The Standard letters to the editor: Opinion | March 26, 2022

I received my Warrnambool City Council cat registration charge today - $72 each for our two cats.

Ironically, at exactly the same time I received my mother's cat registration charge (I look after some things for her and she has no concessions).

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The City of Ballarat's cat registration charge $21.50 for her cat - more than $50 difference. Basically extortion.

No wonder so many Warrnambool residents don't register their pets. I invite the CEO or other Warrnambool City Council representatives to reply to this letter and explain the wildly excessive registration fee. I'm sure other residents would love to hear the reason. More than that I am sure other residents would like the registration fee to be more reasonable.

Craig Homberg, Warrnambool

The opinion article by David Shearman (The Standard, March 16) was of most interest.

This brought home the one very neglected item by all governments since federation - to ensure a reliable source of usable water will always be available. If water is not available all life would cease. To date, the only investigations carried out have been to water supplies to restricted areas.

James R Judd, Colac

Do Wannon voters want to reclaim the advantages of political influence I believed they had when our family first bought land near Coleraine in 1976?

Are voters happy with their lot in a safe Liberal seat or could it be to Wannon electors' advantage to once again make this a swinging seat?

History tells us that the federal seat of Wannon and the state seat of Dundas were once both swinging seats. When Malcolm Fraser won Wannon in 1955, the electorate had never been held by any party for longer than one term; it was, in modern parlance, a swinging seat.

Fraser, being a tireless worker for Wannon, turned Wannon into a blue ribbon Liberal seat.

The state seats of Dundas and Portland were inclined to swing too! Don McKellar was our local member in Dundas from 1967-1970 and 1973-1985. Bill Lewis, Labor, was the member in the intervening years.

Don McKellar, Bill Lewis and Malcolm Fraser - like all members of Parliament at that time - returned home each Friday to spend the weekend in their electorate. They - and their families - were one of us, and they knew and understood the electorates they represented.

Might not the forthcoming federal election be a good time for voters to at least send a message to the incumbent that a better deal is needed by moving Wannon toward becoming a swinging electorate in 2022?

Peter Small, Gritjurk

The overwhelming case for wind power by Genevieve Grant (The Standard, March 5) should convince many doubters but some will never accept this advance.

For years we've heard extraordinary and fictitious negatives about wind and solar renewables and often in a context of defending pollutants such as coal. Councillor Jim Doukas has been a local magnet for the dinosaur brigade while most of us welcome cleaner and cheaper energy sources and lessening the impact of climate change. The economic benefits for regional and rural Victoria will also be significant as this necessary conversion accelerates.

Tony Delaney, Warrnambool

Congratulations to the Morrison-led LNP on earning just under a $1 billion in interest from the federal emergency response fund as at December last year.

The LNP set up the $4.7 billion fund in 2019 to assist emergency response to natural disaster recovery, preparedness and resilience. The federal government has the power to draw $200 million a year to setup infrastructure to prevent further disasters and assist people affected by the disaster with their immediate needs. Less than $150 million has been spent on disaster mitigation projects since 2019/20.

The government says it has spent $17 billion on disaster relief but $13 million of this has been spent on COVID. Lack of action on climate change; inaction on mitigation planning; too little, too late responses to disasters all continue to add up to a government that plays with the budget figures, loves a photo op of the PM dressed up in themed clothing and an organisation who make decisions on the run - reactive rather than proactive.

Meanwhile, we have hundreds of people being saved from floods by private citizens, towns and farms being destroyed by flood and fire, people still waiting for their bushfire relief funds, while federal government ministers sit on their hands and count the saved dollars and the growing interest. They are a total disgrace.

Gavin Arnott, Allansford

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