With a school on the way, time is right to duplicate Midland Highway

One can only hope that the government see fit to duplicate the highway all the way from Howard Street through to Huntly as the current flow of traffic along the highway already exceeding the government's own trigger point for duplication.

This will be another nail in the coffin of the so-called green space were advised would be left between Epsom and Huntly.

While we are all entitled to our opinion, to come out and say a small self interest group can over rule the majority, in regards to duck hunting, smacks of head in the sand.

Have the people seen the numbers of regulated duck hunters? Well, you can add threefold to that for people who would still harvest a couple of ducks for the pot, then double again the number that would love to be able to hunt ducks, love eating them, but can not get out or afford the gun licence, duck identification test and all the other things you have to do to hunt.

The only reason you don't hear from us is because we're not transfixed with the notion of hunting. We just go about out right as a free person to provide a meal for our family, be it duck, quail, deer, rabbit, pig, goat, yabby, fish or in the Indigenous case goanna etc.

To sum up, stop saying the majority oppose and just accept that they are just a couple of people that do like the chance of obtaining a feed from the wild.

The Latrobe Valley Field Naturalists Club members are shocked by the Victorian state government's decision to allow duck hunting to continue especially as the recent Parliamentary Inquiry recommended that the practice should be banned.

Such a ban on hunting native birds is already in place in NSW. Many submissions opposed the killing of native birds for recreation, and millions of Victorians oppose the suffering and distress caused to ducks.

Numbers are generally in decline and bird watchers everywhere are appalled by the killing of species, including the Pink-eared duck.

Spending $10 million to educate shooters would be better spent on restoring wetlands.

What a wasted opportunity to end hunting and protect and restore declining habitat for our water birds.

Victoria's health system is sick, and it's been descending into a chronic long-term illness for a decade.

That means the lives of Victorians are being put at risk, with horrendous delays highlighted in Parliament by The Nationals last week.

One recent example is a cancer patient, who had an oncologist appointment 20 days after her scan to discuss the course of action for her treatment.

When she turned up for the appointment, the oncologist had alarmingly not received the scans, so the treatment plan could not proceed. Imagine the distress at an already deeply worrying time.

Beyond the scanning dismay, it can take months to secure appointments with both GPs and specialists in regional Victoria, waiting times for elective surgeries have blown out significantly, and ambulances cannot be relied upon.

The elective surgery waitlist in Victoria is now beyond 67,000 patients, and the average overdue wait time for Category 3 patients has risen to 335 days, an increase from 281 days a year ago.

In the past financial year, 1395 Victorians were removed from the elective surgery waitlist because they tragically died.

Premier Jacinta Allan's implementation of a new health tax, which will raise the cost of seeing already scarce GPs by almost 30 per cent, is pushing many clinics to the verge of closure.

Even the Federal Labor Health Minister has urged the Allan Government to explore alternative models.

The Age revealed late last year that mandatory amalgamations of public hospitals across the state were being investigated by the Department of Health. This means patients in smaller regional areas will need to travel even further to access care.

Just when it seemed things couldn't get worse, we then have Victorians unable to access an ambulance when they are in desperate need.

Most recently, in Premier Allan's own seat of Bendigo, it was reported that a patient experiencing severe abdominal pain was informed of a five-hour ambulance delay and advised to take a taxi to the hospital.

Premier Allan can't manage money, can't manage the seriously ill health system, and Victorians are paying the price.

Long gone are the days when City of Greater Bendigo council concentrated on delivering core services.

Over the past five years council has collected over $1,100,000,000 in revenue (yes, a billion).

Yet our roads and drainage and other basic serviced deteriorate. Why?

Well, today council operates more like a mini-state or federal government. Its tentacles reach into every facet of our lives and our wallets. It involves itself in social matters, health, education, etc.

I would like to think all this was customer/ratepayer driven, but I believe that's not the case.

Executive council officers and politically keen councillors seem to constantly expand the range of services building a bigger organization to preside over. Hard pressed residents, many doing it tough pick up the bill.

One lady I know has an income of $12,595 and pays $2,072 in council rates; 16 per cent of her income gone. Just imagine the outcry If people earning say, $100,000, had to pay 16 per cent of their income, or $16,000 in council rates.

I am of the opinion most residents would like to see our local council stick to its knitting, improve basic core service delivery, and leave state and federal government to attend to the broader issues.