When I was first elected to council, the mayor of the day was a past president of the Wagga branch of the Liberal Party and his deputy was a past president of the Wagga Labor Party branch.

After the compulsory amalgamation, at least one alderman was a member of the Nationals.

Regardless of personal political views, those councils achieved a great many progressive changes to the city.

At no time were political alliances obvious and did not in any way impede decision-making.

There was, in fact, a strong ethos of teamwork; teamwork that included the professional and dedicated staff.

Debates were sometimes lively but party politics never entered debate.

Progressive attitudes and a recognition that the council must interact strongly with staff and not damage morale with public attacks on staff will benefit the city regardless of political beliefs of council members.

FORMER ABARE director Dr Brian Fisher stated last week: “a lot of people in Macquarie Street and the city don’t necessarily see the difficulties that farmers face in the bush.”

Special note should also be taken of his comment: “Farmers know better than most how to balance land and environment.”

He was specifically referring to native vegetation legislation, but whether it’s this or vital water policy implementation, the issue is the same – we have city-centric politicians and bureaucrats who lack rural understanding and, more importantly, refuse to make the effort to improve their knowledge.

Mike Baird thinks a rural tour is a day trip to Penrith and appears to have little or no interest in the part of his state which exists outside what he considers NSW – Newcastle, Sydney, Wollongong.

His agriculture minister, Niall Blair, seems to think the most southern town in the state is Griffith.

And their advisers spend virtually all their time in their Sydney offices, unprepared to venture out and learn about the real world.

If Mr Baird and his colleagues don’t want a massive bush backlash at the next election, I’d suggest it’s time to get out of their comfort zone.

WELL, I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that Donald Trump is at it again!

This time, he is demanding Hillary Clinton’s bodyguards should be disarmed because of her stance on gun control.

This might be a bit too difficult for Trump to understand but it is precisely because of the lunatics who demand that every Tom, Dick and Harry should carry a loaded weapon at all times that Hillary Clinton needs bodyguards at all.

When will Trump and his fellow firearm freaks wake up to the disaster that widespread gun ownership has caused.

GEOFF Field asks how deputy premier Troy Grant can justify punishing greyhound owners and trainers who have done "nothing wrong" (DA, letters, September 24).

Even if we ignore live baiting, all those involved in the industry are complicit in cruelty because they are complicit in the killing of thousands of healthy greyhounds whose only crime is that they can't run fast enough to win races.

This industry revolves around making money at the expense of animals and, thus, deserves to be banned.