But those comments don’t measure up in terms of either logic or the law.

First there is the Murray Darling Basin Plan that was created to manage the over-extraction of water from the basin and it effectively rules out any more dams within the basin.

Not only that, but putting a dam upstream doesn’t create any more water, it just prevents other people from using it.

Why should fertile lands in the southern basin surrender water to infertile areas in the north that constantly need hay runs to sustain the farmers? 

It defies logic to keep farming in a warming climate when it requires mountains of hay to be trucked from the south to sustain them.

There’s also the physical problem of dams on flat country being notoriously unreliable; they have high evaporation rates, the water gets too hot for anything to survive, they are prone to algal outbreaks and they are the most expensive to make. 

These costs are inevitably borne by the taxpayer to provide a benefit to a small number of farmers while at the same time destroying large areas of habitat for native species.

All of the best dam sites in Australia have already been taken and they are in alpine areas or Tasmania.

Australia already has all the dams that it needs.

We have, for years, been advised of the huge profits made by the four big banks in Australia, but no effort has been made to ensure that they contribute to the general health of the economy.

At the moment mortgage rates charged by the major banks have been reduced to 5.6 per cent.

Interest on term deposits – payable to savers generally and the self-funded retirees – have been reduced to 3 per cent, and both may be reduced by the Reserve Bank again shortly.

This means that savers and self-funded retirees are financing and will continue to finance the reductions in mortgage interest rates.

Only the banks will continue to profit regardless of any increase or reductions in the mortgage interest rates or interest payable on term deposits.

I would like to suggest that the Australian government finally takes some action and requires that the ANZ, National, Commonwealth and Westpac banks pay interest on term deposits

Such sadness to hear of the tragic death of the dedicated police officer Leading Senior Constable Gavin Frew in Wangaratta.

I hope the general community realises that emergency response persons including police, paramedics, nurses, firefighters ectdeal with things most people could not do or want to do.

We run into situations head on while most people are running out in fear.

My condolences to the police officer’s family and his colleagues.