Late last week we received an envelope addressed to the Householder from the State Member for Ovens Valley.

Naively I thought that this might finally be some information on his party’s policies for the upcoming state election.

Wrong.

The envelope had a note pad, fridge magnet and flyer with contact details.

What a waste of money.

Like many other constituents, I have been blocked on Facebook by our state member for respectfully questioning things that he says, showing that he is as thin-skinned as the US president.

Given that Facebook appears to be the only way that the state member provides local updates, I do not have access to what he is doing for constituents and the area he represents.

How is our state member going to keep us informed?

Viviane King, Milawa

White Pages major stuff up will cost businesses

While searching for a local business, my mum found a startling and unforgivable sin committed by Telstra in their latest edition of the White Pages.

On page 56, the first column the names are in full, with "Mr" at the front of the name, instead of the standard format of surname, initials, and the the address beside or below the name.

No wonder people and businesses can't be found in the phone book.

The error starts on the prior page - being 55, and continues onto page 57, the last column with "Mrs"; finally ending at the top of page 58.

Businesses would be losing business, frustrating everybody.

Just think of this as you laugh at this crazy error... Telstra has just upped their prices on their internet services (mine is one).

I expect higher quality of professionalism with the overall services provided by Australia's oldest and most profitable Telco - and so should you.

Dianne Nicholson, Milawa

Guidelines welcome but the devil’s in the detail

Farmers for Climate Action welcome the Community Engagement and Social Value Guidelines for renewable energy and transmission projects put out by the Victorian government, but caution that the devil will be in the details.

These guidelines should mark a major shift forward in how developers interact with the community.

The Victorian government and renewable energy industry need to re-build trust in many regional communities around the clean energy build, and if implemented well, this goes some way toward that.

Broader benefits are so important for bringing the wider community on board and we are pleased to see the guidelines address this, as well as ways to improve what is often a current hodge-podge approach.

The community needs to be included as co-designers of benefits, rather than accepting whatever the developers decide to offer.

These remain unbinding expectations and the devil remains in the detail as to how developers follow the guidelines.

We also know that there is much work to be done to ensure that those responsible for implementation - including VicGrid - have the social license, ability and whole of organisation commitment to ensure the guidelines have the intended impact.

Verity Morgan-Schmidt, Farmers for Climate Action CEO

Broken pledge on state’s ESVF $1.6B spend

The Victorian government has broken a pledge to release a full breakdown of how it intends to spend the $1.6 billion collected through the Emergency Services and Volunteer Fund (ESVF).

Victorian farmers, businesses and households have every right to know where their money is going, particularly after the Treasurer Jaclyn Symes publicly committed to providing annual reporting on both levy collections and agency allocations.

Now when that time has arrived, it’s nowhere to be seen.”

How can we have any confidence that this so-called beneficial tax is actually going to our emergency services and not being used to line the coffers of the government?

These type of hollow commitments strike at the heart of why many Victorians and particularly farmers are so against this tax-grab.

It’s all smoke and mirrors and that falls at the feet of the Treasurer.

The government’s secrecy only reinforces the VFF’s longstanding position that the Emergency Services and Volunteer Fund should be scrapped completely before this year’s election and replaced with a fairer and more accountable funding model.

The VFF is calling on the treasurer to immediately publish the full 2026-27 ESVF revenue and allocation figures and commit to restoring the transparency standards promised when the levy was introduced.

Ryan Milgate, VFF president