Thursday, September 21, 2023

Issue:

Mackay and Whitsunday Life

Editor's Note

Hi Everyone,

What a week for local breaking news!

To write the front-page story this week we’ve had lengthy conversations with both parties, in an effort to present a fair and impartial story.

On Friday last week I sat down with some of the workers from Cruise Whitsundays who are now in the midst of what is expected to be a lengthy strike to demand fairer pay.

This week, I have also had several conversations with Cruise Whitsundays who are understandably devastated by the actions of their workers.

For the full story, please read pages three and six.

While I will always defend people’s right to peacefully protest on matters that are important to them, I strongly disagree when these actions impact on other innocent people.

This week, thousands of holidaymakers have had their travel plans cancelled and, with other tours fully booked over this busy school-holiday period, many have been unable to re-book an alternative.

This means hundreds of families have come to the Whitsundays but are unable to see our beautiful islands.

Meanwhile, reports are flooding in that the workers who are on strike have been ‘protesting’ by drinking at a local pub wearing their campaign t-shirts.

I’ll let you come to your own conclusions on what you think about this.

In other big news, we have also decided to tackle the contentious issue of The Voice this week.

Thank you to all our contributors.

When putting this feature together, we contacted several First Nations People asking for their views but unfortunately time was not on our side, and we were unable to get the full representation we were hoping for.

We would, however, like to thank Peter Santos for his comments.

Rach

Quote of the Week: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances” (Victor Frankl)

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