Most of the rubbish is building refuse, such as foam and cardboard packaging, insulating sheeting and plastic wrapping.

To make things worse, last week’s grass slashing has turned several pieces of cardboard, foam and plastic into hundreds of smaller pieces. How stupid is that?

It is time that the local building association and Wagga Wagga City Council got their heads together, tidy the road up and install stringent measures to prevent an ongoing litter problem.

There are at least 12 different building companies working in the sub-division, all of them producing considerable amounts of building waste. Some of the temporary structures used to contain waste on the building sites are very flimsy and barely contain the waste.

This is an easily-fixed and non-expensive problem, at least in the short-term.

I am sure the residents of the newly developed Gobbagombalin would appreciate not having to drive through a dump whenever they leave their home, and so would I.

I support changing the date of Australia Day. Why? Well my heart is heavy because as someone who has grown up as a proud Australian, I want to feel proud on Australia Day, but I can no longer celebrate on a day that does not respect the feelings and history of Indigenous Australians. 

For many years I have proudly performed at local Australia Day events however this year I will not be participating. I have decided to withdraw out of respect for the descendants of our First Nations people. I am tired of waiting for our government to really listen to the voices of Indigenous Australians. And I am deeply disappointed with the current federal government’s response to a wide range of Indigenous issues. I want to stand with Indigenous Australians in their call for real recognition. 

Our country needs to acknowledge its chequered history, and show deeper respect to those Indigenous Australians who are still offended by January 26, the day that heralded the genocide of Indigenous Australians. 

My ancestors were early settlers in Tasmania and Victoria in the 1820s and might have contributed to that genocide. I may never know how they treated the First Australians, but they most certainly contributed to their displacement. Whatever they did I cannot change because it is now history, but I am not proud of the mistreatment of the First Australians. 

Let’s create a new Australia Day that unites all Australians; and while we’re at it let’s create a treaty and true recognition of our Indigenous history.

The devastating carnage on our roads in the past week once again highlights the precarious relationship between cars, trucks and their occupants.

We all know the consequences of fatigue, drink driving and speed, either individually or in combination, but more needs to be done to address the incompatibility of cars and semi-trailers/B-Doubles on our road network. Our road infrastructure is based on decades-old design standards, from long before B-Doubles and other combinations were even thought of. 

Lane widths are now inadequate, overtaking opportunities limited, and these factors, together with the speed of these behemoths, combine to make for very dangerous situations. Throw in fatigue, and all of this becomes deadly. Truck drivers in Europe are, by law, restricted to 80km/h and must stay in the slow lane on dual carriageways, even on autobahns. Should we be doing something similar in Australia?