Letters to the editor

Yet with so many unanswered questions, Labor remains largely silent, even as the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing unfolds.

The PAEC should be the ideal platform for Victorians to get straight answers to hard questions.

The process is designed to flush out the devil in the detail. Victorians need to hear the reasoning behind budget cuts as they continue to pay for Labor’s incompetence.

It comes not long after the Budget was delivered. The timing is ideal to get to the bottom of what is happening to taxpayers’ money.

Instead, a procession of government ministers have dodged questions and wasted time by purposely drifting away from the issues at hand.

Time after time, the responses have lacked detail and substance.

The clock runs down in Labor’s game of dodgeball.

It comes as Labor has cut $1 billion from the health system after slashing $2 billion in last year’s budget despite the system being in crisis.

Our roads system is crumbling yet Labor has cut maintenance funding by 45 per cent since 2020, with $260 million slashed this year alone.

And regional development funding has been halved to $106.6 million in the brutal budget, with funding cut an alarming 80 per cent since 2020.

Labor, sadly, is sticking to type when all we need is answers.

The Nationals have led the fight for transparency via Member for Gippsland South and PAEC member Danny O’Brien, who has become increasingly frustrated by the process.

Mr O’Brien branded the process “a joke” as the government continually shut down questions about the budget.

No-one is laughing.

There has to be a better way.

It is time Labor faced the heat and provided honest answers.

Peter Walsh,

Leader of the Nationals

Why the confidentiality?

Various government departments and agencies have been embroiled in the PwC scandal, though there is one in particular that raises additional questions that need to be answered.

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority has confirmed it has written to PwC seeking assurances that confidential information in river modelling contracts worth nearly $28 million has not been shared.

So what does the MDBA have to hide in relation to river modelling?

There has long been a view that volumes of water recovered under the basin plan cannot be delivered downstream without causing significant erosion to riverbanks, as well as flood damage to public and private infrastructure.

An audit that confirmed these fears would throw the Albanese Government’s flawed water management policies into turmoil, as it would be pointless recovering the massive volumes it proposes, including the additional 450GL that has been demanded by South Australia.

The basin plan is heading towards a cliff. Is information held by PwC the catalyst that could push it off the edge?

Stephen Ball,

Mayrung

Support the Red Shield Appeal

Winter is here. It’s tax time, and it’s that time of year when many of us seek to hit the reset button as the new financial year rolls around — a fresh start.

But for the Salvation Army and the thousands of people we support, it means something very different, particularly this year.

We are extremely worried about those who are most vulnerable in our community, who are presenting to our services across the country, some for the first time.

Not only is it the coldest time of year in many parts, but we are also facing one of the most severe economic challenges we have seen in years; the cost-of-living crisis and soaring utility bills are leaving everyday Aussies facing devastating and impossible choices.

One mother, 42, has told us: “I wear multiple layers of clothing to keep warm. I avoid turning on the heater and try not to waste or use excessive amounts of water.”

A mother-of-three, 34, said: “I turn off the hot water and electricity at night. I use the barbecue for cooking and organise the kids’ clothes to minimise the use of the washing machine. We only flush the toilet when necessary. We limit showers to a maximum of three minutes. Instead of using public transport, we walk or ride bikes everywhere.”

With this in mind, we want to simply say thank you. Thank you to the Australian public, who have already given so generously to the Red Shield Appeal to make sure that families and individuals like those I have mentioned can access our services wherever they are in Australia.

Thank you for thinking of others when it would be so easy to just think of yourselves. One of the greatest traits of Australians is that when the going gets tough, Aussies reach into their pockets and help someone in need. I love that about Australia.

But it isn’t over yet. The Salvos are hoping to raise $37 million by June 30 to ensure our services and programs across the nation can continue, so nobody struggles alone.

This end of financial year, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to The Salvation Army’s Red Shield Appeal by visiting salvationarmy.org.au or calling 13 SALVOS.

Major David Collinson,

The Salvation Army

Thanks for the help

I am an old guy from Melbourne, who was driving along the Newell on the northern outskirts of Tocumwal around 7.30am on June 5.

It was raining heavily, so I pulled over to adjust my windscreen wipers and demister.

There was surface water off the bitumen, which disguised a huge hole.

My car wouldn’t move, forwards or backwards.

As I contemplated a solution, one came in the form of a young tradie who pulled up behind me, tapped on my window and said: “I could see you were in trouble. Stay there. I’ll tow you out backwards.” Despite the drenching rain, he did. What a saint! Then he was gone. Our conversation was limited. I know only he was from Tocumwal, going to work in Finley and driving a ute.

If you care to publish this, and he happens to read it, he will know his help was greatly appreciated.

If that doesn’t work, at least your readers will know that in their midst is a fine young man.

John Dunn,

Balwyn

Monarchy is worth celebrating

David Muir’s tiresome farrago of republican lies is emblematic of the ignorance of the republican lobby in this country (The Riv, Letters, June 7).

When republicans like Mr Muir repeat demonstrably false talking points like the assertion that Australia should become a republic to ‘’transition to a totally independent nation’’, you really have to wonder what rock he has been living under to believe that Australia is anything other than an independent nation already.

In this case, Muir is almost a century out of date — Australia became an independent nation in 1931 when the Statute of Westminster was passed, by which the British Parliament voluntarily relinquished its powers to override legislation from Australia’s Federal Parliament.

All Australians should celebrate the King’s Birthday in appreciation of the Australian Crown as our oldest institution and the bedrock for our success as a stable, prosperous, democratic nation.

We should make the most of our beautiful constitutional monarchy and rejoice in the good fortune we have inherited the world’s most successful system of democratic governance, with constitutional monarchies disproportionately represented in the top rankings of the world’s most democratic, free and prosperous nations as measured by independent indices such as the United Nations’ Human Development Index.

There is no need to replace our apolitical, impartial and elegant monarchy with the divisive and petty politicking of a republic, which would benefit nobody other than the career politicians eyeing off yet another well-paid sinecure to aggrandise themselves.

Nicholas Tam,

Australian Monarchist League life member and international spokesman

OPINION POLICY

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