Bendigo Letters to the Editor: Airport rail link, vigils and tax cuts

If it is deemed necessary then why wasn't it put in when the airport was first built? And is it that big a deal that we are the only major airport that doesn't have a rail link?

This money could be better spent  delivering  services to regional areas, and putting  our grain crops and more freight and dangerous goods back on the line. The heavy loads are causing damage to our roads – they weren’t designed to carry this weight.

We should be installing a line from Sunshine to Sunbury to complete the so-called designated line that doesn't exist between those two stations.

It is also good news that new bogies are going to be made at Hoffman’s Engineering and the benefits to come from this project will have a positive impact on our city. It is very disappointing, however, that this government has taken nearly two decades to put rail contracts back into Bendigo.

The last bogies that were built were for the sprinter rail cars at the old Bendigo North Railway Workshops. In that case the shell was built by Goninan's in Sydney and transported to Bendigo to be fitted out internally and attached to the fabricated bogies. For far too long the government has been investing in new rail fleet from components imported from overseas and assembled here. They then have the audacity to slap slogans on them built in Victoria for Victorians.

When the workshops closed, all the jigs and equipment were still there and they could have been used to build bogies for the Velocity trains. One wonders where these jigs and equipment went to?

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The vigils may make women feel better and stronger in solidarity but in reality we know that a predator is not thinking about respecting women or that what he is doing is wrong. He has a need that he has to satisfy, nothing else matters. Don’t be fooled into thinking that you can change that with words and vigils. It is no more useful than locking your doors - it only keeps the honest ones honest.

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So low income earners get $10 bucks a week if their lucky, but what of the rest? How can anybody, including governments, predict what will happen between now and 2024/25? They can’t even get predictions correct for one year let alone seven, never mind imposing another $144 billion dollars of tax cuts onto our ballooning debt. 

If the other side of politics had suggested this they would have been laughed out of Canberra, so why is this Government not being condemned for such irresponsibility? If your boss said “don't leave” I will give you a pay rise in seven years, you would tell him to take a running jump.

So, Mathias, start focusing on the services that all Australians require –  health and education. The former is under stress because of an ageing population and cut backs,  the latter is under stress because of the increasing need of university places for the younger generation also facing cut backs. 

If $144 billion dollars was instead dedicated to these services, by 2024/25 there is at least some chance of these costs being retained to a reasonable level, off-setting to some extent the tax cuts we cannot afford.

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Letters to the editor guidelines

A letter to the editor is one way to have your say in the issues that affect you and the place you live in.

All letters must be signed and carry the name, full address and daytime telephone number(s) of the author. We will publish the writer’s name and suburb/town.

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Letters can be sent to the Bendigo Advertiser, PO Box 61, Bendigo 3552 or here