My suggestion to start off would be there should be no private development in any national park. 

It is a travesty to have any new development within the boundary of any national park. 

There is any amount of space and opportunity in surrounding communities to cater for hotels, cafes and outdoor experiences.

Whenever I visit Dunkeld, Halls Gap, Stawell or Horsham, I rarely see the no vacancy signs from massive crowds. 

So why place new business within parks to ruin the very asset that draws visitors in the first place?

National parks are gazetted for many good reasons and they should continue to exist for those reasons.

What about farm stays, small town possibilities, wilderness experiences – all can be achieved with good operators on freehold land and open paddocks.

The current supporters of Grampians Tourism should tear up their membership while the staff continue to try to desecrate the national park. 

There is no advantage in covering a valuable natural asset with any development while many operators around the region work so hard to maintain a business that does not need any more undue competition.

BARRY CLUGSTON

Stawell

I REFER to the half-page advertisement published in the Mail-Times on August 19 requesting people complete the 2016 Australian census.

Allow me to share my experience.

I received a letter demanding that I complete the census.

This was received on the Friday before the census night.

The letter contained a special code to be used.

So, following the letter’s instructions, I phoned the number, gave the requested answers and requested a paper copy of the census form to complete.

I do not know which delivery tier the census people use for delivery of the paper census form but whatever it is, the form has not arrived.

I wonder how many people besides me are waiting for their form?

I also wonder, given the controversy of this latest census and its functioning, why your newspaper does not have a large news report on the many doubts that have been raised about the Coalition government’s management of the process.

I believe that one of the former state premiers has come out and said the company contracted to undertake the work had too little experience and ability to be able to successfully complete it.

We will wait and see, but as many have said, ‘statistics tell the tale that, like the man paying the piper who gets the tune demanded, so it is that the statistical results will tell what is wanted to be heard’.

It is now so long since the census day I will not be able to answer the question of ‘what did you eat and drink today?’

It has passed into the forgotten and for me totally irrelevant, but I would have thought is vitally important for strategic planning and the likes of the fast food places and supermarkets.

I look forward to reading fellow citizens comments and particularly those of the local representative Andrew Broad.

RICHARD NEWBY

Horsham

I HAVE moved a motion calling on the Andrews government to reverse its support for the Country Fire Authority-United Firefighters Union ‘unlawful’ enterprise bargaining agreement.

Speaking in parliament yesterday, I outlined the history of the controversial negotiation and examined how the process had caused such chaos and division between the authority’s board, the United Firefighters Union, the Andrews government, and Victoria’s volunteer firefighter base.

The fact is that Daniel Andrews intervened through a direct conversation with union secretary Peter Marshall during an negotiation.

This has not been done by any premier before in the history of Victoria, as far as I know.

I do not remember a case of a statutory authority where all the board members were sacked, where the chief executive was sacked, where the chief officer was sacked and in fact where the minister whose portfolio covered the authority - in this case, the Minister for Emergency Services - was sacked.

Do you think all these people are wrong and the Andrews government and its apparatchiks are right?

I can tell you that is not the way it is seen in regional Victoria.

We are now losing volunteers, as they are so disgusted with the antics of the Andrews government in relation to their payback deal with Peter Marshall and the union.

I have never known an issue that has created so much anger in a community in Victoria - there is not one I can think of.

I can assure you that as long as there is a breath in my body I will continue to fight, as I am sure will my colleagues on this side of the chamber, to support and represent our volunteers.

There are 60,000 of them, plus the other two million people who are actually connected to those communities across regional Victoria. We have to right the wrong.

SIMON RAMSAY

Member for Western Victoria