Are state politicians redundant?
Is there any need to have state politicians? When an election is coming up they are out and about pork barrelling and promising funds for just about everything. But if we never had a local member the funds would still be there. The cheques would simply be posted out to those organisations that have successfully applied for them. The local federal member’s office could easily handle this task. So, in reality, there would be no need to have state politicians endeavouring to ingratiate themselves with the electorate by handing out the grants as if the money was coming out of their own pockets.
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However, on occasions, they can also arrange meetings with senior members of the government. But for the amount of money they cost the taxpayers, they simply don’t earn their keep. In other words, they are fast becoming irrelevant.
This brings me to the Member for Cootamundra, Steph Cooke. In her inaugural speech to parliament she said “I am here to fight for you and alongside you”. But how can she do this?
Take Gundagai for instance. She knows full well that the residents want out of the disastrous merger with Cootamundra yet she fully supports her government’s hated amalgamation policy? Her passive efforts so far haven’t won her many supporters in this area of her electorate.
Even Simple Simon can see that the forced merger between our two towns is nothing more than a farce and is an ongoing disaster as far as Gundagai is concerned. And who knows, with Cootamundra having six councillors to Gundagai’s three, maybe some time soon we will wake up one morning and find that the Dog on the Tuckerbox, the Marble Masterpiece or even the Yarri and Jacky Jacky sculptures have all been relocated to Cootamundra? Under the present set-up and being out-voted two-to-one, anything is possible.
Case in point – the dubious and secretive deal over the Coolac Servo application.
As this train wreck has gone on for far too long, my message to Steph Cooke is this: Don’t you think that it’s about time that you directed some of your fighting spirit and determination towards those arrogant colleagues of yours in Macquarie Street and convince them that unless we get our council and town back, they will, yourself included, suffer a major electoral backlash come the elections in March? It has been proven in the past that any politician who deliberately ignores the wishes of their constituents can look forward to a very brief political career.
Geoff Field, Gundagai
Need for immediate action
The Bureau of Meteorology has just reported that last year was the warmest year and the sixth driest year on record for NSW. Should you be surprised?
The IPCC report shows that average temperatures since 1910 have increased by 1 degree with most of that since 1950.
We are seeing first-hand the effects of a 1 degree rise and the devastating effect to our farming communities with droughts, bushfires, thunderstorms and heatwaves.
Heatwaves have already become longer, hotter and are starting earlier in the year.
Dangerous bushfire weather is increasing and cool season rainfall is dropping off, stretching firefighting resources, putting lives at risk and creating challenges for the agricultural industry.
The Paris Accord wants to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees which means that it will be 50 per cent worse conditions for our farming communities than present and currently we look at well overshooting that mark. A business-as-usual attitude could lead to a 2 to 3 degrees or greater increase in temperature, which could mean that our environment would become too hostile for our very survival.
We desperately need a government to recognise what is going on and to take immediate action to meet this emergency.