Even a cursory study of Hansard tells us that Sophie Mirabella was calling on the Labor government as far back as 2008 to address this issue in our electorate.

As part of the shadow cabinet, Ms Mirabella helped to develop the Coalition’s Blackspot and NBN policies.

She spoke on this matter numerous times and furiously lobbied then communications minister Stephen Conroy.

Unsurprisingly the Labor government was deaf to anything to do with Indi. Cathy McGowan supported Labor’s discredited and unachievable NBN plan, which left many Indi communities off the communication network.

By contrast, the Coalition’s blackspot and NBN policies are now delivering improved services to Indi and beyond.

Respect is earned by actions and results. Sophie Mirabella is someone who has done and is again doing the work needed to put Indi front and centre in Canberra to get results.

TONY SCHNEIDER,

Chair Indi FEC Liberal Party of Australia

THE 2015 Australian of the Year, Rosie Batty, addressed a special parliamentary sitting last week to draw attention to the tragedy of family violence in our community.

Her speech and that of several others highlighted that family violence is an issue that we all need to take action on, at every level of our society.

In regional Victoria and in Ovens Valley, family violence impacts our homes, neighbourhoods, workplaces, schools and towns. 

Events associated with White Ribbon Day last week have drawn attention to the confronting, heartbreaking and overwhelming issues associated with family violence.

Let’s hope that by putting family violence in the spotlight we can now go on to create change and improve the lives and outcomes for women, men and children.

THANK you to the Member for Indi Cathy McGowan for bringing us mobile tower funding at 30 more locations in the electorate as announced in round one, March, 2015.

This was the third biggest allocation across electorates in Australia with great input from the Mansfield community.

Thank you to Cathy McGowan for recommending a grant to Veterans Affairs to help fund the Beechworth Theatre group's recent fabulous production of One Day of the Year by Alan Seymour, as directed by local John Eldrid. Also thanks for your support in the posthumous promotion for Sir John Monash.

Thank you to Cathy McGowan for effectively representing the national peak industry group, Chestnuts Australia Inc, to Minister Barnaby Joyce regarding the effects on Indi chestnut growers of the new federal horticulture bureaucracy whereby growers have lost control of their own levies. 

Thank you to Cathy McGowan for being a voice of reason and compassion at federal level in refugee and children in detention matters, thus honouring Indi's long history of post-war refugee support.

Thank you to Cathy McGowan for her inclusivity of indigenous peoples' voices in Indi. Your effective listening and representation across diverse matters make a great difference to your constituents.

What a shame some media outlets are confused about who our democratically elected MP actually is in Indi.