Was it to frighten the public, punish the man who has served his time and possibly got a shorter sentence because of good behaviour, or to intimidate the employer who should be extolled for giving this man a job?

If I was able to determine who that employer is, I would ring and give praise and encouragement to them. 

Shame on you, DA.

JUST what is the US President Donald Trump bellyaching about?

Hasn’t Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull stated Australia will take Costa Ricans in a political exchange.

Another “dumb deal”, perhaps for Australia

JOHN Barilaro, leader of the NSW National Party, had agreed some two weeks prior to hold a meeting outside his Queanbeyan office on February 10 over the forced council mergers.  

People travelled vast distances in heatwave conditions to put their views to Mr Barilaro.  

However, he didn’t consider it important enough to turn up.

He had a more pressing engagement elsewhere.  

He did eventually come to a meeting at Gundagai on Sunday, February 12.  

He met with a small delegation and, according to reports, he gave them a glimmer of hope by listening to their concerns. Apparently, all he did was listen.  

The Premier Gladys Berijiklian has since decreed that the status quo will remain.  

This proves one thing. It is a complete waste of time and effort to seek help from anyone from within the National Party over council amalgamations.

You only have to take into account the feeble efforts made by our local member, Katrina Hodgkinson.  

She has tried to convince everyone ever since this debacle began that she was right behind our council’s efforts to stand alone but the negative results she has achieved suggest otherwise.  

And to this very day, she hasn’t offered any explanation as to why she voted for council amalgamations in the first place and against releasing the entire $400,000 KPMG report to the public.

The release of only a small section of the report showed the state government is facing a black hole of tens of millions of dollars in its costings of forced amalgamations.

The report has been described as being "awash with errors".  And this explains why Hodgkinson and Barilaro voted against its release.  

Both politicians had given the locals false hopes while all the time working against their interests by supporting this undemocratic process. In other words, they have treated the Gundagai community with complete indifference.

In the no-credibility stakes, the Nationals have now surged well ahead of their nearest rivals, used car salesmen and solicitors.

In years to come, if this merger isn’t reversed, it will completely rip the guts out of our little town as we now know it.

Gundagai will eventually lose its unique identity and will become known as a suburb of Cootamundra.  

By giving their unequivocal support to this blatant undemocratic process, the Nationals have deliberately ignored the wishes of our local community.  

For this they will pay dearly at the next state election.