LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

SIMPLER TIMES

MAYBE I am a bit older than Peter Hardwick, but I remember the two beer choices as Fourex and Gold Top (the big, big Beer brewed by Bulimba before they were taken over by Carlton). Then, for a while, along came “Please join me in a Pilsener” which, I think, was only available in bottles. Times have certainly changed.

These days, if you want to be bamboozled by available choices, look no further than a JB or Harvey Norman catalogue. There are pages and pages of similar looking TVs, computers, white goods etc. I’m glad that I am not in the market for any of these at the moment.

Supermarkets are no better with their rows and rows of similar items. I reckon that the frozen food sections of some of these stores are bigger than the BCCs, 4Square and Barry and Roberts stores that I remember visiting with my mother all those years ago. Thank goodness for Aldi.

Not necessarily related to the above, but I was recently reminded of the days when I went to a corner store for a soft drink and being asked if it was “to drink here or take away” or to a milk bar for a malted milk served in an aluminium cup.

Anyway, thank you Peter Hardwick for stirring up the old grey cells and bringing back memories of a simpler time. PATRICK BOYCE, Kearneys Spring

BILLS

GOOD letter from Kev McKay (TC, 2/10) regarding management of one’s Ergon bills. One practice he overlooked though, was that one should get into the habit of turning lights off when not actually needed.

Our family does (and did) what Mr McKay suggested and still we were presented with a $441.42 Ergon bill. Why? This is outrageous.

Then, there is the situation with TRC. We pay $230 a month to TRC towards our rates charges. Yet last month we were presented with a notice of $443.34 payable. This is totally, totally unacceptable.

Where are we, Sydney? Paris? New York? TRC is either mis-managing citizens’ money or else staff and council are overpaid. Or is it the taxpayer funded out-of-town/country trips we are obliged to cover?

Whatever the reason, we residents are being levied these high bills, it must stop.

JNETTE HARVEY, Rangeville

DAIRY FARMERS

THE crisis in the dairy industry is taking a heavy toll on farming families and will in time exact a heavy penalty on consumers as well.

The price gouging being carried out by processors and retailers is putting at risk the future availability of fresh milk and I have no doubt that in a few years’ time, fresh milk will either be unavailable or priced beyond the reach of average households.

Don’t wait for processors and retailers to help rectify things, they created this situation and it suits their purpose to maintain the status quo.

Every time a farmer goes out of business, it further restricts an already stressed supply of milk. Couple this with the fact that many of the producers who remain in the industry are actively seeking direct contracts to privately export milk to Asia.

This will allow them to bypass the Australian market altogether and gain direct access to billions of consumers willing to pay $15 per litre. We will be priced out of our own product if we don’t shore up our supply by ensuring our farmers can earn a decent income. Would you work 100 hours a week under harsh conditions if your wages kept going backwards?

Start an online petition, get a viral revolution going in your area and shame the big industry players into paying more to their producers. They shouldn’t have to live like slaves without enough income to feed their families, just so our families can save a few cents on a carton of milk.

I am heartbroken every time I see a dairy farmer sell up and send his cattle to the abattoirs. Farmers become very attached to the gentle giants they have, in most cases, raised from birth, and the look on the family’s faces on sale day is distressing.

Each cow in production will supply 10,000 litres of premium, wholesome milk every year to Australian families. When butchered, it supplies, once only, 300 kilos of hamburger meat for the American market.

That such a scenario could arise in such a vital industry, is a testament to how far removed from the real world the average consumer has become.

Save our dairy farmers and the day may never come when you have to explain to your children why they can’t have a glass of milk.

JOSEPH K.F. COURTE, Miles