Former mayor Cr Kevin Mack is reported as defending the expenditure of a meagre $22,428 last financial year for councillors and senior staff to attend conferences as if such frugality was virtuous.

The most valuable resource that any organisation has is its human resource, and Albury City is no exception. In a budget in excess of of $100 million, ratepayers can reasonably expect that their contribution to local government finances will enable councillors and staff, in a balanced way, to continue to develop the skills and expertise that they require to further improve their performance to the advantage of ratepayers in a rapidly changing society.\

Attendance at conferences of various kinds, including ones specifically focused on local government, is one way of broadening human horizons and seeing what the possibilities are for the advancement of Albury in such matters as road technology, tourism, cultural development and sporting achievement.

I would strongly suggest that with an expenditure of $22,428 or thereabouts, that is simply not possible; thrift in this regard is both foolhardy and insular.

David Johnston also points to the Council’s recent rejection of an opportunity for Albury’s Dutch mayor, Cr Henk van de Ven, to attend an international event in Amsterdam celebrating Schiphol Airport’s 100th anniversary, to unveil a bronze Uiver plaque which Albury can supply to replace its missing Dutch counterpart, which from 1935 to 1940 and from 1949 to the late 1990s was affixed to the original 1928 Schiphol terminal and its 1949 replacement.

Albury’s goodwill gesture at minimal cost would have generated a most positive response, but the generous offer of two free air tickets to Amsterdam and return by Air France-KLM was insufficient to persuade Albury City councillors (other than Cr Henk van de Ven, who quite properly declared an interest and could not vote, and Cr David Thurley) to deviate from its subservience to a mantra that determines that no councillor or executive staff member shall venture overseas, or preferably not even out of Albury.

I’ve never been a huge fan of Derryn Hinch but when I read he was running for a seat on the back of harsher penalties for serious crimes, especially those of the heinous kind, I just had to vote for him and he got up.

Capital punishment was even mentioned at one stage. No need to mention any particular cases because I’m sure every Australian in our beautiful country has his or her own particular example of something that just sticks in their gut!!.

Now let’s see if Derryn is worthy of his election spruiking or if he is still just bag of hot air.

HATS off to Orange Sky, Lucas Patchett, Matilda Wallensky and Nic Marchest who are visiting Albury just to wash the clothes of the homeless (The Border Mail, July 8).

They met up with Carevan who provide dinner for more than a dozen needy in the Kiewa Street car park in Albury.

Cannot governments take some initiative from these selfless young people and build cheaper accommodation like they did for the building of the new Parliament House in Canberra? 

After all, it’s their policies which cause this homeless crisis, or is it too much of an ask to tax the multi-nationals? That should pay for it.