Carer Support Services are doing a very good job and do assist, but face the fact that short-term accommodation is lacking in Bendigo to enable carers to get the respite they need.

Politicians and governments are not doing enough to solve this problem in our growing community and what is becoming a real issue for carers.

My wife who suffers from Alzheimer’s / dementia has been assessed some years ago and has 63 days available for respite, but I have a medical condition which requires at least two weeks respite for her and I have one week booked only.

Respite should be made more accessible to carers rather than having the added stress to ring around or chase various departments or having to go on waiting lists in cases of emergency.

There are 2.7 million carers in Australia. More than one in 10 Australians are carers for partners and loved ones, providing benefits to the community and the economy, saving governments more than $60 billion every year in paid care. Whilst receiving $126 per fortnight as a carers allowance.

It appears to me that governments and especially politicians assume that carers don’t need respite and create complicated processing to access respite options.

A recent report in the Financial Review revealed there are some 300,000 workers in aged care at present and by 2050 we will need one million. So carers are very important and need looking after in our community.

It would be interesting to know just how many carers there are in Bendigo doing a great service for the community and saving of government expenditure. Can our politicians supply answers or just ignore this situation?

In fact this should be investigated and worthy of more attention by researchers at Latrobe University and RMIT than the city welcoming Smart City Grant funding to pilot a new heat mapping project on days of extreme temperature.

Driving into Bendigo along High Street Kangaroo Flat on Tuesday, traffic chaos was inflicted on road users because of tree pruning works.

Is this really the right time of year to be lopping branches off trees that are in full leaf? Is peak hour the right time to cause gridlock?

Clearly those at Town Hall have nothing but contempt for the small and large businesses and other road users who depend on this road at that time to get to work and school. What were they thinking?

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