Councils not being supported
FOR years our local councils have been battling to balance the books, battling to deliver essential services to communities.
Yet recent RedBridge polling shows most Victorians want councils abolished, or are even unsure of what they do.
This reflects the challenges councils – particularly in rural and regional areas – now face.
The polling also suggested more than half the people surveyed supported even more council amalgamation.
Local government faces an uphill battle, with regional councils responsible for assets across thousands of square kilometres – for example, the Rural City of Mildura is more than 22,000 square kilometres and more than double the size of greater Melbourne.
Our councils are also being forced to do more with less, as the Andrews Labor government shirks its responsibilities by pushing more costs from the state to local government.
And it’s ratepayers who are footing the ever-increasing bill.
While councils deliver essential services such as roads and rubbish, they are also responsible for incredibly vital community programs such as childcare.
Regional communities are already struggling with childcare waiting lists that continue to increase, in too many smaller communities the locals are left with no services at all.
This is having a direct and seriously detrimental impact on attracting new families to towns to fill an increasing number of job vacancies.
It is a domino effect that is beginning to threaten the viability of more and more small regional communities.
We are also seeing the results of Labor’s funding cuts – including its axing of the Country Roads and Bridges Program – on our dangerously crumbling local roads.
Many regional councils maintain thousands and thousands of kilometres of roads and hundreds of bridges in their local government area.
The Country Roads and Bridges Program meant local councils could plan necessary projects such as bridge renewals and resurfacing unsafe roads on which the community relies.
Labor’s disregard for the role of local councils has left a bitter taste in Victorians’ mouths, and the polling shows it.
Confidence in councils will only come from a financially responsible state government, rather than one that passes costs – and the buck – to local government.
Peter Walsh
Leader of The Nationals
Shadow Minister for Local Government
Our Loss. Their Gain
HOW fortunate we have been to have a senior reporter of the calibre on Michelle Slater. For the last five years the region has benefited from accurate, informative and unbiased articles on so many topics.
Politics, business, energy, natural disasters, council matters, agriculture, personal struggles and successes to name but a few.
I ask the Latrobe Valley Express/Gippsland Times to convey my appreciation to Michelle. Our loss is another’s gain.
On behalf of my community, thank you so much Michelle, and best wishes for your future.
Lorraine Bull
Morwell
Winning Lotto
FOR 30 odd years, I’ve never lost at Lotto and I play it nearly every week.
I’ll let you into the secret, but first, some background information.
I see myself as a ‘Holden, Target’ type man. Sure, I’ve owned my share of top range assets but they’re not me.
Some years ago I was given a Rolex watch worth about 10 times the cost of the car I was driving.
Renovating a house one day, I broke the crystal face. The end result: $750 to replace the glass and $750 to have the watch recalibrated.
After that I couldn’t wait to think up some excuse (which wouldn’t offend) and give it back.
I had a similar experience with real estate. I bought and renovated the most run-down house in one of the best streets it Brisbane. I then found out you were expected to entertain and you can’t do that without the silvery cutlery and $3000 dining room setting.
In the end I was entertaining a mob of pretentious snobs and my ‘Holden, Target’ mates thought I was ‘putting on the dog’ and stopped coming round.
After a while I separated; left all the fancy trimmings behind and retired to a small fishing village.
In no time at all I had the $35 Target dinner service, a few $40 fishing rods and a $400 second hand ‘tinnie’.
I was back in business!
Now for the secret.
Like everyone, I’m convinced that one day I’ll win the jackpot but to be honest, I can only think of how I’ll spend about $10,000.
Every week though, I spend a few hours dreaming about what I’ll do with the rest.
So, when I buy a Lotto ticket, I not only buy a remote chance to win prize money, I also buy a dream and dreams don’t come cheap. To me, they’re always worth more than what I pay for the ticket.
So, I’m a winner every time.
Bob Hammill
Sale
Dear Mr Butler
MEMO to the Minister for Health and Care – the Hon Mark Butler.
Sir, I make this plea to you regarding bulk billing.
Is doomsday coming regarding bulk billing? More and more doctors are dropping bulk billing as the incentives are not meeting their cost of bulk billing.
Also, the rebates are low for patients.
Bulk billing must be improved, or the public hospital will be under further pressure due to the increasing doctor fees.
NF Nanos
Traralgon
Centrelink legislation is in drastic need of reform
THE Social Security Act and Social Security (Amendments) Act each contain over 1000 sections, most of which are designed to deny people payments, and many of which are in contradiction to other legislation.
Lottery wins, insurance payments and inheritances, when paid in more than one payment, are not classified as income by the Australian Taxation office, but they are by Centrelink.
Further, Centrelink use income averaging to calculate a fortnightly ‘income’ amount over a 12 month period, a practice which was found to be illegal in the Robodebt court cases. This affects tens of thousands of people on Centrelink benefits each year, right across Australia.
The legal age for voting is 18, but Centrelink expect parents to support their children until they are 22.
That is, of course, unless the parent is receiving a carer’s payment for a disabled child, in which case Centrelink consider the child an adult at age 16, and carer’s payment is cancelled.
Carers for disabled people are paid about $400 a week to care for people with disabilities, about $10 an hour. If they decide to supplement this with other work, their carer’s payment is reduced or cancelled. Centrelink consider their payment to be welfare, whereas it is actually a job.
Taxation law considers each partner in a relationship to be financially independent, as it should be. However Centrelink considers that if one person in the relationship is working, the benefits of the other partner are reduced or cancelled.
This means the non-working partner is completely dependent on the working partner, and has no financial independence. The result for tens of thousands of men and women is domestic violence in the form of economic coercion.
MPs elected prior to 2004 are able to collect a hefty pension for life, and still work full time in high paying jobs, but Centrelink cancels payments to aged pensioners if they dare to get a job.
The aged pension was set up in the 1950s as a reward for working and paying taxes, but Centrelink now regard it as welfare.
These are just a few of the examples of how Centrelink works against Australia’s most vulnerable, and it is time Human Services Minister, Amanda Rishworth, did her job and amended this legislation.
Craig Hill
Brisbane
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