The Sporting Shooters Association lobbied the government years ago to make deer a protected species. This allowed deer to breed up so shooters would have some sport. They pay for licenses and permits but what about the cost deer are now causing farmers in lost pasture and broken fences, let alone the damage to the environment.

Deer damage trees as well as wallow in ponds turning them to mud, destroying the habitat for frogs, some of which are endangered like the Corroboree frog. Bill's choice to support a party that doesn't give a damn about farmers is disgraceful. Isn't the Liberal Party supposed to care about farmers? My question to Bill Tilley is this: Who do you care about more, shooters or farmers?

I write with regard to the article with comments by Zuvele Leschen in The Border Mail (‘Independents no chance’, November 15) lamenting the Labor party woes in the state seats of Benambra and Ovens Valley. 

It is only through hard work and commitment that any aspiring political player can hope to succeed. The notion that Bill Tilley was feather-bedded into Benambra back in 2006 is farcical, for he had to take unpaid leave from his job for months in the lead up to the election, all the while supporting a young family and door knocking around the electorate, thus depleting his savings to an alarming level in the process. 

It is very easy to view his position with envy today, disregarding the sacrifices he had to endure. 

I am one of many who have been putting forward communities and farmers concerns regarding the deeply flawed Murray Darling Basin Plan right from the start. It has been politicised and shockingly altered all the way through.

We have seen whole irrigation districts closed down and communities altered forever. Now that would not be so bad if these effects were felt in all parts of the Murray Darling Basin.

At the moment the Murray River is running unseasonably high, Dartmouth dam is at 78 per cent, yet some farmers who rely on the Murray River for irrigation water are getting 0 per cent. The Mulwala canal is being used to divert water around the Barmah choke. But wait there’s more.

The Lower Darling river has been shut down and a pipeline has been built from Wentworth to Broken Hill, the Murray is being relied on yet again. What happens to all the people reliant on the Darling River in its lower reaches? They have been sacrificed.

A shocking amount of water is being diverted from the upper reaches of the Darling and this simply can not be sustained. Lastly the lower lakes in South Australia must be addressed as they take thousands of gigalitres each year to keep them artificially fresh. Plenty of people have solutions yet they are not being listened to.

There is an enormous disconnect between rural Australians and the major political parties and that is why independents are winning more and more seats.