Having been involved with both programs over many  years, it has been incredible to watch the confidence and self esteem come back to young people, where it had almost been destroyed through neglect and poor lifestyle choices. Mal McPherson said to me once "Tony these are the young people that the system will be obliged to lock up if they reoffend". You, Mal, and many others who have supported Youth Insearch, have saved lives and created fertile ground for positive futures for those you have helped.

At the political level both these programs have suffered funding cuts in recent years, even though the rhetoric of our politicians is about breaking welfare and behaviour cycles and creating job opportunities for our young.  Youth Insearch and Backtrack deliver in spades. Governments at both levels seem keen to talk the talk, but not keen on shovelling.

A question that local state MP Kevin Anderson may like to answer. Why does the the State Government charge a voluntary organisation like Youth Insearch exorbitant charges for the use of state owned facilities at Keepit Dam, when the program is saving the state government millions in preventing kids being locked up in expensive facilities and helping unlock their potential as constructive citizens?

My understanding is that over $500,000 in camp fees has been charged for the use of those facilities in the name of user pays, an extraordinary amount that is raised by local Rotary clubs and other caring individuals and organisations. 

Surely it is time to reassess the way the bureaucracy values these worthwhile programs .

Tony Windsor (Werris Creek)

With the recent complaints about the Adler shotgun, the government was quick to make legislative changes, despite there not being a death from an Adler. 

Compare this with the multiple road deaths on the nation’s highways this past weekend. Why aren’t governments jumping up and down to ban vehicles capable of speeding more than 120 K? The fastest you are legally able to drive on the nation’s roads is 110 K. It has to be said: “We are governed by hypocrites”.  

Jay Nauss (Glen Aplin)

In all the hubbub about the Adler shotgun, no-one has yet said the magic word.  So it may as well be me. On behalf of the huntin' shootin' fishin' crowd, on behalf of farmers and the National Party, on behalf of Abbott supporters and Christians everywhere, I say: Plebiscite.

The availability of the Adler gun is an issue of not merely national but existential importance, we're told.  It is therefore elitist and nanny-ish to restrict the gun to professional shooters who themselves would have to justify their need for such weapons.  There is no need to discuss what terrorists or Martin Bryants might do if they got hold of such guns. The desperate lack of Adlers in the community at large trumps all that -- doesn't it?

Australia simply must hold a plebiscite on this gun, and right now, without delay. The cost of the plebiscite doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what unpleasant things the anti-gun lobby might say about all those decent folk who want the freedom to blast anything and everything to smithereens.

It also doesn't matter that politicians can then ignore the results of the plebiscite and make sure that nothing changes. 

G.T.W.  AGNEW (Coopers Plains)