The floats were great and so were the people that came to enjoy the night which turned to a fizzer.  

By charging an entry fee per adult, instead of hanging around after the parade, enjoying a chat with friends, eating and drinking, while the children enjoyed the rides, everyone decamped the minute the parade was over. 

Not even fireworks to look forward too. 

There are also families, who can only afford the Friday night to enjoy the Rodeo atmosphere. 

In comparison Wednesday night the town centre was a buzz with folk out to enjoy the evening, brings back memories of Mardi Gras of the past. 

Fireworks were great. 

The committee better get their act together, or they will loose the Mardi Gras to Wednesday night. 

Alison van Steyn 

Last week in Brisbane, farmers and support groups marched on the Queensland Parliament house venting their anger over the Palasczuk’s government’s proposed legislative alterations in Jacki Trad’s Vegetation (Re-instatement) and Other legislation Amendment Bill 2016, set to be re-introduced post-committee.

Succinctly, the history of land clearing policy in Queensland has lurched from one extreme to the other, thereby making farmers’ operations even more difficult.

At the very least, the reverse onus of proof is an affront to farmers’ basic rights.

Add the re-inclusion of High-Value Regrowth as another layer of regulation on all leasehold/freehold/Indigenous land with the “no compensation” provisions, and one begins to see a bad “Green Moon” on the rise.

Recently, Cape York Institute founder, Noel Pearson slammed the ALP/Green proposed alterations to the Native Vegetation Act, citing a tightening of the existing clearing laws enacted by the Newman government would impact adversely on economic plans for Indigenous communities attempting to emancipate their people from the debilitating scourge of mendicancy.

Furthermore, Indigenous people planning agricultural/eco-tourism/business ventures should never be forced to beggary by a Labor/Green/Wilderness Society diktat, given they have title to vast tracts of land.

With massive job losses in our mining industry already severely impacting on the Townsville/North Queensland economy, this Palaszczuk ALP/Green assault on farmers’ inalienable right to oversee their own best-practice management policies to continue to feed our nation, is surely beyond the pale.

With secular stagnation about to plague Australia, the curse of governments of big spending, bloated Green bureaucracies and regulation – sounds like Queensland – shines the torch on the importance of food security.

The State’s ALP advocacy for the Adani Coal Mine has been tepid at best,

Green puritanism driving the vexatious litigation continually waged to create an Adani stranded coal asset, extinguishing any hope for sustainable job opportunities in the North for many of our unemployed youth, manifested in our ever increasing rate of juvenile crime.

With the CFMEU backed Katter Party members stridently opposed to the ALP government’s legislation , the dastardly silence wafting from our own three Townsville ALP members can no longer be brooked.

On behalf of all those who support our wonderful farmers in the North – pray, just where do you stand, individually please, on this particular issue? As Minister for North Queensland, hand-picked by our Premier Ms Palaszczuk, it behoves Ms O’Rourke to respond to our readers on this issue.

Peter J Smith,

Rosslea