I appreciate the kindness of locals.

I hear from friends the Bega Valley council has recently removed all the shade trees in a park adjacent to the shopping strip.

I hear too, the reason given for this action was because the trees might have been at risk of dropping limbs on passers-by.

My friends also informed me that plans for the new park will make the whole area into a large version of someone's suburban backyard in the western suburbs of Sydney.

A large expanse of lawn with a few ornamental shrubs dotted around it doesn't sound like much of a drawcard for locals or visitors. Is a rotary clothesline included in the plan?

The Bega Valley, being such a stunningly beautiful area, deserves far better than this.

A public park fulfills many functions.

It is a place to come to have a rest and contemplate the simple beauty of nature, and it can also be a place where people congregate in times of celebration, protest and even mourning.

I have just driven the length of the Dandenong Ranges to the east of Melbourne.

I passed under thousands of ancient gum tress arching across the tourist road.

Many, if not most, of these trees even had large dead branches up in the canopy.

Why, I wondered, were these trees allowed to remain standing?

If they were in the Bega Valley Shire would these thousands of centuries-old trees be marked for removal?

Yet here, the good people of Olinda and Sassafras realise the intrinsic value of these trees.

They provide shade, they concert carbon dioxide into oxygen and they are a lure for the tens of thousands of tourists who are drawn to the area every year.

Sure, there is a danger that a limb may fall on you, but most visitors are probably more at risk of dying from choking on a scone.

We all know the risk that trees present and we are prepared to take that risk for the sake of enjoying such a unique experience.

Yes, you new park sounds like a place that will be low of upkeep costs, but it will also be so boring and uninviting that it will have most people giving it a miss – and that's bad for business and sad for Bega.

It is reported that the UN Rapporteur cancelled his planned visit to Australia to report on Australia’s current response to asylum seekers. 

This was not a simple problem with scheduling. 

The reason for the cancelled visit is very disturbing  and should alert us all the erosion of transparency in government and the silencing of whistle blowers. 

The UN cited concerns that those it would want to speak to about the conditions in Australian detention centres - here and on Nauru and Manus Island - might be punished under the Border Force Act. 

The Australian government was not prepared to give written assurances to the UN that no-one meeting with the Rapporteur during his visit would be at risk of any intimidation or sanctions under the Act. 

This repressive approach is taken by regimes seeking to hide human rights abuses and is not in the democratic tradition of open and transparent government.

This is very far from the kind of Australia in which most of us believe we live. 

It would seem the Border Force Act is protecting that which should not be protected. 

It should be reviewed and possibly repealed.