The Editor,

The Manning Community News

Good morning Ed,

The article in the April edition of the MCN, titled, ‘The Election? Yawn’, includes the following concerning paragraph:

“After twelve years, there are fears we are in for more of the same where the new National Party representative, Tanya Thompson, the former staff secretary to the late Stephen Bromhead MP, promised in her TV ads “to carry on his work and plans.”

I presume that means continued bombardment of a costly bulletin of endless glossy pages with innumerable self-promotional photos of the local member with ad nauseam repeat advisings of grant monies having been acquired for the area. These funds do not come from the member’s pocket and in securing said funds, the member is simply doing his/her job!!

I would also caution the new member to not waste her time and energy with follow-up petitions etc for a widening of the Forster-Tuncurry bridge, begun by Stephen Bromhead following the fatal accident on the bridge two years ago. The petition gave false hope to the plaintive cries of people who know no better. The cost to widen the bridge would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars and the state government’s finances are already stretched in funding other far more important capital work projects. If the bridge is widened in my lifetime, (I am a healthy 75 year old), I will walk barefoot and backward from Beach Bums to Blackhead.

In future matters of a contentious nature, (similar to the earlier Council merger), I would also caution the new member to support the community, who were, in the main, against the merger, and not simply toe the party line, (who promoted the merger).

Steven Maher

Forster