Indi has no voice
I was interested in the letter from Phil Haines of Wangaratta (‘A clear trend is emerging, The Border Mail letters, May 15) disagreeing with my statement in my earlier letter that Cathy McGowan is supported by Labor and Green voters. I assume Phil Haines of Wangaratta is the same Phil Haines of Wangaratta that has been Cathy McGowan's campaign manager. Fascinating that Phil claims it was Cathy who obtained the $100 million in last week's budget for the Melbourne- Albury train line.
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Cathy found out about that $100 million on budget night, the same as anyone else listening to the budget. As one vote out of 150 votes in the House of Representatives she is just an “interested bystander”.
In the Senate where there are 76 votes Cathy has zero representations and cannot help the voters of Indi. At least National Party voters can ask Senator Bridget McKenzie to make representations on their behalf while Liberal voters can ask Senator Jane Hume.
The Labor Party voters and Greens voters that support Cathy have nothing in common with Liberal/National Party Coalition voters. Coalition supporters regard the high spending policies of the Labor Party and the Greens as irresponsible which will lead Australia into bankruptcy and down the path of economic ruin similar to Greece.
Coalition voters need to understand that to keep the economy strong in Australia they must only support Coalition candidates.
Lloyd Deane, Wodonga
A thriving market lost
It was with shock that I heard the news that Wodonga’s Tourist Information Centre was to close. I am writing to ask council to reverse that decision.
As a trained economist; someone who worked in IT promoting and designing information systems for 15 years and; now occasional grey nomad I cannot emphasise how important the face-to-face contact in tourist information centres are for me – even when self-service screens are available.
I recently went on a trip to South Australia. My first surprise was to find my wife had been to our local Information Centre (Wodonga) to get some information. Despite regularly parking opposite, I didn’t know it was there. What hope tourists would have of finding it I am not sure.
The traditional “Tourist Information” sign certainly does not appear to be visible – if there is one, let alone several to get you to the door. Even so, parking for a car and van in its current location is nigh impossible. As to comments that we pre-plan our trips, I agree to some extent that is true.
In our case we decided we were going to South Australia including stops at the Coorong, the mouth of the Murray, Kangaroo Island and the Adelaide Hills. Beyond that we did not plan (and I note we needed to be cautious to ensure we found places that were dog friendly).
The places we stopped at had great Tourist Information Centres.
If one was not signed in a town we didn’t bother looking around.
The best places to stay were well signed from out of town right through to the actual site, they had lots of parking for car and van and clean toilets on arrival. It was of great benefit if the information officer (paid or volunteer) was experienced and could tell us comparative differences between places to stay, costs, and along with things in the area to see. Even better was when they could make the booking for us.
We stayed in several places for a few days on end. When sitting in the coffee shops or going out for meals we often found ourselves meeting with other travellers. Quite often the discussion was how good the place was and how good it was to find out about it through the local Tourist information Office.
I am sure that my experiences are not atypical and if Wodonga does not relocate to a more suitable and better signed site it will lose out greatly. Local business will suffer and a thriving tourist market will be lost.