A huge double standard
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull rejects Amnesty International's report of "deliberate and systemic torture of refugees on Nauru". The government's justification is always the same – "we have stopped the boats". There is a gap in the logic of its equation. For the government, stopping the boats equals mistreatment of innocent people.
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Yet in the same breath Mr Turnbull says, "we will not tolerate bullying in the building industry”. Why is it acceptable to stamp out bullying in one context, yet tolerate the mistreatment of asylum seekers in offshore detention?
Beverley Campbell, Castlemaine
Promises hard to believe
I couldn’t believe what I was reading in Thursday’s Bendigo Advertiser (“Premier comes to listen”).
Premier Dan Andrews and his entourage of ministers were here to listen, and also that wonderful word “common sense” in which we don’t see much of that coming from politicians these days.
What I have experienced with the local members recently they don’t listen and it appears they do their own thing, and it’s not common for them to use common sense.
Perhaps there is an election looming and they are trying to soften people up that they are really thinking of us for a change. Time will tell if they are really listening and are going to use common sense.
Ivan Kitt, Bendigo
Slice of history restored
Do you remember Taggerty? Taggerty was the buffet car attached to the midday Bendigo to Melbourne passenger train, which returned to Bendigo on the 5.40pm from Melbourne. It ran six days a week from around 1937 until the 1980s.
Retired from service, it was placed on a storage road and became a target for vandals. Around 2011 the Donald Lions Club was looking for an addition to their Railway Heritage Park. They found Taggerty and negotiated the purchase and transport to Donald, it is now fully restored.
Natalie Skeen (nee Collis), who was a waitress on Taggerty in the early 1950s, was recently given a tour of the interior. Many Bendigonians will remember the real meals served on Taggerty. Thanks to Graeme Harris and the Lions Club of Donald.
Max Skeen, California Gully
Take care around walkers
Most of us drive to get around, but every trip involves a walk. And for older people, walking may be their main form of transport. So it’s important we look out for people on the street, especially seniors.
Victoria Walks, which is funded by VicHealth, commissioned the report Safer Road Design for Older Pedestrians with the support of a TAC Community Road Safety Grant. It found 39 per cent of people who die while walking on our roads are aged 65 and over, yet this age group is only 15 per cent of the population.
The research showed that drivers should have given way in at least 72 per cent of crashes involving older pedestrians at traffic lights and 42 per cent of crashes at other intersections.
Very disturbing is the number of older people being hit on footpaths, precisely where they should feel safest when walking. At least 16 per cent of crashes involving older pedestrians occur while they cross over driveways or entrances to car parks.
Victoria Walks is appealing to all drivers and riders to take greater care and watch out for elderly walkers in particular.
We ask drivers to go slowly in and out of driveways so they can give way to people on the footpath. And please give way to people crossing the road when you are turning. It’s not only the considerate thing to do, it is a legal requirement.
As drivers, we need to take care of walkers, especially older people because when they are hit, even at slow speeds, many never fully recover.