The support that the auxiliary receives from the business community for their donations towards the raffle, the general public and our volunteer members is outstanding.

Thank you to the businesses in Griffith Yenda Hanwood Yoogali and Beelbangera who donated goods and money for the Christmas stocking. Once again you have all been very generous.

Thank you to the Businesses who also sold tickets especially those in the villages. Your support is appreciated.

A big thank you to the auxiliary members who collected the donations from the businesses and also to the many members that gave up their time to sell tickets in Banna Ave for five weeks.

To John Dodds Pharmacy and Blooms Pharmacy thank you for your hospitality and assistance with the storage of our table and chairs. It’s always nice to be greeted with smiling faces from your staff members.

A big thank you to Linda and Carl Snaidero for the use of their shop in Banna Ave to display our stocking. Also thank you to the Griffith Leagues Club for the use of the ticket barrel for the drawing of the nine prizes.

To the public for their support in purchasing tickets and also to the ones that just left donations we thank you for your generosity once again.

The moneys raised by the auxiliary all goes towards purchasing equipment that is required by the Griffith Base Hospital.

Congratulations to the winners we hope you enjoy your prizes. Last but not least thank you to The Area News for your continual support.

We wish you all a Merry and safe Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

The lucky winners are:

1st: M Jones. 2nd: P Calabria. 3rd: G Manente. 4th: K Bowkett. 5th: G Musemici. 6th: J Maier. 7th: D McCorkele. 8th: TE and JJ Burdett. 9th: D Jennings

ABC Riverina a radio station that tells it how it is, reported that the government is thinking or has plans to put a regulator on Yanco Creek to control the water flows from the Murrumbidgee River to Yanco Creek, a life line to farmers, birds, fish and platypus a distance of 800 kilometres to the township of Jerilderie that relies on the creek.

200,000 megalitres, it has been reported that the river has been running high and water that overflows is damaging wetland and over watering the gum forest and killing fish.

Murray Darling Basin Plan has a lot to answer for, federal government, politicians on both side of the fence and representatives who attend meetings, are unable to answer the questions, that concern the people who attended.

Let us not forget Environment Minister Tony Burke who came to the Yoogali Club November 2012 and tried to answer questions and had a debate with Father Grace who said we both went to university together and we chose different paths, why are with MDBP destroying farming families.

Then opposition leader Tony Abbott attended the meeting said "if it is a bad plan we will not support the plan".

Water is the life line of communities and farmers are the backbone of the country, with irrigation crops can be produced eg rice, but with dust nothing grows and the dams were build to drought proof the country.

In 1999, past irrigators worked with Murrumbidgee Management Committee with the environment to provide an outcome acceptable to the diverse interests within the valley, high security irrigators gave five per sent of their allocation for the environment and their allocation stands at 95 per cent.

Murray irrigators have zero allocation, MIA irrigators have seven allocation.

The decision of the Murray Darling Basin Authority to flow water out to sea in South Australia while depriving, to varying degrees, irrigation farmers and people in associated industries of their livelihoods, is worse than foolish or incompetent; it is immoral!

The claims of environmental necessity have been comprehensively debunked by professors, hydrologists and local water experts. The use of fresh water in Lakes Alexandrina and Albert, the Coorong and the Murray Mouth can be summarized as a fraudulent squander.

Yet as a minister in the N.S.W. government once stated ‘We get a lot of money for being in this’ i.e. the NSW government gets a lot of money from the Federal government for participating in the MDBCA Basin Plan.

NSW politicians are right now selling the people in irrigation areas out.

Yet 70 NSW state lower house politicians are elected from Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong, while 23 are elected from the rest of the state. These 70 politicians have no agricultural constituents and actually need to appeal to Green voters to be elected. Consequently they will not, and actually cannot, vote in support of the irrigation or forestry industries.

The people of the Riverina need to form a state separate from NSW. Only as a state removed from the domination of NSW metropolitan politicians can decisions be made that will benefit the irrigation, forestry and wider supporting industries.