Bus passes for schoolchildren
We have been told the main focus of the new Berejiklian government over the next four years will be on regional NSW. In addition two of our local State representatives have made it into the ministry. The first area they need to address is student travel.
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Under the present arrangements students are provided with a free travel pass from their home to their school and back again. The Tamworth area is divided amongst three different bus companies, each with a bus pass which only allows travel on their own bus line. Therein lies the problem for the many people in a situation like ours.
Our grand children's parents both work, meaning we care for the children after school.
Our home is serviced by a different bus company to their home so they cannot travel free to our place but must pay for each trip, although they could travel to their home without cost. This policy threatens the safety of children (primary school children in our case) by allowing them to go to an empty house free, but not to their after school carers.
There are two obvious fixes for this problem, neither of which have any cost implications for the government. The first would be to simply allow a bus pass to be issued based on either a home address or a carer's address, at the discretion of the parents. Better still bus passes could be generic and allow the flexibility of school travel with any of the three companies involved. This would bring us in line with metropolitan areas where I believe an Opal card is issued to students.
Taking this issue up with the local member and the Department of Transport has so far only resulted in a response that says "sorry, these are the rules". Well it is a bad rule which is easily fixed at no cost. Now we have our own minister for Better Regulation, who presumably can change bad rules. What an opportunity for him to step up to the plate and make changes that will benefit not only his own electorate but the whole of regional NSW.
Brian Harris, Tamworth
Nation needs to say sorry
Our nation is yearning for an end to the present disastrous drought and thousands of Christians have been earnesty praying for rain. We know God is in total control of the climate and He can send or withold rain according to His purposes.
When we ignore our Creator's loving sovereignty we must face the consequences. Our country has increasingly rejected our Judaeo-Christian heritage and replaced it with secular humanism. We have allowed our leaders to enact legislation that overturns all we have held dear.
Our children are taught in schools that evolution is a fact and that science has disproved the Bible. However, if we ignore the Bible and its account of human history and guidelines for living we have nothing to fall back on except conjecture and human reasoning and the loudest voice prevails.
As a nation we need to say sorry - to God if we believe in Him, or work to right the wrongs we are inflicting on future generations. We neglect our Judaeo-Christian heritage at our peril, and we must learn from history and past mistakes. Karl Marx said that people who don't know their history are easy to manipulate.
Philip Wigg,
Inverell
