Could this at last be the chance to get NITV into our local paper?

I've always found it odd that it never made the list.  It's such a fantastic channel. Culture, comedy, art, sport, news and brilliant movies from all over the world.

If you ever need a break from Doomsday Preppers or a 7-hour advertisement for tummy trimming, I can definitely recommend it.

Come on BDN, it might even be a nice way to celebrate NAIDOC Week!

Apart from Bega Valley Shire Council, who wouldn’t have sympathy for the Weller family of Candelo when confronted with the fact that medical assistance couldn’t reach their seriously ill son, simply because the road to their property is impassable (BDN, 15/7)?

And who wouldn’t have sympathy for Len Wheatley and his family of Jellat, whose access to his property was destroyed by the stroke of pen, wielded by the same unaccountable mob?

And who wouldn’t have sympathy for all of those residents and ratepayers living along the length of the more than 700km of unsealed roads throughout the shire, nervously excited by the prospect that council has a plan to seal just 15km of those roads over the next decade?

When Cr Allen quite rightly questioned the wisdom of council borrowing more than $22million to build monuments to itself and add to its collection of dubious real estate holdings, such as the Auswide building in Merimbula, he also highlighted the $3million cost to this year’s budget of those “cheap” borrowings.

According to one council report, it costs around $200,000 to seal one kilometre of road.

On that basis, the spending that Cr Allen was concerned about would have covered the cost of sealing 120km of road, which is twice the length of all unsealed collector roads in the shire and eight times more than council will address in the next 10 years.

Maybe we’ll get our priorities sorted in September?

Post our federal election and recent global developments, the place and role of national sovereignty, cultural identity as well as an inclusive and robust economy needs to be addressed.

The failure of the elites – governing, intellectual, religious, fifth estate or economic – to recognise the primacy of all these major issues in the lives of the general populace will challenge our political status quo.

There is ample evidence of a growing concern that “our way of life” is changing without “our” input and this is polarising people into a concept of  “us and them”, the “haves and the have-nots”.

This has never been more evident than in the outcome of the recent UK Brexit referendum, the resurgence of One Nation in Australia and the general movement in Western democracies away from ”ruling” political elites.

There is an increasing lack of faith in, and trust of, those who presently rule and their failure to listen to and really act on the concerns of the populace.

The spread of “globalisation” has arguably reached a point where people fear their way of life is under threat, their values and cultural identity undervalued and the future for their descendants uncertain and endangered.

National sovereignty, cultural identity and an inclusive and growing economy, where all Australians accept their responsibilities as well as their rights – that is what is needed.