major gaps in transport links
One does not have to be a genius to see that Creswick bus timetables and Melbourne trains fail to intersect by fractions. The 11.11 am bus from Creswick arrives 8 minutes after the train has departed for Melbourne. On return trips, say, the 11.17am from Southern Cross arrives at Ballarat 11 minutes after the Creswick bus has left, with a 2.5 hour wait for the next. My trips to Melbourne and back mean expensive taxis to complete the trip. I confronted the CEO of Public Transport Victoria over this on ABC radio but he left over the wheel-wearing issue. Hopefully the community consultations will result in a timetable that actually does work and brings Creswick properly into the transport network. It cannot be that hard to achieve.
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Brian Hawkes, Creswick
concerns of size change
It must surely be recognised that increasing the height or blade length on a turbine is not a 'small change' in developers plans, as the bigger the turbine components, the bigger the environmental impacts. Placing wind industry financially-based concerns about additional delays and costs above genuine public concerns around likely noise and detrimental impacts on communities, is not the way to garner social licence to operate. Lal Lal is raising valid concerns by questioning the right of developers to increase the size and impacts of their industrial plant. The planners should be aware of the impacts at other wind farms. They give no recognition nor peace to communities when they ignore the real impacts
Melissa Ware, Hamlyn Heights
gaps in the data
How credible would the census have been even without the alleged intrusion of cyber hackers? The ABS required community details as at Tuesday 9th August yet, according to census officials, media representatives and government officials, more than 10% of responses were received many days prior to the 9th. Records received prior to August 9th would have excluded deaths, births, residential changes, lost employment, new employment, income disparities, marriages and separations, new arrivals and departures, to name a few.
Wally Reynolds, Perth
banks demand closer scrutiny
The Big 4 banks continue to make obscene profits, drawing money out of the community and putting it somewhere. They were deregulated about 30 years ago. We were told it would make it easier to get money. Yes, true for some. The Commonwealth bank was the people's bank. Ours, but sold by the pollies for $300,000 less than its yearly earning profit. The combined profits of all four banks for the past 30 years would wipe out our national debt and balance the budget, with some over for health, roads, housing and education. We sold off our best milking cow and left the gate open for the other three to roam off at will.
Colin Holmes, Ballarat
In regards to bringing the major banks to book by inviting them round once a year for a chat, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison evidently took no notice of the farcical contempt with which Australian and international corporations treated our Senate taxation inquiry this year.
Imagine if we had dealt with institutional child abuse just by having the bishops over to tell us about progress each year.
And how far we'd go with juvenile detention now by giving the same discredited, mendacious NT and federal ministers further opportunities for obfuscation and deception via an informal conversational setting.
To be treated like children by the new federal government, in having serious concerns about banks so casually and artfully dismissed, is just plainly insulting.
Alex Mattea, Kingston
