These honours recognise the hard work and significant contributions these incredible Australians have made to our community.

I am pleased to congratulate the nominees and winners of the Citizen of the Year and other community awards in our council areas.

These awards are significant achievements for all who volunteer.

On behalf of all western Victorians, I wish to thank you and recognise you for your tireless efforts and contributions to help others.

You make western Victoria a better place to live. You are true Australians and I congratulate you sincerely.

Joe McCracken MP, member for Western Victoria Region

Thank you for publishing my letter in The Standard (January 27). In response to the article, later in the day our acting CEO of the council stated free camping is not on the agenda and that not many cities offer such a service.

Maybe if he googled "free camps Victoria" he would be pleasantly surprised to find that Portland has one in the middle of town called Henty Park that has a dump point and toilets.

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Only up the road at Hawkesdale we have the Apex park with toilets and cold showers, and in the other direction we have one on the shores of Lake Colac.

There are more scattered around Victoria.

He is correct in saying there is a cost to the council and ratepayers but what are the economic benefits to these areas or does the council want to protect their, and our, investment in the caravan parks we own?

Peter Brown, Warrnambool

The claim that the wind farm will supply enough electricity in a year for 280,000 homes gives the impression that is all the electricity all those occupants will need.

It represents their in-house usage, but not their external use for public benefits on their behalf, which include lighting, transport, industry, food production, communications and other public services which, together, amount to twice that used in-house.

So a more accurate figure for the number of homes served for a year would be 93,000.

But the production of electricity will be erratic, so a very flexible back-up will be needed. Gas is in short supply, but it is the only fuel available, and with stop and start operation, twice the amount will be needed as would for continuous operation.

Graham Keith, Warrnambool

The Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has stated his government has concerns with hunter behaviour during the 2022 duck season, specifically relating to hunter compliance with bag limits.

The hunter behaviour data is freely available online from the Victorian Game Management Authority's own press release HERE.

During the 2022 season, 970 hunter bags were checked, and one hunter was found to have exceeded the daily bag limit. That's a compliance rate of 99.9 per cent.

The GMA also stated: Most hunters we spoke to were complying with the law and enjoying their time on the wetlands. However, some hunters and protesters were in breach of game hunting and public safety laws.

In the remainder of the reported data, it is not clear which of the infringements issued or offences detected were committed by anti-hunters. One point that is clear, is that of the 360 protestors the GMA interacted with in the previous season, three were issued with banning notices (effectively banning them from entering wetlands due to their illegal conduct). So, the protesters' rate of non-compliance is 0.83 per cent or more than eight times the rate of offending that was detected by hunters not complying with bag limits.

If Dan Andrews' Labor government wants to prevent non-compliance with the rules, he should ban protesters - not hunters!

Field & Game Australia will ensure Mr Andrews and his government receive the correct advice on this matter.

Lucas Cooke, Field & Game Australia CEO, Seymour

The duck shooter supporters seem to be dodging around a lot of the issues that the majority of the population, in particular regional residents, have with the activity.

Can they please explain how duck shooting is not deterring other non-shooting visitors, including the growing numbers of bird watchers, to enjoy the same regional wetlands or at least advise which waterways they should avoid for their safety? Can they advise how the gun shots are not going to scare livestock, pets, children, shift workers, veteran PTSD sufferers and people who work from home?

Can they tell us how the activity is going to be monitored to prevent illegal acts given it takes place over such a large area and there is no follow-up when illegal activities are reported? Can they guarantee shooting a bird is not going to cause a vast percentage of them to suffer and not be killed outright? Can they assure us that given the data showing rapidly declining number of game birds that the species is not going to die out?

Can they show us their safety risk assessment for discharging firearms in public places and adjacent to private properties? Can they explain why the activity has already been banned in other states and how come those regional areas have not suffered economic loss? Can they commit to continuing their environmental preservation works when duck shooting is banned?

Liz Filmer, Sale

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