Same-sex, drag queens and others depicted in mardi gras.

But what about the forgotten “straight” species?

There must be some still lurking about (maybe in closets etc). Why can’t we consider them too? Fair go mate.

Laurie Walker

Leeton

WITH heart conditions contributing to one Australian death every 12 minutes, I would like to remind residents of this year's Heart Health Week message - live an active life.

Heart conditions affect one in six Australians, a large proportion of these conditions are preventable. Heart Week starts May 1 and this year's theme is about living an active and satisfying life, which is also the best way to prevent further heart complications in the future.

The NSW government shares the Heart Foundation's interest in promoting healthy, active lifestyles and preventing and reducing heart disease by targeting risk factors such as smoking, healthy eating and physical activity.

Prevention is the best strategy and I encourage everyone to take advantage of our initiatives like the Get Healthy Service - a free telephone-based coaching service supporting NSW adults to make sustained improvements in healthy eating, physical activity and achieving a healthy weight - and get the support they need.

Katrina Hodgkinson

Member for Cootamundra

THE National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) has commended agreement from the Ministers of the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council to a package of measures that will lead to more realistic management of the MDB and deliver positive outcomes for regional communities.

Meeting in Brisbane, the council, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Barnaby Joyce, agreed to the package of supply, efficiency and constraints measures that provide changes to the sustainable diversion limits (SDL) of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan (MDBP).

The projects will lead to a significant reduction in the amount of water recovery required to achieve Basin Plan outcomes which was good news for both the environment and the communities for which the Murray Darling Basin is the lifeblood.

We have seen the ministers agree to a first tranche of these measures and arrangement for a second tranche of SDL adjustments and it is now important the states involved work together to achieve the 650gl downwater target. We recognise we need to achieve triple bottom line outcomes in implementing the Basin Plan that measure performance against economic, social and environmental parameters and this is a clear step towards that.

Recognition by the ministers of the importance of non-flow complementary activities to achieve environmental outcomes including carp control, cold water pollution and fish ladders will also significantly contribute to what can be achieved. In particular, government has been urged to look at a full suite of complementary activities that can be implemented to achieve enhanced environmental outcomes with less water recovery and much less social and economic impact on northern communities.

Les Gordon

Chairman

NFF Water Taskforce