There still seems to be some confusion over this ruling as on my return trip approaching the bend near Oddie's Creek there was a tow truck with flashing orange lights and drivers in front of me desperately trying to slow down. Well, 110km/h to 40km/h in the space of a few seconds just isn't going to happen. 

If it had been an emergency services vehicle the police would have had a ball booking about 20 motorists at once. A simple solution would be the requirement for emergency service vehicles to place a flashing warning sign approx. 100 metres before the site of the incident, and forgo booking anyone until that sign was in place.

Now why didn't our forward thinking lawmakers think of that?

In referring to the letter by Bill Baxter (‘Opponents of Adani mine do not speak for all of us’, The Border Mail, October 14), he appears to only see the “party line thinking” when there has been a great deal of information coming out regarding the corruptness of Adani, fraud, dishonesty and graft.

I also resent being labelled “a wealthy Australian, indulging in feel-good virtue signalled by the Green Left”.

I am sure there were many people who attended the rally at Gateway Island, who were deeper thinkers and more concerned for the future of the Great Barrier Reef and the over-generosity of the federal government giving $1 billion to a very wealthy Indian businessman, than hiding behind the pretense party line.

We need to keep fighting for honesty and justice, and stop using the poor Indians, many of whom are beginning to use solar panels for heating and cooking.

Now that there is a rough timeframe for fixing the North-East rail line, I'd say this is a great time for the communities of the North East to start advocating to Jacinta Allan for her to initiate the tendering process for a dedicated train fleet (‘ARTC plan to get bang for 100 million bucks on North East rail’, October 24th 2017, The Border Mail).

However, one of two issues that concerns me is the suitability of the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) to do the work given the problems that have plagued the line since the revitalisation project started under John Brumby.

The second issue of concern is the suitability of the two of the three North East lower house MPs to do their work when it comes to advocating for new rolling stock, given that Cathy McGowan has been able to, in my view at least, seemingly achieve more on the federal side of the ledger of responsibility in one fifth of the time compared to the other two MPs.

I always enjoy and relate to Joanne McCarthy's experiences she shares in her articles and her “Toilet Tribulations” in Japan was such fun to read. Great humour, so delightfully funny. Giving thanks for the laughter.