Tamworth has several large and significant projects under development and consideration.

The Dungowan Dam proposal estimated at $485 Million to increase the capacity from 6 GL to 22.5 GL, going some small way to helping secure water security.

The continued development of the Inter Model Hub on which $50 million of mostly sate government funds have been expended and expansion and sale of the Glenn Artney/Tamworth Global Gateway Park (TGGP) with plans to extend industrial land releases, to allow expansion of the landlocked Taminda and Glenn Artney Industrial areas.

It may require further capital expenditure at present unknown to facilitate the Tamworth UNE Campus development with anticipated funding of $26 million from State Government and $10 million matching Federal Government funding in the form of Commonwealth Supported Places (CSP), after nearly three years of representations. The central campus alone is likely to cost around $60 million. The capital expenditure on the satellite University Industry Integrated Centres (UIIC) for Sports Science, Equine, Tourism, Health and Community services, Food Technology and Logistics, Creative Industries, Professional Services and Aviation can probably be co located with existing facilities such as AELEC , the Sports Dome, and Tamworth Airport, but some new facilities may be required to be built with the assistance of State and Federal Government.

Particularly the Tamworth Arts and Cultural Centre, $120 million, that will be collocated with the Creative Industries UIIC. Expansion of the Inland Centre of Sporting Excellence is still high on the agenda. UNE Armidale contributes around 22 per cent of New England's Gross Regional Product (GRP).

The Tamworth Regional Entertainment Conference Centre (TRECC) was built with TRC and Government funding as well as some local contributions. It was realized that the Country Music Festival needed to be anchored by a facility with television-friendly capacity and has rarely ever made break even annual cost.

Similarly with AELEC, the showground was found to be unsuitable for expanding equine events, and drop in usage has led to its sale. AELEC, even though it now has very high usage rates, rarely breaks even on running costs.

The specific issue of the proposed $67 million Aquatic Centre has been well ventilated. The increased entry cost for users, unless council subsidised them, and issues around access that were not properly addressed. The City Olympic Pool is located where it is for accessibility, people can walk to them during the warmer months for the approximate 5,300 school children, the approximate 3,000 children who walk to the South and West War Memorial Pool each year for school sport and Carnivals. And for the approximate 80 per cent of Tamworth school children who cannot swim more than 50 metres. Modest expenditure on these pools would bring them up to standard.

This is not necessarily to speak against the Aquatic Centre proposal, but to point to the flaws in its protagonist arguments, also to highlight the necessary priorities. If you want to have a positive impact on the tax payers and rate paying community and optimal use of scarce Federal and State government funding as your goal.

The economic ordering of projects based on the economics of outcomes will almost always produce an optimal choice. Expansion of the industrial centres, will eventually create more jobs. Expansion of the water supply, done competently, will secure peoples and industry water security.

Giving school leavers access to higher education will give them better lives and a more secure future, fill growing job vacancies and may also increase high school completion rates.

Teaching children how to swim, wherever they learn, may one day save theirs, or another's life.

What priority would you give to each of these projects?

Stephen Maher, Tamworth

I read a recent article on the young girl found not criminally responsible for the death of another young girl - "A secret diary of a killer".

The story would have been the perfect platform to break the stigma of mental illness. I think that because schizophrenia is a disease of the mind and not a physical illness or disability, it is severely overlooked.

If a loved one came to tell you they had cancer, it would be devastating. If you saw a friend on crutches with a cast on their leg because it was broken, there would be immediate compassion. You can see that person is in pain and struggling.

For someone with schizophrenia or another mental illness, there is no blood test or X-ray, or scan to show what is wrong. But there is still suffering. Often the person suffering doesn't know they have an illness - they just feel confused and think everyone experiences what they experience.

Much like cancer, we all know someone who has experienced a mental illness such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia or having bipolar. The first two are pretty common. One in 16 people were diagnosed with depression in 2020. One in seven were diagnosed with anxiety.

With such a high incidence, why isn't there more awareness and acceptance? Why is there still a stigma - and why is there so much fear? If we understand more, we will be less afraid.

The girl in the article with schizophrenia was obviously a girl with a significant mental illness in need of help. So why not use this article to show how badly schizophrenia can affect the mind, instead of perpetuating the Hollywood horror story?

This tragedy points to a need to make changes.

Did her confession to her mother that she was having problems come too late? Add to this the usual lengthy wait for a doctor's appointment where a parent might not even be taken seriously.

This girl might have spent her whole life thinking everyone else saw cat's eyes and heard voices. She had been suffering from a horrific illness with no diagnosis, no help, and no medication to stabilise the hallucinations that were shaping a world she was trying to live a normal life in.

After this tragedy, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia. I can't imagine psychiatrists make these diagnoses lightly.

We need to do something to break the stigma of mental illness. It affects so many of us. Do we keep it in the dark as the stuff of horror movies, or do we open our eyes and take care of our friends and our family so this never happens again?

How about we give parents, teachers, carers, employers and employees of the next generation the tools to recognise the symptoms and signs of a mentally ill person so we can help them.

A good start would be to make R U OK Day a day that goes beyond asking the question and actively teaches coping skills along with ways to recognise the signs of someone who is struggling. It could also incorporate the mental health first aid course.

What about some words from some of our sporting heroes or leaders who have themselves suffered a mental illness? And examples of people who lead wonderful lives with the help of medication for their illness?

This will show that with the right diagnosis and treatment, you can be successful and enjoy your role in the community.

The stigma and silence needs to be broken wide open so we can see mental illness as clearly as a broken leg, and have more compassion.

Name withheld

In August this year The Australian Conservation Foundation conducted the biggest and most in-depth survey ever conducted of Australias' opinion on climate change.

A majority of voters in every one of the Nation's 151 federal electorates indicated that the Federal Government should be doing more to tackle climate change.

The big question now is -can the Federal Coalition Government presently do much to tackle climate change with the Nationals being a partner in the Coalition?

Countering climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels, is not considered to be a wise economical move, in the short term, according to the Nationals.

At the last Federal election the Nationals only recorded four and a half per cent of the total primary votes counted for the House Of Representatives. However when it comes to matters related to taking action on climate change the Nationals seem to have currently almost a strangle hold on most climate related decisions made by the coalition.

The majority of Australian people may well want the Government to take more climate action but will the present structure of the Federal Coalition allow this to happen?

Brian Measday, Myrtle Bank, SA