These essential items are symbols of construction progress and innovation; albeit the only visible signs. The economy is now paralysed in a vacuum and sliding towards terminal euthanasia. The election is merely a formality sounding the death knell. A liberal cut in company tax may hopefully mean more investment and jobs, or at the discretion of the employer, a holiday or new car; both maybe Asian…...

Colin Holmes, Ballarat.

Our councillors decided 20% rate increases over the last three years havn't sated their hunger for more money, of which the ratepayer has received very little value for money. In the '09/'10 financial year for instance, the previous Council formation achieved just over $117 million in revenue and wisely funnelled $105 million back into key infrastructure areas.

Let's take a look at the '14/'15 financial performance whereby our current crop of Councillors posted a gargantuan revenue of $186 million - yet only a paltry $140 million was allocated back towards expenditure (or in layman terms, actually spending their revenue on services and subsidies that benefit the community.)

Furthermore, BCC received $12.066 million from the Victorian Grants Commission (up from $9.775 million in '09/'10) and also received an extra few million in recurrent government grants since the previous financial year.

Council do not even need to lift rates by 2.5%. In fact, they need to reverse rates by 2.5% per annum in order to regain the trust of the community, and to ease pressure on low-income families who've been hit hard by the excessive rate rises and (the latest tax) in the form of the compulsory green bin debacle.

Statistics from knowyourcouncil.vic.gov.au.

Rob Edward Smith, North Ward, Ballarat City Council candidate

Surely the point of teaching literature to students is to expose them to the widest possible range of ideas and cultures, in the hope that it might actually make them think.  This was the underlying raison d'etre when I chose texts as a literature and English teacher for over 20 years in a small but very effective country secondary school.

Reading "confronting", challenging texts with content and messages outside students' comfort zones works wonders: they come to a realisation that the world is a much bigger, more complex and frightening place than their safe, secure world would have them believe. In the process, such reading teaches exactly what those who fear it most should prize: tolerance, an opening up of the mind, a broadening, which encourages young readers to see life as others see and live it.

In Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus Finch advised his daughter Scout to walk in another's shoes, and thereby to learn and understand. A parent once came to me and demanded that the year 11 class stop reading All Quiet on the Western Front because it might "upset" her son, who, incidentally, had a habit of hiding behind library stacks during quiet reading time and generally making a nuisance of himself. It was quite a while ago, but the principle is still the same.

Anne McClelland, Birchip