Recognise valuable work
The statistics regarding mental health in Australia are both startling and unacceptable. One in three Australians will experience a mental health issue in their lifetime. Suicide is the biggest killer of young Australians and accounts for the deaths of more young people than car accidents.
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We need to acknowledge those who are doing ground-breaking work in this area.
The Australian Mental Health Prize seeks to recognise Australians who have made outstanding contributions to either the promotion of mental health or the prevention and treatment of mental illness in areas such as advocacy, research or service.
I would like to encourage clinicians, health professionals and the public at large to nominate the people they feel should be recognised for their work.
More information and nomination forms can be obtained from www.australianmentalhealthprize.org.au
Entries close on August 31.
For those who are living with the burden of mental illness every day, thank you for your support.
I. Buttrose, Australian Mental Health Prize Advisory Group
Pay rise inexplicable
This letter is in reference to our local MP Ann Sudmalis.
I would like her, if she could, to explain how taking away penalty rates is good for our youth.
I ask that question only after reading news that MPs will get what I call a massive pay rise.
Take money from the workers and give it to the pollies. Could you please explain the math in that, Ann, because for the life of me I do not understand it.
I am being fair dinkum here, I really would like to know.
I have had a good education but for the life of me I am unable to work it out.
N. Wilson, Nowra
We’re all responsible
Biosecurity is important to all of us.
Minimising and ultimately preventing risks from animal and plant pests, diseases, weeds and contaminants is crucial to the health and wellbeing of our economy, environment and communities.
To help us more effectively manage biosecurity risks in NSW, we have a new NSW Biosecurity Act commencing on July 1 , 2017. A key principle of the Act is that biosecurity is a shared responsibility involving government, industry and community.
Whether you live in a regional area or a large city, have a small farm or backyard garden, participate in bushwalking, or enjoy recreational fishing, everyone can play a part in managing our biosecurity.
The Department of Primary Industries is hosting a series of information meetings with key stakeholders across the state to explain the impact of the changes. You can find an online training program and advisory material at www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/biosecurity.
N. Blair, Minister for Primary Industries
Environment overlooked
The 2017 NSW Budget is a short-sighted joke for future generations who will be left with a cooked planet and a legacy of extinct species and degraded ecosystems.
It is typical of the government’s disregard for nature that the environment portfolio was largely overlooked in possibly the state biggest spending budget ever.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian had a chance to plot a path out of the climate change and energy quagmire, but she failed to rise to that challenge.
The government needs a clean energy transition plan to make the state carbon neutral by 2050, but it still does not have one, and there was nothing for it in the budget. Worse, it raided $240 million from the Climate Change Fund to pay for private land conservation in an attempt to justify its disastrous land clearing laws that will drive climate change.
