I would like to know why the move is thought to be necessary. What is wrong with the current position? Why can't the existing buildings be renovated? If the showgrounds were moved to Vic Park, what is proposed for the current site?

There is obviously a hidden agenda behind this ludicrous idea and I believe we need to be told the truth.

Pauline Shaw - Lake Wendouree

During Mental Health Week (4-11 October), let us think about the traumatised minds of asylum seekers rotting away on Manus Island and Nauru.

It is costing tax payers in Australia 60 million dollars a month to pay Transfield Services to run these detention centres, and its multibillion dollar contract has just been renewed.

Our Department of Health has this year allocated approximately 661 million dollars to Mental Health Services to Australians with mental health problems. So in reality, it is costing us more exacerbating mental health problems in detention centres than helping mentally ill people in our own communities.

Is this what we really want? When will our politicians see sense and show compassion towards persecuted, hopeless people in detention?

Diane Collacott - Ballarat

I have an almost foolproof plan to end the gap between the rich and poor. Take all the money in Australia, pool it and divide it up equally to everyone. Whether you have worked hard in two jobs and invested wisely, or blown your dole money at the races, you get a fair go at sharing wealth.

There are however, two problems: Firstly, after five years or so, the money would have ended up back in the same pockets it was taken from. It is like an unofficial defacto loan. Secondly, the ones handing over their hard earned cash may not be willing participants in favour of simply giving it away.

Compulsory, forcible - but peaceful separation of money from citizens without causing a major backlash, would require much cunning ability, piety, wit and charm of a top class, financial operator with much prior experience. We must now lament the loss of past political treasurers.

Colin Holmes - Ballarat

THis week I visited the Ballarat Law Courts with two friends. We sat through one and a half hours of various cases without hearing the charges or the reasons for them being there. The lawyers and magistrate's comments were equally hard to hear, due to the acoustics of the room and people coming and going constantly. We then visited court #3, only to have the same experience.

My two friends agreed with me that we had wasted our morning. How could visitors or the general public hear anything being said in those courts is beyond me. To those sitting in the public gallery, it was a waste of time trying to hear the outcomes of these cases. The acoustics of these courts could do with an upgrade so that we could all hear how the law is being administered in Ballarat.

Ken Russell - Enfield

In this week’s Courier  it sounds like councillor Vikki Coltman has made up her mind already on saleyards and is just going through the motions. Let's hope voters remember her vote on this issue next year. A lot of misinformation out there at the moment have come from our own council officers and RXL.

Sharon Clark - Ballarat