WHY HAS OUR ROAD NETWORK BEEN NEGLECTED?
As I exit Wallendbeen from the east returning to Griffith, and I cross the 'temporary' 4.2 metre wide bridge at 20 kilometres per hour, there in front of me is an oversize header and his convoy continuing to taking a detour via Silo Road.
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The 'temporary' bridge repair not meeting the local farmers needs.
The experience leaves me wondering which bureaucrats in their right mind thought it was reasonable to leave the Burley Griffin Way in such disrepair to allow a bridge to collapse? Were they held responsible?
And why in the past 12 months has it not fix appropriately?
Then I'm left to wonder. "What if the slow repair was political?" 'Surely, those in power are above baiting an independent, aren't they? Issuing a 'go slow' on a critical bridge repair - imagine the political backlash'.
As I keep driving, my thoughts change. I just start to hope someone can shed some light on why our major freight corridor is being neglected, why we have to wait another year for a simple repair.
Hopefully it all makes sense in the end.
Greg Adamson, Griffith
IS THE PREFERENTIAL VOTING SYSTEM WORKING?
I used to be a fan of preferential voting because it used to provide an opportunity to vote for who you wanted to be elected, who you would have if your candidate lost and who you certainly did not want.
In state and federal elections these days there are so many preference deals between political parties, and people who just follow "how to vote" cards that preferential voting simply warps the vote.
Bring back "first past the post" voting. In Griffith's Shire elections recently, disinterest was such that about a fifth of the votes were informal.
Does all that help promote democracy?
Tom Marriott, Griffith
FEW THINGS HAVE TO CHANGE AND FAST
As a dairy farmers' daughter I must correct a couple of Yvonne Rance's misconceptions. (If we have to stop cows farting, do we have to too? December 3). Firstly, the bodies of cattle are unlike ours and really more like organic fermenting stills.
They have four stomachs and rely on bacteria digesting the tough cell walls of the grass they chew. These bacteria produce large volumes of the extremely warming gas methane, which the cattle belch.
Their burps make them Australia's third most significant greenhouse gas producer after energy and transport. Our farts don't have a ranking.
Secondly, the replacing of forests with farms has also contributed significantly to both the global biodiversity and climate emergencies we are experiencing.
Thirdly, there is no doubt that our climate has changed dramatically. The Bureau of Meteorology has compared past and present annual average Australian temperatures with 17.3°C, the 1961-1990 average.
Every single one of the last 24 years has an average above the ones of my youth and young adulthood.
We love our young people and want them to have the same opportunities that we had. It might seem illogical, but that means a few things have got to change, and fast.
Lesley Walker, Northcote
GOT SOMETHING TO SAY?
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