Discredit the story
PLACE a century building in an 18th century village and expect it to be acceptable to visitors.
Come on. Get real. The council needs to listen to the people who are long-term residents.
The train position is vital to the settlement story; it has been stated so many times.
Move the train anywhere else on the site and the integrity of the settlement will be lost.
To continue to plan these moves, is to reveal a lack of knowledge of Australian inland history and settlement, also a lack of knowledge of what is acceptable to settlement visitors.
Leave the train where it is. It should be there, the original advisors and planners knew what they were doing, they came highly-qualified with true understanding of our history.
The train was placed near the paddle steamer for an accurate continuance of the settlement story.
Removing the train will completely discredit that story.
Visitors will not be fooled. Come to see a heritage village, and to learn, to experience the environment of a village settlement. This experience will be compromised by a modern structure, placed with no historical significance.
The Our Place building is special enough to standalone at another site, and be more appreciated in its own setting.
I appeal to the council, please find another site.
Name and address supplied
Another blow to regional Victoria
A RETURN to stage three restrictions for all of regional Victoria delivers another blow to many families and businesses.
I appreciate that there is no manual for these times and the government is under continued pressure, however regional residents are increasingly exasperated and feeling they are paying the price for the inappropriate actions of metropolitan Melbourne.
I have spoken with business operators across the region over the last few weeks who have repeatedly refused service to people travelling from hotspots, so it is perhaps inevitable that a return to stage three restrictions has come.
Reports that more than 800 people who were supposed to be self-isolating were not home when doorknocked add to this frustration, if not pure outrage.
For some businesses, already on the brink, the restrictions will hit hard and may push them past the point of no return.
For many families, it is return to juggling working from home (if indeed you still have a job) with schooling of young children.
I continue to be concerned about the ongoing psychological and financial impacts that restrictions are having on people already stretched by the challenges of the last five months, especially on the back of summer bushfires.
I welcome the state government’s Business Support Fund, with additional grants of $5000 for businesses that are required to close and I will continue to push for further supports, including for mental health.
If the State of Disaster is to be effective, the government needs to ensure compliance of stage four restrictions in metropolitan Melbourne and self-isolations.
Our communities are well-versed at working to support each other, and will continue to do so, while we stay home and hope that these restrictions deliver what is needed to enable our businesses to reopen and get our children back to school.
Tania Maxwell,
Member for Northern Victoria
Keeping people in work
A DECISION by the Federal Liberal-Nationals Government to extend the JobKeeper scheme for a further six months will be welcomed by country Victorian businesses that are relying on the payments to keep local people in work.
Restrictions in place to stop the spread of coronavirus are there to save lives, but they’ve also had a massive impact on regional economies.
An additional 250,000 Victorians are out of work due to the second round of restrictions imposed on Victorians as a result of Daniel Andrews’ hotel quarantine fiasco in Melbourne.
I’ve heard from many business owners who say they wouldn’t be open and keeping local people in work without the JobKeeper scheme.
Expanding the program to make more Victorian businesses and workers eligible for these support payments is relief our country communities desperately need as we enter six more weeks of stage three lockdown.
Businesses will now only have to prove GST turnover has fallen across one quarter, instead of multiple quarters meaning more will be able to access it.
I urge anyone seeking financial support to apply at www.ato.gov.au/General/JobKeeper-Payment/.
Peter Walsh,
Leader of The Nationals
Member for Murray Plains
Return to what we had
AFTER watching the video of Nationals’ Senator Perin Davey telling us what a wonderful rice mill we have in Deniliquin, and how we can help feed the world, I had an idea.
Thanks to her National Party and its refusal or inability to fix the basin plan and other water issues, we have had virtually zero rice crop for two years and we are about to run out of domestic rice supplies.
Therefore, the rice mill that Senator Davey talks so highly about is effectively in moth balls.
So perhaps we should turn it into a rice museum and we could honour the National Party’s role in its new life as a tourist attraction by calling it the National Party Rice Museum.
You never know, it may become as famous as our National Parks, which the politicians promised us would draw thousands of tourists a year…and haven’t we seen that.
Of course, another option, though I won’t hold my breath, is for the National Party to actually do something for our region and demand sensible policy that provides water for our farmers.
Then, Senator Davey, we will be able to return to what we used to do so well, which is growing rice to feed our nation and the rest of the world.
Peter McCallum,
Moama, NSW
