LETTER TO THE EDITOR

I HAVE been encouraged to write by your recent comments seeking appropriate behaviour from everyone who wants to comment on the Gympie Regional Council 2020 elections.

CLICK HERE: Letter that points finger at Cr Hartwig misses the point

You were prompted to offer that request by Cr Glen Hartwig's announcement that he would run for Mayor.

READ MORE: Cr Hartwig denies any role in Open Letter critical of Cr Curran

• It is time the Gympie region embraced the nuclear option

The race has begun.

Wayne Plant's letter in The Gympie Times (Saturday, July 20)regarding Cr Hartwig is ill-considered, rancorous and at times quite unintelligible. I will not wade through every sentence; however, I comment on a selection.

The letter starts with "Would Hartwig keep the Rattler?” There's an attention getter. The thought is repeated towards the end of Mr Plant's letter. A millisecond's deliberation confirms that it is not a sensible question. It would first require a move "not to keep the Rattler”.

Then neither Cr Hartwig, or anyone else, can get a result without support for either question by a majority of councillors.

Next Mr Plant wades into a very old, old Australian joke. Yes, the double old is intentional. I suspect Hartwig was having a loan of him and he walked right in.

Wayne's letter says "Cr Hartwig then asks if the letter is my opinion or my neighbour's”.

Next month I will be 86 years-of-age and have lived in several Australian states and spent much time in New Zealand and the USA. So many times have I been in meetings where some pompous Big Shot is brought to earth by that very same question, sometimes 100s of attendees. Americans hate it when Australians do things like that.

To make it worse Mr Plant then stresses "I am very capable of having my own opinion”. Wow! How deep will that hole get now? Deeper. Mr Plant "I also have 14 neighbours where I live,” meaning not just the one next door.

Even I can beat that. I like to think I have almost 50,000 neighbours. Mr Plant is one of them. We all live in Gympie region.

Mr Plant: "...not like some who attach themselves to their Facebook groupies”. I have never heard that description before. It is gobbledegook to me so I cannot comment.

The letter finishes with "I doubt you will be able to see out the distance”.

Mr Plant was not to know The Gympie Times would have a photo of Cr Hartwig and Cr Curran adjoining his letter. The words accompanying it state: "Cr Glen Hartwig is challenging Mick Curran for the Mayor's job at the next election.”

If the Editor of The Gympie Times knows Cr Curran is a candidate, as the comment indicates, then Cr Curran should do as Cr Hartwig has done and tell the rest of us.

I point out the following: I am not a friend of Cr Hartwig. I have spoken to him twice.

Roy Archibald, Gympie

Editor's note: Mick Curran has not yet revealed what his intentions are regarding next year's council election.