Foreign aid is not optional extra

Correspondent Ilana Leeds (Gaz 4/9) is quite right to encourage us to support Australia’s farmers. But Australians can have a bigger vision than further cutting our already miserly foreign aid.

It is true that charity begins at home – but charity does not end at home. We can do two things at once.

Providing fair and proper support to farmers, and other Australians who are struggling whether on the land or in towns, ought to be standard procedure, and not regarded as some sort of optional extra.

Providing fair and proper encouragement to people in the Pacific Island nation states and other places in the less developed world, ought equally to be regarded as standard procedure and not an optional extra.

The two types of support are not alternatives, but the two sides of the one coin – the coin of humanitarian friendship.

To say you can’t give overseas aid in order to support farmers is like a parent saying he and she can’t love their second or third child because they already love their eldest child. We love them all.

Buying Australian produced food, encouraging young people with jobs, providing high standard aged care are all part of the same vision: to live in an open, caring, generous, just and sustainable world. That’s our high vision. Anything else sells us short.

Let’s tell our politicians we have loftier goals than a fatter hip pocket and that our vision extends beyond our own boundaries.

Eric Smith, Shady Creek

Bungled NBN

A professionally responsible organisation promptly remediates blunders by its personnel.

That doesn't apply to the pleased and proud much advertised nationally immature and dependent NBN.

Forced by the cut off date of September 14 in Longwarry to connect I arranged in good time with a highly efficient telco for an NBN connection which was scheduled to occur on August 30.

The telco provided a modem with instructions which was made operative on that date with functionality to occur within 24 hours.

But the connection was bungled by an NBN operative and I was deprived of landline and internet. Disobligingly the NBN scheduled another connection date, September 4 some 96 hours after the blunder.

My phone complaint to the NBN was recorded I was told but not remedied. An earlier date was not possible. This delinquency instances an organisation that subjects its users to its convenience not theirs.

Notoriously the much hyped NBN is becoming a national white elephant and the bastard offspring of the Punch and Judy mutual blame game by both highly salaried sides of the party playground in the national sound chamber as they long prostituted it to their self serving partisan politics.

The dereliction I've described should attract a financial penalty imposed on the NBN. Likely? Porcine aviation will first ensue I suppose

Frank Carleton, Longwarry

Tell Baw Baw Council

We received a letter from the Baw Baw Shire in relation to closing part of Lillico Road. The portion to be closed is from the entrance of the new estate to the intersection with Eve Rd.

The entrance to the new estate is slightly uphill from the creek, which is at the bottom of a steep hill running down from Brandy Creek Rd.

We know that when this road closure takes place council will then enact its plan to rename this stretch of Lillico Road, putting 28 property owners to some considerable expense to change their street address.

Representation was made to council by a local heavy vehicle operator of the almost impossible legal travel through the new roundabout inside the estate, the advice from one councillor “Can’t you go another way” wasn’t well received. As it would entail a much longer route to his property, using more expensive fuel.

Traffic moving north south on Lillico Rd will enter the estate, heading down hill, reduce speed, negotiate a roundabout and then travel out to the existing southern portion of Lillico Rd and accelerate up the hill.

Traffic heading south to north travel down the steep hill, changing down through the gears and then up the rise, braking to turn into the estate, negotiating the roundabout which seems to be on a “strange” downhill angle, requiring longer vehicles to travel into the oncoming lane to negotiate the right hand turn, accelerating up the rise, past the houses, then joining the existing Lillico Rd.

If the current roadway is left in situ traffic will “flow” past the estate, reducing noise pollution, air pollution, excessive use of fuel and allow the residents of the estate a quieter existence.

We have been told by council that the southern section of Lillico Rd is not a “feeder” road but the new road running from Dollarburn Rd, Brandy Creek Rd intersection into the estate will be a feeder road.

That road will not be constructed in the near future as it is in the final stage of the development, meanwhile its okay for the southern section to “feed” into the estate all the traffic associated with the development and housing.

Vehicles of all sizes and types heading north down the hill, using their exhaust brakes and changing down gears to slow down enough to negotiate the turn into the estate. Then the noise of them accelerating up the hill to the new building sites.

