Distaste for river waste
Recently while investigating possible camping sites downriver, I saw a woman standing in the boat ramp with a child watching while she emptied the contents of a Porta Potti into the river.
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I could not believe my eyes and when I confronted the woman saying how disgusting her action was, her partner advised me that it was all right, because “they had buried their waste prior to rinsing the container in the river”. Apparently he believed that made a difference.
I can’t put this incident out of my mind because I was so shocked. No wonder some people swimming downriver are getting sick and it’s not just because of the blue green algae problem.
This couple will not be the only ones taking the ‘easy option’ by emptying their waste into the river and any individuals doing so, should be held accountable for their actions. I wish I had the foresight to have taken a video of the incident and a picture of their vehicle number plate. Then I could have reported this event to the Environmental Protection Authority.
It is not the first time I have seen fecal matter spoiling natural camping sites simply because someone forgot their spade or just didn’t care. It seems that in order to reduce the pollution of our precious waterways, more education and more concern from every individual and the EPA will be required into the future.
Susanne Reynolds, North Albury
Discrimination is alive and well in Australia
It was astounding that David Everist wrote in last weekend’s Rural section: “Not once in my life at work or in organisations have I ever seen women discriminated against”.
I have no doubt if he had ventured to ask female leaders in business, agribusiness, in universities, academia or everyday workplaces about their experiences, he would have a different view.
As an agribusiness leader of nearly 40 years, I have many stories, some were pretty undermining at the time and some just frustrating.
Soon after my marriage, we were visited by a well-known wool classer.
As he lunched with us we discussed Australia’s leading (female) sheep geneticist during the 1960s and ‘70s.
With great jocularity, he told us that he had wanted to debate her on the radio and then proceeded to denigrate her because she was single without children.
At the turn of the century, I was appointed chairman of a prestigious research advisory committee to the national beef research program in Armidale.
We convened to conduct our annual review, as usual, it was myself and a group of men representing the various production, processing and retail sectors.
On that occasion, we also had visitors from agripolitical bodies.
One walked into the room and said, “I don’t do female chairs”.
My response was, “We have a lot to get through today, we’ll park it and come back to that issue at the end of the meeting”.
It has been intensely annoying over the years to have to prove oneself to a group of peers because I was a woman rather than just assessing my skills fit for the job.
At the National Farmers Federation conference in October, the results of a nationwide survey on harassment in regional workplaces were reported.
Dr. Skye Saunders, from the Australian National University School of Laws, has published a ground-breaking book, Whispers From the Bush.
It details ugly intimidation and dangerous workplaces for women in graphic detail, from mines to shearing sheds and the pervasive culture that facilitates it, saying this is okay.
Cultural change is serious work, whether it be in woolsheds or boardrooms to identify the offending behaviours, agree on the values and behaviours that are acceptable and make the changes.
There is plenty of evidence in rural Australia that there is much to be done.
Lucinda Corrigan
It’s not ‘invasion day’
Lately every Australia Day we have demonstration about invasion day – just for people’s information the first attack on Australia soil by a foreign country was by the Japanese on February 19, 1942.
So please do not talk about January 26 as invasion day but marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson, NSW, and the raising of the Flag of Great Britain at Sydney Cove by Governor Arthur Phillip.
The majority people on that fleet where convicts who had probably whose only offence may have only been caught stealing a loaf of bread because they were hungry.
Could we make it compulsory to learn Australian history at school which has warts and all about our history not the sanitised version. It amazes me how many younger people do not understand the how our political system is structured.
John Walker, North Wangaratta
Truth the first casualty
It seems electoral war has been declared and, as in most wars, truth is the first casualty. Scott Morrison's assertion that voting in a Labor government would result in a recession is hyperbole at its worst.
We know that politicians have short and selective memories but even Mr Morrison would remember September 15, 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed and precipitated the Global Financial Crisis, or as they call it in America, the Great Recession.
Australia was one of only four developed countries throughout the world to avoid falling into recession. Why? Because the Labor government poured a massive stimulus into the economy to prevent a recession, protecting business and jobs.
Consequently, Australians barely felt the economic effects the rest of the world suffered. Mr Morrison is a desperate man in a desperate position.
Alan Hewett, Indigo Valley
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