Petrol price gouge
Bega Valley Easter weekend petrol a rip-off - Villawood Sydney 85.5cpl for unleaded.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Col Goodacre, Tathra
Clean energy win-win
Clean energy projects play an important role in boosting the economy and creating jobs. New ABS data shows that nearly 27,000 Australians were employed full-time in the renewable energy industry in 2018-19 - up 27% from the previous year.
Government support of clean energy projects post COVID-19 could unlock thousands of construction and installation jobs and help struggling homes and businesses get access to cheap solar energy. By making strategic renewable energy investments governments could set Australia on the pathway towards lower electricity bills and a cleaner energy system.
That's a win-win.
Jack Miller, Bermagui
Hysteria taking over
What a challenge and great losses we have faced in the Bega Valley and beyond during and after the bushfires. But one thing that shone bright was the coming together of our community in supporting each other and those who lost homes and businesses.
How different it seems a couple of months on, during this coronavirus outbreak. It appears to me that hysteria has taken over somewhat in a small proportion of our residents. Considering the tiny amount of confirmed cases of the virus in the Bega Valley, I think this shows the measures we are all taking, such as washing our hands, keeping a sensible distance from others while out exercising etc is more than adequate to keep ourselves and others safe.
So why do I feel that I have been transported back to WWII? A time when if you were a resident of a particular European country and you were of a particular faith, or you were a citizen helping these people, you lived in fear of being reported to the authorities by your neighbours.
We are seeing many calls to our police by such people who see it as their civic duty to dob in dog walkers at Short Point; too many people buying and drinking a coffee at the beach; too many cars parked at Short Point; too many surfers in the water; people daring to sit in the sunshine on a park bench.
To these civic minded dobbers, just relax.
Jody McKenzie-Smith, Merimbula
Access to intensive care
Can COVID-19 virus patients from Eden-Monaro be assured of fair allocation of intensive care beds in city hospitals? No!
No guarantee of our rural patient access to city ICUs has yet been provided. Either by the NSW or federal governments, or by our local state and federal MPs.
The risk is that the current slowdown and 'flattening of the curve' of COVID-19 infections will foster the very wrong belief that the coronavirus may not penetrate far into Eden-Monaro.
Easter visitation to Eden-Monaro was suppressed, fortunately. But as the lockdown and social distancing is drawn out from weeks to months into the winter 'flu season, more irresponsible metropolitan visitors from Canberra and Sydney can be anticipated, jeopardising our vulnerable elderly and Indigenous locals as they run the thin gauntlet of country police surveillance.
By now, Eden-Monaro deserves to have a plan for a separate field hospital, set up specifically for taking our rural virus patients. The ACT government is spending $23m to build one at Canberra Hospital, ready in May - but that will be for ACT patients, not for the rest of us out in rural Eden-Monaro.
NSW Health should be proactively planning, with the Defence Force, for a special field hospital specifically reserved for Eden-Monaro corona virus patients, located in the Queanbeyan area. They should also be planning more capacity for retrieval services for patient transfers, including military backup when retrieval staff are overwhelmed or sick.