Questionnaires can be returned this Saturday
The Campaspe Community Association Inc would like to inform those residents who have filled out questionnaires concerning the level of support they received during the 2022 floods that they can return completed forms to the Campaspe Community Association’s desk on Saturday, April 1 at the Discovery Day, Echuca Library between 10am and 1pm.
A container will be provided for the completed forms, which will then form part of a submission to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry by May 8.
Campaspe residents who have not received a questionnaire and have been affected by the floods, can pick one up from the Campaspe Community Association’s desk and complete it on the day, so their experiences can also be included in the Campaspe Community Association’s submission.
Also available will be membership forms for those who would like to become members of the community association.
Our next project is establishing local wardens and their teams to work with VICSES and VICPOL in preparation for the next flood or fire event.
We look forward to meeting you and hearing your concerns on Saturday, April 1.
Marilyn Jacksch,
Campaspe Community Association Inc secretary
Balance is the key
People who are needy want to share and favour socialism, Fabianism and communism.
People who worked hard for what they have want to keep it.
They are supporting liberalism and private enterprise.
But too much of either is no good.
Politicians should try to maintain a fair balance between these two opposite wings.
Jiri Kolenaty,
Rushworth
Labor keeps moving the goal posts on regional Victorians
Transparency and accountability in government are key to ensuring that every community has equitable access to services, no matter their postcode.
Our crumbling roads need ongoing investment rather than reduced speed limits, and our regional health services need adequate funding to ensure regional Victorians can have better care closer to home — in a nutshell, regional Victoria deserves its fair share.
And yet, we’ve seen the Andrews Government move the goal posts on its commitments right across the state.
The Victorian health minister visited Shepparton to celebrate the “final stage” of Goulburn Valley Health’s redevelopment — despite it only being the end of stage one and further funding being needed from the state government for stage two.
This second phase includes vital upgrades to the hospital’s oncology ward, yet Labor is celebrating when the job’s half done and has not committed to funding stage two.
Similarly, down south, Labor has delivered a $300 million glossy brochure through the Latrobe Valley Authority’s draft Gippsland Transition 2035 plan.
It’s a document that should be a blueprint for investing in the Latrobe Valley and provide certainty amid job losses; instead, it’s a lifeless document that fails to commit to one tangible outcome that benefits the community.
It provides no detail about steps that will be taken to shore up the local economy, and no detail around establishing new industries or creating sustainable long-term replacement jobs for workers after Labor’s closure of the Valley’s largest employers.
In the north of the state, we’ve seen Labor back out of its original commitment to the Murray Basin Rail Project after it ran over budget.
Producers moving goods to port are now forced to use road freight, placing further pressure on our decaying road network and forcing farmers to pay more to get fresh produce on supermarket shelves.
Add to this the state’s skyrocketing debt and Labor’s 44 new or increased taxes introduced since 2014 — placing more pressure on your household bills — and it’s any wonder regional Victorians have trust issues with Daniel Andrews and his Labor Government.
Peter Walsh,
Leader of The Nationals
Member for Murray Plains
Post Office bank would deliver real reform
Some 1730 bank branches in rural and metropolitan areas have been closed since 1975.
The big four Australian banks’ derivatives exposure grew by 156 per cent from 1989 to 2016 ($35 trillion).
The Bank for International Settlements in 2016 measured the derivative exposure worldwide at US$544 trillion, or more than seven times the world’s GDP. It was derivative exposure that caused the 2008 meltdown of the global financial system. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett described derivatives as “financial weapons of mass destruction”.
On October 21, 2022, Australian government debt was $1,598,053,850,440. If the politicians wanted to pay off a trillion dollars of debt at a dollar a second, it would take 32,000 years.
The answer?
1. A post office bank will guarantee financial services for all.
2. Guarantee all deposits.
3. Financial viability for Australia Post and licensed post offices.
4. Ensure cash availability and cash payments.
5. Lend to local small businesses and invest in local areas.
6. Invest surplus deposits in a national economic plan, working in tandem with a national development bank to provide long term, low interest loans for Australian manufacturing, family farms and agriculture industries. It will be an infrastructure bank from which local, state and federal governments can borrow to build power, rail and water infrastructure, and fix neglected roads and levees.
7. Lift banking conduct and standards.
The 1936 royal commission into banking realised that banking was more than mere finance, that it was, in fact, a great social function, which would should be controlled in the permanent interest of the people. It was John Curtin who said in his 1937 policy speech: “Without national banking governments are not sovereign. The police of the government must be given effect and the people’s authority established in respect to an indispensable national service.”
China has a post office bank and 21 government-owned development banks. There is nothing new about this, it is what Australia had when we were a prosperous nation with no debt.
Money is a creation of man, therefore man creates money.
Jeffrey Davy,
Numurkah
Murray result a wake-up call for the Nationals
The manner of Helen Dalton’s success in Saturday’s election should ring alarm bells at Nationals headquarters.
The selection of Peta Betts as the candidate simply did not work.
The Nats thought they reached a nadir when Austin Evans was defeated by Mrs Dalton in 2019.
Mr Evans attracted 35.22 per cent of first preference votes in that surprise defeat.
Ms Betts at last count was 26.34 per cent, a significant drift away from the party.
The lack of name recognition outside the council area did not help Ms Betts, and her campaign wasn’t helped by a lack of clarity surrounding the topic of remaining the mayor of Edward River Council if elected.
Having a bob each-way doesn’t resonate with the voters.
Maybe Ms Betts knew all along she had no chance of winning the seat from Mrs Dalton, who has been a capable local member and importantly has name recognition across the electorate.
Watching Sky’s election coverage you had Barnaby Joyce waxing lyrical about the performance of the Nats in the northern part of the state.
Sure, the likes of Adam Marshall, Dugald Saunders and Dave Layzell had great nights, but that wasn’t the case down south.
With the swing to Mrs Dalton, it would take something remarkable for the Nats to regain the seat in 2027.
Maybe a reincarnation of the late Tim Fischer would be a start.
Paul Norman,
Moama
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