Mobile black spots
I would like to encourage locals to nominate projects for round four of the Morrison Liberal Government’s Mobile Black Spot Program, which closes on December 10.
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This program has already seen more than 600 base stations activated nationwide. This phase of the program focuses on coverage for emergency services, towns that experience seasonal demand due to tourism, key transport routes, health and educational facilities and indigenous communities.
Can I encourage you to nominate potential locations to your local council who can apply for funding.
Fiona Kotvojs, Liberal for Eden-Monaro
Anzac Spirit
The nation’s call to arms, to confront a threat to freedom,
Inspired the young and patriotic, who rallied from every region,
But they knew not the horror and sorrow that lay ahead
In the war to end all wars, the First World War.
On lands from afar they fought and fell, where the jaws of death did dwell,
For many, their vision of adventure suddenly came to naught,
Amid the carnage, stench and ruin, in which they were caught,
But relief from suffering came, with the angels of Nightingale fame.
Though stricken with horrendous losses, they defied the enemy forces,
So let not their valour be in vain, or else we’ll bear the shame,
For freedom’s worth defending, much less a life worth living
Under the heel of a foe, where the seeds of darkness grow.
Oh, those gallant souls, whom we owe so much,
Were unflinching in the face of death,
And gave their all to their last breath,
Their sacrifice is now forever etched
In our nation’s consciousness,
For they bravely served the nation - to the death!
And became our inspiration - to cherish, no less.
Honour and glory, this is their story:
Duty, mateship, fearless, courage and selflessness.
Their duty is done; and ours has come
To defend their legacy.
They were the pride of their homeland: Australia and New Zealand,
Comrades across the Tasman Sea, who vowed as one to fight the enemy,
They were true to their creed and intrepid in deed
On the battlefield, where the Anzac Spirit was born. Lest We Forget.
Geoff Dove, Merimbula
Stop the race
“Euthanise”. “Put down”. “Put out of his misery”. All polite terms to disguise the fact that the stallion Cliffsofmoreh was killed after suffering a fractured right shoulder during the Melbourne Cup.
This was a totally needless death, yet another example of animals suffering to amuse often intoxicated punters.
Cliffsofmoreh was the sixth horse to die due to the Melbourne Cup since 2013. Two other horses were found to be lame after the race, another suffered lacerations after crashing into Cliffsofmoreh, and a fourth horse suffered an internal bleed.
Of course, horses die at lower-profile racing events all the time. During the last racing year 119 were pronounced dead on Australian tracks – that’s one animal every three days. They die of cardiac arrest, haemorrhaging, ruptured aortas, and broken necks, legs, or pelvises, and that’s without mentioning the thousands of horses bred for the industry who don’t make the grade and are abandoned, neglected, or sent to slaughter.
Considering Australians hate cruelty to animals, a race in which horses routinely die is fundamentally un-Australian. It’s time for the nation to stop the race.