After attending an information session on Thursday, I would like to acknowledge the great work and commitment from the Rural City of Wangaratta in drawing together the draft Reconciliation Action Plan.

It is now time for the Wangaratta community to have their say, before the consultation period closes on 27 February.

The draft plan draws together the successful actions and community events of recent years that have already put Wangaratta on a gentle pathway towards reconciliation.

The draft plan also outlines the likely next steps, that if achieved, will lead to the first Reconciliation Action Plan for the Rural City of Wangaratta.

It is now an important time for the community to provide feedback on the Draft Reconciliation Action Plan so that the recent progress in Wangaratta can continue in coming months.

Many other rural communities across Victoria already have already completed this journey and already have a RAP in place.

To view and comment on the Reconciliation Action Plan visit https://connect.wangaratta.vic.gov.au/reconciliation-action-plan.

Tony Lane, Wangandary

Political cycle rolls on, mobile coverage doesn't

Once again, we wake up to a slow news day causing media desperation and resulting in beating up politics, or something else, to the point of ad nauseam.

One is bemused to note in the electorate of Farrer next door, the independent candidate intending to run in the upcoming by-election has said her platform, in part, will include communications.

Locally that chestnut has been recycled by the independents here, every election.

Yet, since the inception of mobile, I have never had a reliable signal for decades and with the fires around us, we find, that these fires have revealed just how ineffective the politicians locally have been in getting it, or Telstra, sorted out.

Marc Chick, Wangaratta

Prime Minister must revisit tobacco excise

Australian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) is calling on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to urgently review tobacco excise settings following reports of the Oxford Economics analysis "commissioned by IGA Supermarkets" that reinforced warnings that current policy settings were driving a rapid shift away from the legal tobacco market and towards illegal supply controlled by organised crime.

The modelling confirms what retailers are seeing on the ground - the legal market is being replaced by an illegal one.

Going by this report, if the current trajectory continues, Australia risks losing its legal tobacco market entirely by 2029.

The Oxford Economics analysis showed federal tobacco excise revenue had already fallen significantly - from $16.3 billion in 2019-20 to a forecast $5.5 billion in 2025-26 - and could fall to around $1.5 billion by 2028-29 if current trends continued.

Over the past decade, Australia has been approximately $67 billion short of forecast tobacco excise collections.

If the legal market disappears, the tax revenue disappears with it - but demand doesn’t disappear.

It simply shifts into the hands of criminal networks.

Enforcement remained critical but could not succeed on its own while large price gaps between legal and illegal tobacco remained.

You cannot enforce your way out of a market where illegal product is dramatically cheaper and widely available.

The Prime Minister needs to step in and have an honest conversation with his health minister Mark Butler and treasurer Jim Chalmers about whether current excise settings are unintentionally driving the black market.

If we lose the legal retail channel, we lose control of tobacco control.

Plain and simple.

The PM has a choice - a regulated market that pays tax and follows the law, or a market 100 percent controlled by organised crime.

If we don’t act soon, that choice will be made for us.

Theo Foukkare, AACS CEO