Dear Santa,
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We reckon we’ve been pretty well behaved this year. We’ve paid our taxes. We’ve helped the government change the law by filling out its survey. We’ve paid our rates. We’ve donated to many charities, as we always do in the Shoalhaven. We’ve helped the homeless people among us find shelter through the winter. We could keep going.
So here are some presents we’d like under our tree.
Straight talk from our politicians: We’re all fed up with the games in Canberra, the backflips, the citizenship farce, the sense that any minute the whole thing could come tumbling down. In 2018, we’d like our politicians to stop treating us like mugs, saying one thing one day and the very opposite the next. We’d like to see them get on with the job and stop the childish point-scoring.
Funding certainty on the new Shoalhaven River bridge: We’ve seen a year of argument over who should pay to replace the bridge and the intersections that clog traffic around it. NSW has paid big-time for the highway upgrade; the feds need to step up and pay for the bridge.
An end to the shopping trolley scourge: Some weeks back, Shoalhaven City Council declared war on feral shopping trolleys. Was it all bluff and bluster? Seems that way when you still find them dumped all over town, even just metres from council HQ. Let’s get serious about removing this blight.
An NBN that actually works: Whether we’re want a buffer-free movie, a session of Call of Duty without lag or, heaven forbid, a connection that allows us to conduct business, we all want an NBN that functions and not the haphazard lucky dip as it exists now.
Decent sporting facilities: Really, how hard is it? The new indoor sports centre at Bomaderry is a step in the right direction but the other sports fields and facilities are in serious need of love.
A riverfront we can all love: We saw the sailing club burn down this year and its burnt out hulk sit there for ages before being pulled down. Now we see a fenced off site with nothing happening. Seriously, for how long must we present this eyesore to people travelling over the river? Plenty of talk about activating the riverfront but it’s just that: talk.
Jobs for our kids: This needs no explanation at all. What we don’t want again in 2018 is to be the region with the highest youth unemployment in the state.