Bendigonians currently spend $48 million per year on pokies. Forty per cent comes from those who can least afford it and poker machines are the only form of gambling that can be fixed to lose.

Now it seems some in our community are are happy to fund infrastructure directly from the revenue raised through pokies.

When did it become OK for Aussies to rob from the poor to give to the rich? When was $48 million not enough?

A true reflection of a community is how we treat the most vulnerable. Another 44 machines will raise $3 million per year and take even more money out of local business.

About $1.2 million will come out of the pockets of the poor. Such a poor reflection of who we are. When is enough, enough?

The council have completely dropped the ball when it comes to safety and management of our school crossings.

Our council – from our money from the budget – funds maintenance and crossing guards.

Even though we have many such crossing guards who do the right thing, we also have a big number who do not and are putting others safety at risk.

Crossing guards are paid to be there with flags from 8am to 9.30am and again from 2.30pm to 4pm each school day.

There are numerous crossings that are not being manned until almost 9am or 3pm and left unmanned when parents and children are still to cross.

There are some crossings that have had flags up 24/7 with no crossing guard and others that have been simply not flagged or manned at all.

I have in the past emailed concerns to council and phoned into council’s compliance to little effect.

I am concerned that they have fallen on deaf ears or they simply don't care enough to act in the first place.

The importance of those who are already doing the right thing cannot be understated, but our council’s lack of management here cannot be stated enough.

I was shocked to read reference in the interview with MP Daniel Young (“Hunting a family matter”, Bendigo Advertiser, March 17) about the so called benefits of families that shoot and slay ducks together.

Duck shooting is hardly a "sport", it is a one-sided event where a person with a shotgun targets to kill an unarmed, vulnerable and weak prey. A duck is hardly "fair game", if any slaughter game is "fair".

Introducing children from 11 years up to the "game" of slaughtering other species cannot be beneficial for the development of healthy young people.

Anecdotally, this style of behavior encourages aggression and a kill mentality, which can lead to aggressive and threatening behaviour as adults.

Duck shooting is practiced by less than .05 per cent of the total of Victoria's population, only 26,000 of 5,000,000 hold licences.

It is time for this barbaric, outdated "game" of slaughter to be banned and allow the total of the population to enjoy the benefits of our beautiful pristine waterways, an abundance of native water birds without an annual intrusion of shooters who take over foreshores of water catchments to indulge in a "sport" that is generally found by most to be a repulsive annual bloodbath.

I read about the misuse of public money by some Alpine resort bosses of more than $85,000 face the sack.

Yet three Labor politicians deliberately misuse public money of more than $120,000 and get to keep their jobs with a slap on the wrist. Political hypocrisy at its best.