,
Marcoola.
##
NUCLEAR WIN
Dear editor,
Your correspondent Ian Lowe really doesn’t have the foggiest idea of what happens to Australia’s climate change and how it affects the world’s climate considering our climate’s effort is only 1% of the world’s total. For example, the deforestation of South American and Indonesian rain forests probably does more harm than anything we do here in Australia. As far as it goes, we have always had catastrophic fires and floods so what’s new?
Using solely cleaner energy like solar and wind does not make economic sense when you must consider where does our power come from when the sun doesn’t shine, and the wind doesn’t blow, and all the coal fired power stations are blown up.
Sure, solar and wind are free but not guaranteed which is why our power bills have exponentially increased since Labor have come to power. Anyone who thinks renewables are reducing waste and saving us money has got to be living on another planet. Most countries that have far cheaper and reliable power, and flourishing industry have a mix of solar, wind, hydro (depends on the country), coal, gas and nuclear energy – reliability guaranteed.
Nuclear power stations do not take many years to build and become operative. They last up to 80-100 years and have none of those nasty emissions that everyone is afraid of. If you allow only renewables which last only 25 years, there is the cost of new transmission lines which are destroying our beautiful countryside and agricultural land and are plain just bad for the natural environment.
Sadly, there is no hope for anyone who thinks nuclear power is loopy when in fact they are loopy themselves wishing they are in the 19th century and not the 21st century.
Yes, we do need a coherent policy that plans for the long term. If we continue down this renewables path our children and grandchildren will be paying off electricity accounts because of the demented ravings of a power minister obsessed with his own ideology, totally disregarding facts in evidence!
John Bennion,
Peregian Springs.
##