Profligacy

PREMIER Allan and her cronies

haven't managed well the monies

of the state;

excessive spending (like before)

will only make the people poor

at this rate,

and, with our taxes ever higher,

we'll all be landed in the mire:

what a fate!

With mounting debt and coffers bare,

should we not vote them all out, ere

it's too late?

Craig Penny, Terip Terip

Tax laid bare

THE human impact of the Allan Labor Government’s 60th new tax was laid bare on national TV and it was a distressing watch.

Sixth generation farmer Rob Armstrong put his plight bluntly: “We’ve had enough, we’ve had enough of hurting … and it’s got to stop”.

Rob fought back tears on Channel 10’s The Project as he spoke of the looming emergency services tax grab.

Farmers like Rob face a dramatic 189 per cent increase on their contribution to the emergency services tax.

The new tax will rip $2.1 billion more a year from Victorians, much of it from regional communities, and most will go towards propping up back-room staff in the city, by-passing the frontline heroes who keep us safe.

Hardworking Victorians battling the cost-of-living crisis need support, not another tax.

The Nationals will continue to fight it.

Danny O’Brien MP, Leader of The Nationals, Shadow Minister for Emergency Services

Law tennis praise continues

I WOULD like to congratulate the Euroa Lawn Tennis Club committee and their hard-working volunteers on a brilliant tennis tournament held on the long weekend of March 2025.

John Pearson, Euroa

Reading the tree-leaves

EUROA, reinforced by its cheery residents and shop owners, combined with its tree-lined streets and roads, confirms our recent choice of township in which to reside and contribute as new residents in a warm and welcoming community.

All appears so well.

However, an abrupt hiccup in our early experience of community life is the fact that one of the welcoming entrance statements into the township, the Alexander Road’s avenue of mature London plane trees and elm trees, is destined shortly for the chop! What?!

It appears design engineers, landscape architects, civil contractors, and financial advisors associated with planning Euroa’s very welcome and much-needed railway precinct upgrade and new underpass must have been given a minimalist brief to achieve and deliver what ought to have been a sensible, tree-inclusive outcome.

The archaic business-as-usual approach, where trees are ignored as vital community assets and seen as the line of least resistance, is to be deplored.

How must the adjacent residents feel about the impending and immediate drop in their property values, once those vital street trees are removed?

Where are the plans to incorporate the existing trees?

Or worst-case scenario, where is Inland Rail’s commitment to tree replacement and incorporation into the finished product?

It seems a fait accompli design has ignored council and community consultation in this regard.

It’s just not that difficult to consider and build in cost-effective solutions, to preserve or reinstate trees as critical infrastructure for such a major project, unless it’s part of a limited, filtered, and flawed design brief.

Clearly we didn’t read the tree-leaves when settling into Euroa.

Glenn & Vicki Williams, Euroa (new residents)