TCP A 47 PG 1 - The Coastal Passage Home Page

The Season of StormsBetween the Natural and Bureaucratic variety...many Queenslanders are getting edgyThe yachting community has it particularly bad but we are not alone when it comes to overenthusiasticauthorities. If you watched TV coverage of the states involvement in the flood aftermathyou may have a very positive impression of compassion and professionalism. But...if you ask thepeople out there, you might have a different impression. The message below was forwarded to TCP byRick Lutjens. Thanks Rick. The message was followed up and TCP located the name and phonenumber of the writer to verify authenticity. We spoke to the writer and found him to be a farmer andsuccessful industrialist. He is the owner of Dingo Australia, an excavation machine maker manyreaders may be familiar with. www.dingo.com.au The sentiment of his letter appears to berepresentative of many voices. So on this and following pages are a collection of letters from victims ofthe recent floods to tell THEIR side of the story.Stupid government... It's our fault for not getting on tothe idiots and asking why this is happening!Bob Norson photoThere has been some amazing great story's come out of to reason amicably with 2 idiots. Of course I got more in need.the floods. But there are also the ones that will never be than a little agitated when they refused to let me down And did you hear about the farmer who was ferryingtold because in this country we tolerate idiots in the road to my farm. As a result they pulled a tape food and other essentials for himself and neighboursgovernment jobs and no one wants to point the finger in recorder, so I made sure that it recorded their stupidity. I across the flooded Condamine? Well, the SES andcase it somehow blows up in their face. even had to insist that they return my driver's license. Police decided that was their job. Apparently it is illegalI'll definitely win the court battle as my employeefor us farmers to even launch our boats to helpSorry, but at my age, I have become totally witnessed the whole affair, but what a waste of time and ourselves or rescue our livestock. So they sent himdisenchanted and someone needs to tell it like it is, so I resources. home after warning him that if he continued to help, theywill start the ball rolling.would prosecute. As he was putting his boat back onOver the last 3 weeks, there have been Qld Transport his trailer on the other side of the river, he heard hornsTake Qld transport In Dalby district. officers stationed outside our farm booking innocent blowing and looked back to where he had been sentlocals for about 8 days. 2 guys sit in a vehicle with the away from. There were the professional idiots, in theDalby hit the news with a record flood in the Condamine engine idling and hazard lights on 24/7. That would be middle of the river, sinking. And, as we normal citizensRiver that damaged the water treatment plant and water 3 shifts, plus motel and other costs. Now most of these are stupid, he had to re-launch his boat and go backneeded to be trucked in, in the middle of floods. Truck guys were reasonable people. I had to chat with them and rescue them.drivers worked hard to get us water.every time I went out my gate. Some were idiots like myexperience this morning. But the real idiots in this case Apparently they had forgotten to put the plugs in theOfficers from Qld Transport booked drivers for so called are the people who sent them out here to guard an bottom of the boat and their training had not taught themover loading.......... what Idiots. Who pays? It'll get obviously flooded and closed road. And never bothered how to simply put them in after they discovered it andsquashed and probably has already, but what a waste of to check when the water went down, and left them there. then how to bail the boat out. He should have let themresources at a time when manpower was critical. We, the taxpayers, pay them to be there and also pay drown. That would be called "natural selection". Butfines for trying to get on with our lives in tough times. again, they had been sent out with an attitude ratherFarmers crossing a road with a tractor to feed starving,than real training. So who is at fault? Need I answerflooded stock were pulled up, the tractor measured, and Wrote the above in the hour before I went to Brisbane to that?they were booked because it was slightly wide. Not only help clean up the mess in our flooded premises there.that, they were forced to leave the tractor and go to While in Brisbane I was told about the truck drivers As I said at the start, there have been many, manytown to get an over wide permit before they could move delivering food to Gympie. As it happens in times of great deeds by the vast majority of people, but whenit back into the farm. And this happened on an already desperate need, trucks rolled out of the Brisbane a society gets to the point that ordinary people areclosed road where the farmer was the only person warehouses stacked with as much as they could get in. stopped from helping each other and are forced intoaround, except for the idiots. After all, the media was screaming for food for Gympie. submission by bureaucrats, Where are we going?Queensland Transport then intercepted the trucks andThis morning, I was booked for driving down a closed fined the drivers for overloading. Somehow, we have to reverse the stupidity that makesroad to check livestock that were reported out on theour nation the dumbest in the modern world.road and, at the same time, pick up my employee who What Senior Idiot in Qld Transport decided that hehad walked over the bridge to come to work. My house could solve Queensland 's financial crisis by fining Our great grandfathers would be appalled.happens to be 50 metres past the road closed sign, so drivers? And sent dozens of men out to embarrass theapparently I cannot even go in and out my gate. I tried Government when they could have been helping people Gary Briggs, Dalbywww.blueseamachines.com.aupeter@blueseamachines.com.auPage 8 The Coastal Passage #47 2011www.goldcoastmarinecentre.com.au