DEAR News Of The Area,

ALL those union dominated public service employees striking.

We want more, we deserve more, and getting it.

Guaranteed jobs, generous pay packets, and for most working conditions and fringe benefits that so many outside can only dream about.

Also positions where for many, performance can’t be assessed.

Basic cost of living for those on $100,000 versus their counterparts on $50,000 must be the same, but a five percent increase gives one $5,000 while their mates doing the dirty and heavy lifting only receive $2,500.

As the storm clouds gather following wage increases, the cost of power and the really big one, fuel prices, especially diesel, many are facing the wall.

Truckies and farmers facing unsustainable input costs.

Inflation is at six percent but many operators are facing 50 percent and are unable to pass it along.

A recent Landline program on the ABC should be a watch for everyone in this country.

The devastation caused by flooding along eastern Australia, and the struggle to strike a deal with our retail giants.

We all see the skyrocketing vegetable and fruit prices but are never told what the grower gets.

Snow and sugar snap peas for $45 a kilogram in one outlet and $25 in another begs the question.

A spud grower turning his head to conceal his emotions, claiming just 20 cents a kilogram extra could sustain his operation.

Another surveying 250 acres of sugarcane lost and littered with debris.

A dairy farmer’s wife who watched their entire herd get washed away.

Thousands of macadamia trees lost.

The list is a long one.

But what a contrast across the gap.

80,000 a day in and out of just Sydney airport headed to Bali or the Gold Coast for a holiday, yet just kilometres away their fellow humans are suffering unimaginable devastation.

Bellingen dodged it again, our luck rolls on, but for some farmers it has been a tough year.

Why would February be the one month farmers winge the least?

Only 28 days.

Regards,
Darcey BROWNING,
Bellingen.