daggett

The nude painting issue is the whole point. Is it suitable for a life size frontal nude painting to be displayed in the Dining Room of a club where children are encouraged to eat? I think not.

Is it OK for a member of a club to mount a letter writing campaign, contrary to the terms of being a member? I think not.

This whole issue was caused my the Molloys, they have "form" for joining organisations and then not abiding by the rules.

Local issues other than a Dam are important to me.

Steve Madern,

As I wrote, the issues of democracy, government accountability and free speech are far more important than what appears to have gone on between Cat Molloy and the Sunshine Beach Surf Life Saving Club.r

Speaking for myself, I would have no problem with having a typical nude painting being on display in a dining room of a Surf Club, where it may be viewd by children, but I can understand that others might.

It is possible that Cate Molly may have shown poor judgement if she initiated a letter writng campign contrary to club rules, as you say, but not knowing any more, and not having heard Cate Molloy's side of the story, I am not in a position to judge.

However, I repeat, that this seems, to me, to be insignificant in comparison to the broader issues of democracy, free speech and government accountability and stopping environmental destruction, and the fact that Cate Molloy has taken such a principled and courageous stance on these far more important issues has earned her my support and admiration.

The people in her electorate, and throughout the whole of Queensland have a lot at stake in seeing that she is returned to Parliament at the next state elections.

If anyone can win in Noosa as an Independant it is Cate Molloy. She has worked tirelessly for her electorate since she was first elected. She could not win as a labour candidate supporting this dam because so many of her constituents are against it for good reasons. A recent poll saw her with an 80% primary support vote. By opposing the dam she will continue to get Green Party preferences and support for her personally is high in our region. Her opposition to the dam is more in line with true labour environmental policies. Beattie's push for a dam is to get Brisbane votes. Noosa was expendable as a seat because The Labour Party has such a large majority. However the Mary Valley is not a good site for such a dam because deep silt will cause it to leak and it will be shallow and water will evaporate. Also it is not in a good catchment area. Beattie would be better building desalination plants rather than dams. Also we need water tanks for everyone and we need to get serious about conserving and recycling water.

Mr Steve Madden,
Just a few comments on the "Cloe" nude portrait and nudism in general.
First of all the nude painting of "Cloe", adopted from the original which hangs in Melbourne, is a charming painting. It is beautiful as opposed to pornographic. Quite honestly I can't see why such a painting couldn't be displayed in front of children. In Europe children see such paintings all the time and it does not harm them. Children regularly visit Art galeries where they see nude paintings. Hopefully our children can thus grow up somewhat more cultured and become less provincial, parochial bigots like yourself because they were exposed to such a fine example of a quality painting. I would rather our children be exposed to this than the sexual nudity they watch on Big Brother!
Also I think that the reaction of the Surf Club was a bit "over the top" and the result of some vocal minority wowsers who oppose Cate and Ivan politically. Both Cate and Ivan have been active members of the Sunshine Beach Surf Club and they deserved better treatment than they got. They have many friends at the club who suported them and who did not oppose the painting. No vote was ever taken to assess the feelings of the majority of patrons towards the painting. The Club listened only to the vocal minority.
As for Cate's support for nudist beaches, this is another example of her representing a local group. She did the same for the horse riders. It is no different. They are both special interest recreational groups. Cate and Ivan are well travelled and they know how popular and commonplace nudist beaches are overseas. They know what a huge potential there is in the International Naturist Tourist Industry. It is a fairly untapped, lucrative market that we should be taking full advantage of.

In regard to nude tourism. Britain's biggest naturist [nudist] tour operator is Romford based Peng Travel. According to Peng Travel naturism is big business. The company says there are hundreds of thousands of naturists in Britain and up to 25 million in Europe.

The growing popularity of naturism has resulted in an increase in specialist naturist holiday resorts, run with the full consent and protection of local governments.

The leaders in this respect were France and Croatia, both of which have had large tourist industries based on clothes optional beaches and associated facilities for well over 50 years. Naturally, success gets copied and various other European and Caribbean countries have successfully followed this trend.

But not Australia, a so-called sectarian country which, in many respects, is still controlled by religious extremists and wowsers. And according to people like that, Peng Travel, with many years of experience in this business, wouldn't know what it's talking about.

Australia has tourist offices in England and Germany. The French Govt Tourist Dept promotes its nudist facilities in London. Why don't we? Germany probably has a higher proportion of nudists than any other country. Why do we neglect this huge potential market? And, most importantly, the British and European winter is our summer.

Further reading:
http://www.armage.demon.co.uk/nuff/resourcebook/current/index.html?economics.html
http://au.franceguide.com/thematiques/accueil.asp?idth=12&z1=R59ZHnLm

So good on Cate Molloy for having the guts to stand up for the various groups in her electorate and for holding out against the dictates of Peter Beattie.

As for the surf club, what would they do if someone donated to them an excellent replica of Michaelangelo's David? Dress it in board shorts?

Thanks, Rex and Marsketa for giving me a more complete picture of the nude painting issue. Next time Steve Maddern makes another such revelation, I can assume that it very likely that he will not have given us the complete picture.