The current intersection of Eve Rd with Lillico Rd meets at 90 degrees, affording a clear line of sight to the traffic coming around the bend to their left and a clear line of sight to the traffic on their right.

Closing that portion of Lillico Rd and utilising the new estate roadway will now require the drivers of vehicles exiting Eve Rd to turn 45 degrees to see over their left shoulder to view any oncoming traffic.

It is common sense to leave the current roadway, to reduce the constant braking, gear changing (we don’t all drive automatics) and accelerating, all accompanied by noise pollution.

So if you would like to inform the council that you would like less noise pollution, air pollution, and reduce the use of fossil fuels then you should lodge a submission to be received by Council by 5pm on Tuesday September 25 and should be addressed to the chief executive officer Baw Baw Shire Council PO Box 304, Warragul, 3820. Terry J Hennessy, Warragul

Commonsense prevails

It was good to read the report about the exit lane at the Shell Nar Nar Goon Service Station (Gaz 4/9).

Commonsense has prevailed at last. The business was established in 1928 and passed to the Clough family many years ago. It is among the top fuel retailers in Victoria, a position achieved by offering competitive prices and good service.

When the Pakenham Bypass was constructed just over 10 years ago, access to the site was severely restricted. Every customer since then has been forced to drive an extra 2.5kms due to this restricted access. The same inconvenience applied to east bound vehicles exiting Bessie Creek Road.

The inconvenience came about because of a Vic Roads rule that such businesses could only supply fuel and food to motorists. The Mazda dealership was not considered a service to the motoring public.

Now your report tells us that the Clough brothers have had to pay for the very extensive exit lane themselves. Not only did the service station lose access to the west-bound traffic when the bypass opened, it could only serve east-bound with difficulty.

It seems very unfair that it has taken over 10 years, major legal costs and several visits to VCAT to obtain the sensible decision to allow an exit lane that should have been in place when the bypass was built.

Maybe we should see a class action by customers to recover the cost of 2.5kms extra driving for every time they have visited the service station. In my own case, I have been there on average twice a month for the past 10 years. Say 25 times a year by 10 is about 250 visits, by 2.5kms is about 600 kms for no purpose other than a very silly and restrictive Vic Roads regulation. There have been millions of visits by customers in the 10 years.

If Cloughs have to pay the full cost of this ‘overkill' merging lane, what contribution did the service stations at the Sand Road overpass make to their very extensive road works?

May Shell Nar Nar Goon increase sales so that the unfair cost is recovered in a very short time. I am not associated with Shell Nar Nar Goon other than as a customer. Don McLean, Bunyip

Just a slogan

I thank the Gazette for their article on my candidature as an Independent in the Upper House Victoria for the forthcoming election (Gaz 28/8).

A political campaign slogan is about positioning the community for a higher purpose in a memorable way. It serves as a first impression for voters, hoping to stir emotion in them to take action.

A slogan should have meaning and a high degree of emotion associated with it.

My campaign message 'Make Gippsland Great' might be compared to Trump’s 'Make America Great Again' or even Clive Palmer’s ‘Make Australia Great' but it is only a slogan.

I have also used “keep the bastards honest”Don Chipp and “It’s Time” Labor .

I believe that most Gippslanders want to see change happen. They want to see Gippsland restored to its position of economic and resource significance within the state.

‘Make Gippsland Great' is my way of summarising what I stand for. That we as Gippslanders need to be given time, attention, funding and a powerful voice for change, so that we can improve our transport services, our education, our employment opportunities, our policing services, and our health services.

Other regional areas of Victoria are being given priority at the expense of Gippslanders and this must stop. It is our turn. It is our right.

Together we can stand up and demand that we be given funding, support and resources.

Together we can make the government live up to its promises. Together we can make Gippsland Great – Grow Gippsland.

Michael Fozard, Trafalgar

No sticker

I thought this could be a good forum to inform the driver of large white utility (I do have the registration number) that his disabled driver sticker was not showing when he parked in a disabled space at Woolworths, last Thursday early morning.

I hope he reads this and finds his sticker before he parks again. I would not want him to get into any bother by parking in a disabled zone without the proper permissions.

Ann Humphries, Warragul