YOUR SAY: It's time for a cleanout of the Senate

The upper house of the British parliament (the House of Lords) wasn't created to provide superior legislation, it was created to protect the aristocracy from the hoi polloi.

The governments of Queensland and New Zealand have both abolished their upper houses with no damage to administration.

In Australia, we have 75 Senate members - each drawing a weekly minimum salary of $5000 and providing only nuisance value to government.

MORE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:

Then we have the same over-priced membership of the lower house which consists of 150 members. About half of these (the opposition) simply obstruct the government and the only obligatory function of two thirds of the remainder is to put their hands up when they are told.

Now that thousands are out of work due to the coronavirus and many are on the streets, we cannot afford the $50 million annual cost of the present 200 redundant MPs as well as the profligate perks and pensions they have voted for themselves.

Surely now is the time for a cleanout.

As the 2020 Good Friday Appeal will be a very subdued affair this year, and in view of the fact that supermarkets will open on Good Friday, why not have some tin rattlers standing (1.5m apart of course) at the entrances?

There are very few shops open and so customers must get their "shopping fix" via supermarkets, which are experiencing record sales.

I am sure the shops on the border will be happy to play a part on this occasion.

David Thurley's latest criticism of Father Brendan Lee's humorous weekly column (The Border Mail, April 6) seems a little misplaced considering that the councillor's previous effort was a truly serious and gripping account of his wayward dishwasher.

I am so grateful that he saw fit to share his dishwasher ownership with us all, especially because, sadly, I don't have one.

I also thought it was a wonderful example of humour in juxtaposition that his letter appeared alongside The Border Mail's editorial "How we're finding joy in the crisis.".

There are quite enough "serious columns" currently in print, so Father Lee's lighter efforts are welcome by some of us (I just wish I could actually find some Glen 20!).

Perhaps Cr Thurley's recent flurry of communication in The Border Mail lately is a curious form of electioneering, given his musings on who the next Albury City mayor might be.

However, I must concede that he does own a dishwasher, a possible valid prerequisite and laudable reason for being elected to the mayoral position.

While I'm on the topic, the ratepayers of Albury should be able to elect their mayor, not the councillors.