Who is the patron saint of Ireland?

From Phillip Edwards, Hazelwood South:

THE need for the state government to have the ability to respond to emergencies and for officials to direct the public is never challenged when they make total fire bans and evacuation orders. The same applies to public health emergencies, but you cannot see smoke from a virus. More and more hospital beds are a poor substitute for a prevention strategy. The recent bill before the Victorian Parliament was intended to provide the legislative framework to prioritise life in an emergency. I watched the upper house debate online. One of the criticisms of the original bill was that it might allow the government to target people based on their attributes, gays and so on. In our electorate of Eastern Victoria, our members Melina Bath MLC and Jeff Bourman MLC both voted to kill the bill. In question time Wednesday, Ms Bath wanted to know what the government was doing specifically about vegan animal welfare protesters? Mr Bourman wanted action against forest protesters. I know I am a bit dumb, but vegan would seem to be an attribute. Neither vegans or forest protestors have ever taken a gallows to a protest that I can remember. Choking vegetation at bridge a concern

From Tim Dwyer, Newry:

THE issue of choking vegetation in the Macalister River at Hagan’s Bridge has concerned the Newry community in recent years. Adam Dunn of the West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority sought to dismiss this (Gippsland Times 15/10/20) stating that “Flood modelling showed changing amounts of vegetation had very little impact of small floods”. The WGCMA argued that vegetation would bend over in floods. Recently a minor flood was released from Glenmaggie. The traditionally fast-flowing river at Hagan’s Bridge was alarmingly high. The vegetation (unnaturally all of the same age) did not bend over. And so what now when a moderate flood (or heaven forbid major) is released from Lake Glenmaggie? Vegetation choking has altered the pattern of future floods. The Newry township will be clearly at risk. Who will be responsible? Who will warn these people? The ball is back in the court of the WGCMA. The cost of abandoning coal and gas

From Nicholas Tam, Traralgon East:

TREVOR Hoare (Gippsland Times 16/11) appears to not understand monetary policy and international financial markets, with his assertion that failing to pursue a net zero emissions policy would cause ordinary Australians to pay higher interest rates unless the coal and gas sectors are shut down. There is no credible evidence for that astonishing assertion, which ignores the reality that interest rates are influenced by a complex set of variables including the interest rate differential between central bank cash rates in Australia and overseas cash rates; inflation; public borrowings; and the ability of Australian borrowers to repay. We can, however, make the following predictions with a reasonable degree of certainty. Firstly, the abandonment of reliable baseload power sources (coal and gas) in favour of intermittent, weather-dependent sources of energy like wind and solar (which cannot compete without enormous subsidies and regulatory advantages lavished upon them) will cause power prices to rise. That will inevitably create inflationary pressure, because the proponents of net zero demand this sweeping change in energy production without reference to the maturity, reliability and cost of the solar and wind sources that they prefer. That will cause a spike in CPI and pressure the Reserve Bank to raise the overnight cash rate, which determines home lending rates in Australia. Secondly, the green lobby may succeed in intimidating the increasingly and embarrassingly woke Australian banks into refusing to lend to new coal and gas projects, but there is no shortage of well-capitalised, rational banks in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, India, and China which will gladly lend. I have no doubt that the senior executives at such banks will gladly raise a glass to the naive efforts of Mr Hoare and his ideological fellow-travellers in gratitude for having the opportunity to take over the Australian resources sector, expand their loan books and increase their own annual bonuses, courtesy of the woke-ification of the Australian banking sector — something these foreign banks could never have achieved without the useful idiots of the Australian green lobby. Sound economics has never been a strength of the green left, but shrill scare mongering that seeks to intimidate Australian families into supporting their radical economic agenda by conflating home mortgage rates with net zero should be seen as nothing more than the latest fraudulent prediction from the discredited green lobby, whose false prophets like Tim Flannery once proclaimed that Australian dams would never be full after 2007, and that Sydney, Brisbane and Perth would run out of water by 2008 due to climate change. Maffra nature strip issue drags on for years

From Lorraine Bennett, Maffra:

AS the only surviving mid-20th century owner of one of the Boisdale St north side homes between Thompson and Pearson Sts in Maffra, and also as the victim of ridicule over the state of the nature strips outside my property on the corner of Pearson and Boisdale St, I assume the right to speak on behalf of those who have gone before, as well as defend my actions. In the early latter half of the 20th century, when Maffra was part of the then Maffra Shire, one of our rates notices included a subsidy for roadworks on our then gravel road to be carried out — curbs and channelling on both sides of Boisdale St. We all paid up expecting the street to be completed. However, although the south side of Boisdale St was completed as quoted, the council obviously overspent, so although the south was tarred as specified, the north side of the road was only tarred to the width of what was then just a gravel track. That meant we had the nature strip, and then an extra six feet or so of grass beyond a huge open storm water drain. The work that we paid for in our rates was never completed. Meanwhile, the surrounding shires amalgamated, so I appealed to the new council to at least mow the six or so feet of extra grass which extended beyond the drain. My request fell on deaf ears — I was told that it was my responsibility, and I had to maintain it all. I believed the council, and bought a ride-on mower for the purpose. However, the first time I tried to use it, I turned it over on myself in the huge drain.The late Ron Pitt came along and rescued me from under it. Not brave enough to do that again, I began using the local George Gray group. Some years rolled by, and George Gray continued to keep the grass under control, until perhaps 12 or so years ago, when the council decided to narrow the eastern side road. This extended my side nature strip to perhaps the largest in the street. I protested strongly, but fortunately, George Gray agreed to pick up the extra work for no extra cost. There was an even greater problem in that the work meant that a footpath had to be constructed on my eastern boundary, but there was a huge light pole obstructing the area designated for the new footpath. So how did the council handle that situation? It simply zigzagged the footpath surrounding the pole, increasing my cost for whipper-snipping. So I began to make enquiries as to whose responsibility the nature strip really is, and was surprised to learn that it is the responsibility of the council — not the landholder. I was given this information by a state government member, as well as a prominent member of Wellington Shire Council. Even although the council has a huge mowing machine which would take care of both Boisdale and Pearson St nature strips in a few minutes and in fact, mows grass outside the croquet green within about three metres of the area I refer to, it hired a private contractor specifically for my area, who did a half job on an unsightly area.

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