Strange that on budget night the government used the example of a family with a household income of $160,000 to represent those who will benefit from the extension of the low-middle income tax offset.

Now, who else besides the government think that a family with an income like that is low-middle class?

Andrew Brown, Nundle

Open letter to the local member, the Mayor and the tea lady who I suspect may be the only one to read this.

Recently I required an ambulance trip across Tamworth. While ambulances may not be the most comfortable of vehicles the trip was reasonable until we hit Dean St.

From a patient point of view it would be kind to call it a goat track.

I am not interested in the blame game and who is or is not responsible. Just fix the thing.

Graeme Collett, Tamworth

On 26th April, 2021, the Northern Daily Leader reported that the Crime Prevention Working Group (hereafter called CPWG) is advocating the adoption of the Matrix model of drug rehabilitation here in Tamworth.

This Group is a committee affiliated with the Tamworth Regional Council and it is good to see that it is taking another tack in its role as an advocate for crime prevention. This move deserves the community's support and encouragement.

The Matrix model, which involves working with people in their homes and community, goes some way to address the causes of crime and other aspects of social disharmony within the community.

The model has been found to have some success in South Australia, but the criteria that allows access to the model is somewhat limiting. For example, it only caters for those who have not taken drugs for the three weeks prior to their application.

With this qualification, there becomes a need for rehabilitation for the proportion of those who are addicted who would not be able to access the Matrix programme. This reinforces the need for a rehabilitation facility for Tamworth to work in conjunction with a Matrix programme.

Full credit to the CPWG for getting behind the Matrix model, and we wish it every success.

Tamworth Fair Treatment Group

In the recent Budget, our Liberal and National parties became communists. They have planned for the interest rates on Australia's brand new trillion-dollar debt to stay at 1.6 per cent a year for the next ten years.

Yeah, right. Here in the real world, we know that interest rates will go up during that time, because they have already gone above 1.6 per cent in the USA.

I have only one word to say about higher interest rates: Hooray! Like all Australian savers and lenders, I have long since had enough of other people borrowing my money to pay over-inflated house prices while paying me next to nothing in return.

Yes, that's right - my money, and the money of others like me. Where does everyone think that the banks get their cash from?

So I'm looking forward to enjoying yet again those wonderful interest rates of over 20 per cent which John Howard and Paul Keating gave us when they were Treasurers.

For the record, back in those days I put my meagre savings into cash management trusts and used the high rates to pay off a Sydney mortgage long before it was due, and then later to help me live in Canberra for nothing while I paid off my next mortgage there. No, it wasn't easy. There were punches which I had to roll with. I came within a whisker of bankruptcy more than once.

Today, the Liberals and Nationals like to think that they're behaving like Winston Churchill in their rudeness to China, our biggest customer for everything we want to sell. Not even Pig Iron Bob was so stupid. In their communistic silliness they won't show any leadership on the economic consequences of their behaviour either, so it's up to me.

Listen well, Australia. No-one has anything to offer you but blood, toil, tears and sweat. The days of throwing extra prawns on the barbie are coming to an end. As interest rates go up, you will have to find ways to use them for your own benefit. No, it won't be easy, but it can be done.

G.T.W. Agnew, Coopers Plains