The danger of driving blind
Dear Editor,
Driving through the fog in Mitchell Shire recently, I was alarmed at how many vehicles were travelling with no headlights or taillights on. In thick morning fog, these cars are virtually invisible until you’re right on top of them – a dangerous game when visibility is already poor and local roads are busy with school traffic, farm utes, and heavy vehicles.
This simple but dangerous oversight undermines the planning Mitchell Shire Council is doing to improve road safety. The new strategies and infrastructure upgrades the Council has announced – from better signage to upgraded intersections – are welcome steps. But they rely on drivers doing their part too.
Turning your lights on in low visibility isn’t just good manners – it’s a legal requirement and a vital safety measure. Let’s not wait for a tragedy before we take this seriously. Mitchell Shire wants safer roads – let’s help by using our headlights when it counts.
Peter Watson
Broadford
Cut the red tape, back our businesses
Dear Editor,
Over the past few weeks, I’ve met with local business owners from every corner of our region – manufacturers, retailers, farmers, and service providers. No matter the industry, the message is the same: red tape is strangling local business.
Instead of supporting those who create jobs and drive our regional economy, the Allan Labor Government is burying them under layers of bureaucracy, rising compliance costs, and ever-changing rules. These aren’t minor inconveniences, they’re crushing small and medium-sized businesses into closure.
This regulatory overload is stopping investment in its tracks. While other states are working to cut red tape and welcome enterprise, Victoria is doing the opposite, closing doors and sending business elsewhere.
Red tape doesn’t just hurt business owners. It hurts workers, families, and entire communities. When local businesses can’t grow, we all lose. Jobs dry up, wages stagnate, and services disappear.
The Nationals believe government should be a partner, not a barrier. We believe in practical reform, targeted support, and treating local businesses with the respect they deserve, not as cash cows to be taxed and regulated into submission.
I’ll keep fighting for a government that listens to business, not stifles it.
If you’re a local business owner fed up with the current system, I want to hear your story because it’s time your voice was heard.
Annabelle Cleeland,
The Nationals Member for Euroa
