Water ministers urged to state their intentions
In 2018, following considerable agitation from communities in southern NSW and northern Victoria, federal and state water ministers agreed to what was termed the ‘Neutrality Test’.
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In effect, it was a way to ensure the considerable social and economic damage caused over the previous decade by water buybacks was never repeated.
Under the ‘Neutrality Test’, there are specific criteria to be applied for any projects to recover water under the 450 gigalitres of ‘upwater’ as part of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. These criteria are designed to ensure no regional community is ‘worse off’ in economic and social terms.
In other words, we were told this would protect rural communities and avoid a repeat of the significant employment loss in irrigation-dependent towns and regions from previous water recovery.
We are about to witness the test for this ‘Neutrality Test’, and we will learn whether it was just another basin plan political con, or a genuine attempt to protect the social and economic fabric of our communities.
When water ministers meet later this month, there is little doubt Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek will put devastating water buybacks on the table. While this is a great shame, because they are not only damaging but also unnecessary, buybacks are politically expedient.
The question is, will the state water ministers hold firm and protect their farming communities, or will they bow to the pressure (and maybe dollars that will be a sweetener)?
We live in hope that the true intent of the Neutrality Test is upheld, but perhaps we can be forgiven for being more than a little sceptical.
Robyn Wheeler,
Lancefield
New year, but Victorians face the same issues
The issues Victorians faced before the 2022 state election have not changed.
In fact, it is getting to a critical point for our state’s health crisis, the increasing cost of living and the cost of education.
These are not isolated to a single electorate or region. There are issues that every Victorian, whether they are regional or metropolitan, will encounter.
As the 60th Parliament of Victoria resumes for the year, The Nationals will be ensuring that the voices of regional Victorians are heard.
Regional Victorians have spoken, and they want urgent action on Victoria’s expanding surgical wait list, overcrowded emergency departments, patchwork local roads, mobile blackspots — the list goes on.
But most importantly, regional Victorians don’t want to be overlooked by the Andrews Labor Government when it comes to investment in our communities and services.
The Nationals enter Parliament with a stronger team, covering Victoria from border to border.
We will put the issues facing rural and regional Victorians front and centre, and work to resolve them.
The Nationals is the only party solely representing regional Victorians. It is our absolute focus.
The regions should be more of a focus for Labor, because when the regions are thriving, Victoria is thriving.
Peter Walsh,
Leader of The Nationals
Shadow Regional Development Minister
How nutritious is the news?
It was a shame to see an article about Red Rooster donning your front page on January 19, but even more disappointing to see this followed up by an article spanning pages 1 and 3 about the new Moama McDonald’s on February 8.
As a mother of young children and a school teacher, it is difficult enough to promote healthy eating habits to our youth with the prevalence of fast food outlets and advertising campaigns within our twin towns without newspaper articles featuring these restaurants not only within their pages, but on the front page.
With obesity and associated health impacts such as heart disease and diabetes affecting more people in rural and regional communities than city dwellers, drawing focus to fast food outlets that, on average, serve meals that contain almost half of an adult’s recommended daily energy intake is irresponsible.
While I do understand the benefits of these outlets, such as jobs for our community, it would be great to see some of our local cafes and restaurants who serve up nutritious food using local produce given priority over global conglomerates whose priorities don’t lie in our community’s overall wellbeing.
Stephanie Challis,
Echuca
Blackouts expected with increased regularity
The reality with electricity is when demand is greater than supply, it breaks down.
Blackouts will shut down hospitals, manufacturers, nursing homes, schools, building sites, hospitality venues, sporting events and homes, to name a few.
We are shutting down our coal-fired power stations and replacing them with renewables.
The two major electricity suppliers in the future will be wind and solar farms.
Solar farms work 12 hours a day if it's not cloudy and wind turbines need wind to create electricity. I doubt if these renewables could supply the existing electricity demand.
Our greatest electricity demand is at night time so on go the lights, cooking facilities, televisions, heating or cooling and car batteries recharging.
Solar farms don't produce electricity at night time. When demand is greater than supply, it's blackouts.
David Robinson,
Benalla
Is it time to panic yet?
The ABC recently reported an alarming rise in child poisonings in NSW from vaping products. With vaping’s rapid rise in popularity, we must ask the question: is it time to panic yet?
In 2022, the NSW Poisons Information Centre (PIC) received 213 calls about ‘exposure’ to e-cigarette fluid by children under the age of four. The NSW PIC handles about half the nations ‘poisoning’ calls — more than 200,000 annually. However, a closer look at the data reveals a different story.
Exposures are not ‘poisoning’
The PIC reports are phone calls about actual or potential ‘exposure’ or a request for information, not ‘poisoning’. As the PIC states, “exposures do not necessarily represent a case of poisoning or overdose”.
Calls could include an inquiry from a worried parent that a child had touched a vape or placed a vape in their mouth. Many types of exposures like these would, at worst, result in minor throat irritation, which would quickly put an end to the experience.
There was not a single public report of actual ‘poisoning’, serious harm, or death in children under five from nicotine e-liquids in 2022.
Exposures are rare
For context, inquiries about accidental exposures to nicotine from e-cigarettes make up one or two per thousand calls to the PIC. Exposures by toddlers to detergents, toilet cleaners, paracetamol, bleach and disinfectants are much more frequent and are far more harmful.
In fact, ‘poisoning’ reports by anti-smoking drugs actually which are used far less exceed those from nicotine e-liquid. In 2018, the Victorian PIC reported 21 calls about nicotine liquid in children less than five years of age. In comparison, there were about 106 calls about anti-smoking products (nicotine replacement therapies, varenicline and bupropion) during the same time.
Everything must be viewed in its correct context
To properly understand what this data means, it’s important to remember that every product has some risk. Every medication carries a long list of side-effects.
Any poisoning risk from vapes should be considered in the context of 21,000 annual deaths from smoking in Australia. Two out of three long-term smokers will die from their smoking and vape products can help many of them quit.
To create a safer environment for children, and the adult smokers who need these products to quit, current regulations need to be changed.
The current issue is the rampant black market that is selling dodgy disposable vapes to young people at an alarming rate.
But the black market is operating away from government oversight. Australia’s prescription-only laws for vaping have failed so spectacularly there is almost no legal market for vaping in Australia to regulate.
Instead, a properly regulated adult consumer market must be urgently considered in Australia, as it is in all other western countries. That way, nicotine vaping products would be sold only to adults from licensed retail outlets with proper age verification and with clear nicotine warning labels.
Instead of bowing to the hysteria, it’s time for Australia to take a step back and consider solutions which will actually solve Australia’s vaping crisis while helping adult smokers quit deadly cigarettes.
Dr Colin Mendelsohn,
Founding chairman of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association
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