TOO DRY TO RUST
It’s been a very long time since the phrase “drought proof Australia” has been mentioned anywhere in the media.
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It has well and truly slipped off the must do list.
Here we have a very nasty dispute going on between the states over who is entitled to the very limited supply of fresh water available for our farmers to irrigate their crops.
Oceans of fresh flood water just continue to flow out to sea, with absolutely no interest at all in diverting any of it to our parched inland cropping areas.
This fumbling Turnbull Government needs to get its priorities right, and start creating new worthwhile projects or Australia is going nowhere.
The “too hard basket” gets bigger whilst the food basket gets smaller.
As one farmer put it: "It’s that dry around here that things don't rust anymore".
Dave Cox, Corrimal
NO-ONE LEFT TO SPEAK
Congratulations to Luci Temple for her contribution ‘Listen to the people’ (Illawarra Mercury, February 27). This proposed legislation she is concerned about is nothing more than a desperate attempt by Turnbull’s LNP government to muzzle any questioning and or criticism.
The not-for-profit organisation Getup being the legislation’s prime target. Hopefully, sufficient Australians will follow the course of action proposed in ‘Listen to the people’ and, that the proposed legislation remains blocked in the Senate.
The consequences associated with this legislation are enormous as has been outlined by Luci Temple. Considering those consequences, I believe it not inappropriate to quote Martin Niemoller; a prominent German pastor who spent seven years in a prison for speaking out against Nazism: “When they came for the Socialists, I did not speak out, because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me”.
A lesson hopefully not wasted upon apathetic citizens of The Land of OZ!
Barry Swan, Balgownie
LOSING MORAL COMPASS
In response to the letter by Dave Cox, ‘A Political Stain’ (Illawarra Mercury, February 26, 2018), Mr Cox's animosity and high moral tone regarding the scandal surrounding former National's leader Barnaby Joyce is interesting.
Could it be because Mr Joyce is a social conservative, Catholic or a member of a conservative political party that are the real reasons for Mr Cox's attack on Joyce? After all, when Labor leader Bill Shorten did something similar in 2009, Mr Cox was silent.
I am not defending Barnaby Joyce for the adulterous affair which has brought pain and sorrow upon his wife and children. But just remember Mr Cox, that such affairs happen "at times" in all political parties in every country regardless of the political system in place. We are all weak because we have walked away from God and lost our moral compass.
Adrian Devlin, Fairy Meadow
DITCH THE GROG
The cruise companies already know the solution to the drunken antics of these “shipwrecking” cruisers.
Stop selling alcohol packages and go back to the good old days of buy as you go. Alcohol packages only entice some of the holders to go overboard with alcohol consumption to an extent where they don’t know what they are doing; which ruins not only their own cruise experience, but also that of the other paying passengers.
Cruising should be a great travel experience, not a nightmare, so ditch these damaging alcohol packages ASAP.
Steven Thomas, Shellharbour