Letters to the editor

It is very disappointing, considering the occasional good efforts of the shire in repairing a section of road to an excellent surface, only to see it deteriorate again, for lack of timely maintenance procedures.

All the good work has been wasted, a total waste of ratepayers’ money.

It wasn’t until two of my granddaughters on separate occasions had accidents on the section of Perricoota Rd, just west of Myall Hill, caused by no gravel, zero maintenance and wet conditions, that the shire got to work and made an excellent repair to that section.

But it was those two accidents and the perpetual poor condition of the road that finally made the decision for my son and his family to move off farm to Moama for educational and opportunity reasons.

It was just getting too hard, belting the vehicle 22K over such a poor piece of road up to six times on some days.

The move saved them fuel and maintenance costs on the family car amounting to 40,000km a year on probably one of the worst pieces of roads in the shire.

Yes, it has been a wet winter and there is more traffic nowadays.

All the more reason for the shire to have a regular maintenance schedule for this busy road.

How many times do we have to plead with the shire for timely maintenance?

I understand it has been agreed that the rest of this gravel section is to be sealed, just wondering when the start might be?

I note that 24 lane that doesn’t carry the amount of traffic that 341 does, has recently been sealed, could not that money have been allocated to Perricoota Rd to make a start at least?

If it rains and we HAVE to go to Echuca, we now travel 8km on gravel to Caldwell Hall, get onto bitumen via Bunnaloo to Moama/Echuca, 20km further.

By the way, it was back in the 1950s and early ’60s that Ernest Grant, shire president, and councillors advised the ratepayers on Perricoota Rd that it would be sealed by at least the mid-1970s.

Er, I’m 92 and still waiting, and I’m sick of knocking my good car around like we had to, 70-odd years ago.

Surely you can do a damn sight better than what you do now.

All I get for my $16,500 a year is a rotten road. Please take heed and look after ALL your ratepayers.

— Donald J Douglas, Moama

Landlord criticism wide of the mark

How rude and small minded are you Kevin L’Hullier?

You have made a lot of assumptions and put every landlord into one basket (Landlords given a clip, The Riv, July 7).

The majority of people that own more than one property have worked damn hard to get there.

Everyone has the same opportunities to own properties it depends on how you spend your money, I’m sure there are landlords like me around.

It’s not just rich people that have rentals, smart people will put their money into property.

I started with nothing in fact I had to borrow $500 to move up here from Ballarat, bought second-hand furniture.

I worked several jobs at a time, including some very menial tasks as fruit picking and weeding, I bought a place then down the track another and rented the first out, I did this three times, so yes, I have several rentals.

The rent is fair and below market value, the rent goes into maintenance and then yes towards mortgage on another.

The rentals have had new carpet, flywire screens, new bathrooms and new roof on pergola, everything repaired as needed and appliances replaced.

I have never put the rent up I even pay the water account.

I have lived in these homes, so they are certainly comfortable.

All I’ve asked is that they maintain the property.

Cats are allowed indoors, but not in a carpeted area.

Sadly some tenants do as they like and have no respect for anything.

I have had holes in walls, walls drawn on, gardens ploughed up by unruly dogs terrible damage and junk left.

I totally understand why landlords have been selling up in droves or put up rent to repair damage done by tenants.

I wish I had more rentals to help homeless have a home, but do you truly think they would appreciate it?

No, I doubt it.

Landlords have very little rights.

You can’t evict tenants regardless how they treat your property, some are always behind with the rent, but they always have money for smokes, grog and going to the pokies.

I was informed by a tradey recently that tenants are allow to do their own “renovating” up to $7000 without the owners’ permission.

So they can remove a wall if they want, where’s owners right then?

Kevin you should be grateful that there are still landlords and homes to rent.

Unless people start to take care of these homes rentals will disappear and people will live in government housing.

— Annemarie Norman, Nanneella

New hospitals, more health services to fill regional Victoria shortages

New and upgraded hospitals and more beds to treat vulnerable Victorians desperate to shake the insidious claws of drug and alcohol addiction will change lives and save lives.

