The result now is that preschools are being forced to charge up to $70 extra per day. Three mobile preschools have ceased operation. The goal is to move children into long day care. The difference between learning in a preschool and those experiences children have in long day care could not be more obvious.

Mr Piccoli's government is no longer funding three-year-old preschool attendance. The savings (and the inactive Greg Aplin can confirm this) are not being funnelled back into early childhood education.

Since the biggest announcement Mr Piccoli has made recently is to ban a film from all NSW schools without consultation, it is clear that the Liberal NSW government are intent on dumbing down our children.

By removing them from quality learning before they start school, and putting them into the holding patterns that are long day care centres, we cannot hope to improve learning outcomes of students in NSW.

THE current zero water allocation in the Southern Riverina irrigation area is already taking its toll on local business owners and costing our region vital jobs.

In July our business, Taskers Deniliquin, advertised for a spare parts manager and we were delighted to receive 20 applicants, which were shortlisted.

The zero water allocation was announced during the water application period which was a concern, however we hoped that by interview time the allocation situation would be far better. Unfortunately this was not the case last week, when the allocation again came in at zero.

This left us no choice but to advise all applicants that due to zero allocation and the subsequent significantly reduced seasonal outlook we were no longer in a position to make the appointment.

Without a water allocation to produce food for domestic and international consumption, we simply won’t have the same level of crops being planted and harvested.

So this is one real job lost, and I wonder how many others?

We can be almost certain that the successful applicant would have moved here with their family, and so we have a flow-on effect to other businesses, schools etc. When are our decision makers going to realise that it is possible to have a balance between the environment and food production?

All that is required is a greater understanding of food production needs and a willingness to adopt a more flexible approach to the allocation of water.

SOME news for our government – it’s not just Islamic State that doesn’t respect borders. We just learnt that this July was globally the hottest month ever recorded, thanks in part to emissions from Australia’s coal-burning.

As we now consider launching air strikes in Syria, justified by the threat posed to Australia from Syria’s ‘emissions’ of death-dealing terrorists, might we not also be justifying attacks on our coal miners, for instance from victims of California’s extended drought and wildfires?

‘Responding to the US request’ to help destroy whatever target they choose to strike in Syria without authorisation from the Syrian government, will tear a page from internationally respected conventions that endangers Australia far more than any ‘armchair greenies’.

As Russia’s leaders have made quite clear, any moves by the Coalition against the Syrian army or airforce will not be tolerated by Syria’s allies. Would a nuclear winter be preferable to a death-dealing drought?