The Daily Advertiser letters: Wagga the jewel of the Riverina? Not so sure after Miss Wagga saga

It is incredible that in this day and age of so-called enlightenment, that a local organisation can be so deluded about the prospect of a referendum that a young Quest entrant wearing a badge to support The Voice has to take a stand on principle against that organisation, which until now has been a pillar of the community.

Despite what the committee may say, this is not a political issue, although some in Canberra would like us to think so.

It is as local Aunty has said, a matter of human rights. Enough of delaying the proper recognition of the first peoples of Australia.

Can't the committee see the conflict they have created within their own "set of rules" with this badge matter?

So ironic that the committee cannot see that they have lowered their reputation as a supporter/provider of the development of young girls in the district through ignorance and inflexibility. Some example they are setting in this instance.

This comes on top of the local member and a councillor being on the wrong side of the law of propriety this same month.

What was Wagga thinking? Jewel of the Riverina? Not so sure about that now.

It's a red letter day for the people who live in the suburbs of Estella and surrounds on the grand opening of the new Foodworks store at Estella Central shopping centre in the city's north.

After such a long wait residents now have their own supermarket to shop instead of having to drive over the bridge to Wagga to buy groceries and other essentials which will now be much more convenient.

May this business continue to grow and prosper into the future.

The Albanese Government is putting lives at risk on our local roads because of stalled safety projects and a failure to deliver the funding our communities have been promised.

Halfway through the Albanese Government's term, local council and community groups have no idea if vital road safety and infrastructure projects will ever proceed, thanks to an incompetent Minister.

The Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Catherine King has been a huge disappointment for local councils which rely heavily on Federal Government grants to help fund major projects.

If you see a grader, a bulldozer, or a crane at work on a major public project anywhere in Australia today, you can be sure of one thing, the current Federal Minister had absolutely nothing to do with providing the funding.

Should we be surprised about this failure to deliver any new projects given this year's budget speech didn't contain a single mention of the word 'infrastructure'?

Instead of guaranteeing funding for projects, Minister King announced a 90-day review of the Infrastructure Investment Program but conveniently excluded all Labor election promises from the process.

More than 150 days later, we still haven't heard the outcomes of the review and communities are waiting to find out whether the funding which was promised, and included in the previous government's budgets, will ever be delivered.

Nothing is getting cheaper by waiting, and when the Minister finally makes some decisions, there's no doubt that local council community projects will need to be re-scoped, and less road safety initiatives will be undertaken.

So we are in limbo as Australia experiences a spike in road trauma, and motorists endure pot-holed roads, while the responsible Federal Minister ponders her review.

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