Regional Victorians were already facing poorer health outcomes before the pandemic put monumental pressure on our health workforce.

The past two years of uncertainty and surgery bans has left health workers exhausted and forced sick people to wait in pain as they’re stuck in a line of more than 80,000 Victorians on hospital waitlists.

Labor has been in power for 20 of the past 24 years.

They are the ones that got us into this mess. They won’t be the ones to get us out of it.

Only a change in government in November will shift the focus to a policy agenda that will deliver a healthcare system that’s fair, properly resourced and accessible for us all.

The Nationals in government have promised reforms to unlock more health care workers to renew the depleted workforce, including with the nation’s largest recruitment drive.

This drive will see more scholarships on offer to enable more people to study, extra training places opened for psychologists and psychiatrists and relocation incentives to join the workforce.

The Nationals’ plan to rebuild healthcare in Victoria will also look long-term, with funding allocated for new and upgraded hospitals at Mildura, Warragul, Wodonga and St Arnaud, with more announcements to come.

It will also see a new Infectious Diseases Response Centre for Melbourne.

And we’ll make sure Victorians can access support to get out of addiction and get their lives back on track with new residential rehabilitation centres, including at the Latrobe Valley, Shepparton, Mildura and Warrnambool.

We deserve a healthcare system in regional Victoria that keeps up with growing demand and is properly resourced to take care of the health of our families and communities.

It’s time we got our fair share. We deserve a better deal.

Only The Nationals in government in November will get it done.

— Peter Walsh, Member for Murray Plains, Leader of The Nationals

Lack of flow when it comes to projects

I read with interest that a business case has been completed for the Hughenden Irrigation Project, in the Flinders region of north-west Queensland.

It suggests the proposed scheme will generate $776.6 million in benefits and more than 1900 agricultural jobs and will “transform Hughenden and the Flinders Shire communities into a diverse, future-proofed and resilient agricultural and economic powerhouse”.

I come with a warning to all those who think this may be an agricultural and economic panacea for that region.

More than seven decades past, there were likewise grand plans for agricultural and economic prosperity across south-western NSW with the construction of the Snowy Hydro project, Hume Dam and a magnificent irrigation scheme that would drought-proof and revitalise this land for national benefit.

Then, in more recent times, we had the Millennium Drought, which presented our South Australian neighbours with a unique opportunity to seek increased volumes of this stored water, primarily for their domestic and recreational use.

Of course, suggesting the water would be for such uses would not pass the “pub test”, so instead they promoted the need for “environmental flows”.

The politicians saw a potential vote-winner, the scientific community saw a unique opportunity to get billions in funding, and before you could say “let’s hang our irrigators out to dry” the media was conned and the scene was set.

Now, instead of using water to grow the food and fibre that we all need, we provide water in abundance to keep South Australia’s lower lakes at a prime level for recreation activities, we make it available for South Australia’s expanding canal-frontage housing, we keep the lawns across Adelaide and other parts of SA in lovely green condition and we pour what’s left out to sea.

The communities which have relied on agricultural prosperity since the irrigation scheme was established become the collateral damage, but who cares?

Not the politicians, because they have a vote winner. Not the scientists, because they have their slice of $13 billion. Not the Croweaters, because they have water in abundance. And certainly not the media, because they have yet another left-wing agenda to promote.

I am pleased to see the optimism that surrounds the proposed Hughenden Irrigation Project.

However, be warned … despite all the facts, all the evidence and all the prosperity, you, like us, will ultimately be destroyed if there are third parties with different personal agendas.

— Alan Thwaites, Finley, NSW

Precedence a precedent

The rules of precedent developed by the English common law; beginning with the Magna Carta — are based on the principle that to be fair, the law must, as far as possible, be predictable.

The development of the common law did not come to an end at the passing of the Human Rights Act.

How might we apply these to issues that affect us? Perhaps we could begin with man and woman?

After all, without man and woman; those promoting social construct of gender would not exist.

— Howard Hutchins, Chirnside Park