As a sometime Grey Nomad with a caravan I deplore this action. When I travel around, my first port of call in any town is the Visitor Information Centre where I can find a toilet, a cup of coffee, and chat with real people about what to do and see, and where to stay while visiting.

Council claims the Centre was fielding only two to three visitors per day, and so was not cost effective. The real reasons why visitor numbers were down by the claimed 32.5 per cent are twofold.

Firstly it was very badly sign-posted, making it difficult to find. Secondly, if you could find it there was nowhere to park your caravan or RV. Contrast that with the situation in Wagga or Echuca to name but two places I have visited.

And don’t get me started on the placement of the new terminals, or the paucity of information they offer. If they are placed indoors in centres like the Library, how will I access them at the weekend, and where would I park my caravan? And will they provide more information about things to see and do than the whatsonwodonga website which this morning only mentioned an art exhibition, and told me how to find the Albury Visitor Centre? 

Two public policy matters are currently being played out in the media; same sex marriage and voluntary assisted dying and there have been millions of words used to discuss the pros and cons. But I have serious concerns about the language being used at times to advance an argument.

Words carry a literal meaning that is usually quite clear. But words are also accompanied by social and cultural understandings. In the debate about the proposed voluntary assisted dying bill in Victoria, opponents frequently use the word suicide, a word suffused with pain and suffering for many. It is not the right word in this debate because, in this case, a person after careful consideration and thought, with all the safeguards in the proposed legislation and knowing that they will soon die, has decided that they wish to end their life when they choose.

No matter how good palliative care is, there will always be those who endure pain and indignity at the end and some choose to say this is not how I want to finish my life. It is something I would wish for and this thinking is a gift from my mother that I will always treasure.

Robert Lee's rant against Tim Fischer's comments on US gun culture (‘This is not America and never will be’, The Border Mail, October 26) exhibits twisted reasoning similar to that shown by the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party at the Murray byelection.

I worked for the winning candidate, the Nationals' Austin Evans, on polling day. I observed Shooters and Fishers' placards with the slogan “Put Nat's (sic) Last”. Taken to its logical conclusion, that instruction means that the Shooters and Fishers would prefer to have a Labor/Green government making and administering gun laws rather than the Nationals. Why can’t the Shooters and Fishers Party see that if such were the case there would scarcely be a legal firearm allowed anywhere in regional NSW.