The proposed ban on greyhound racing in NSW is a political blunder made by Premier Baird in order to appease Green inner city voters.

A state decision to rely solely on renewable energy and closing down fossil fueled power stations is an important national issue.

These fossil fueled power stations provide reliable back up base load power when the sun does not shine, and the wind does not blow, or blow to hard.

Making a state reliant on other states to provide backup fossil fueled power in times of an emergency.

It’s no good bragging to the people of your state that you are Green and clean when you force them to endure black outs or outrageous power prices to pay for your ideology.

Michael McKenzie’s letter in the Bendigo Advertiser on 10/10/16, sums up the operational procedures of our council in a nutshell, and only confirms what most ratepayers have felt for many years, in so much as, elected councillors are largely ineffective in the overall aspect of the daily operation of this organisation.

But this is not surprising in the least, as the reliance of senior officers to inform and advise on the spending of millions of dollars of ratepayer funds is paramount to the success or otherwise of decisions made, regardless of the opinion of ratepayers, who have responded in recent times with an  avalanche of negative comments, relating to some of those decisions made, and the conduct of some of the elected councillors, costing additional, and unnecessary ratepayer funds to initiate a resolution.

Is it any wonder that most ratepayers are "over it."

But as there is no immediate prospect of the state government intervening in local government operations, or the possibility of the appointment of commissioners to oversee this multi million dollar operation, we have little choice but to entrust our faith in the new councillors elected, and wish them well. 

But the question is "will anything change?

One can only keep hoping it will.

Just beyond Axedale, coming down from Bendigo to Heathcote, I saw the most beautiful circle of shorn white lambs on a wide paddock of green grass, blue hills edged on the horizon.

Peace and contentment.

Moving further down, the spindly eucalypts still showed the remnants of fire, ravages of the Australian Bush.

Everywhere there are puddles of water now, the other threat of excessive rain, endured but hardly recognised by the beautiful shorn white lambs.

The countryside is changing from emerald green fields to a blur of yellow.

Not the brilliant canola yellow but the gentle yellow of daisies.

More and more the daisies dominate the countryside with the Black Angus cattle giving a striking contrast.

We see some unshorn brown lambs looking miserable, not like the confident shorn lambs near Axedale.

Mount Ida is standing purple against the sky.

There are dams of water everywhere.

Just near Derrinal, trees are standing forlorn in water, a strange spectacle as though they know they should be on dry ground.

Now the yellow and green give a mottled appearance to the rolling hills as we near Heathcote.

We see Andrew Turner’s alpacas looking confident and shorn.