It sounds that if no woman is being nominated or nominating herself, we should go out into the highways and byways and simply drag some woman in to take her rightful place.

Labor has quotas. Well who cares? Not me. For a start it’s the person with the ability to tackle the daily grind of being a parliamentarian – especially now with the constant media chatter which is tossed at us every minute of every day.

There are 25 million people in Australia and we are overloaded with far too much media who half the time are talking about the same old topic, hashing and re-hashing endlessly each one hoping that they will put a different slant on the same piece of news.

Have you noticed due to Malcolm Turnbull running off to have a holiday in New York, there has to be a by-election in his seat of Wentworth? 

A man who was running for the Liberal Party in that seat has now withdrawn to make room for a woman. That’s how ridiculous this issue has become.

There have been, over the years, wonderful women in Parliament if you want to read the history. Anyone would think that women in Parliament is a new idea. A good woman in Parliament is no different than having a good man in Parliament. 

The difference now is that we hear the  complaints about bullying. I proved when I went back into the workforce after 14 years running a household that the nastiness and problems all emanated from the women on the staff. I’m not saying all the women were bullies – far from it – but I experienced none at all from the men. They were a delight to work with.

Finally, not all women – especially those with small children – could possibly cope with this double life. There is a wonderful article in a recent newspaper magazine explaining how difficult life can be for those who've been told they can 'do it all'  and 'have it all'. 

The woman in the article, a mother of three children, says: “It patently is not (doable)” – and of course not all women have the same support. Each situation is different..

I would like the media to stop speaking as though they know what we all feel or need. We don’t need them to speak on our behalf.

Ellen Ruth Shepherd, Horsham 

“GET big or get out” was a common saying in the 1970s when I was struggling to do the first and finished up in the 1979-80 season doing the second.

This is the background, so often repeated in the farming community, to your editorial by Carly Werner and Jade Bate (Mail-Times editorial, September 7).

Economists have adapted that aphorism and called it “growth” which they promote incessantly as the panacea of our economic woes. Big business has used it to background the constancy of their efforts to acquire other businesses. Big cities have come aboard and laud the population growth that is strangling them.

Unfortunately for the argument of your editorialists, economic responsibility has been stolen from us in the constant struggle against debt. Inflation is the hand tool of those who have done the stealing by eroding the value of the basic monetary unit.

Meanwhile, governments try to balance the books with inexorably increasing overall taxation without actually increasing rates, but fail in the face of increasing out flows.

Ron Fischer, Horsham

TIME is quickly running out for residents to vote for some of the amazing contenders for Pick My Project funding.

Pick My Project is a unique was of funding important community projects because it allows the public a direct say on funding.

Western Victoria has embraced the concept, with hundreds of projects on offer between Ballarat and the border.

All residents over the age of 16 can vote, and projects with the most votes in each area will receive funding for their project of between $20,000 and $200,000.

I urge residents to make sure they have a say and cast their vote before voting closes at 5pm this Monday.

Jaala Pulford, Western Victoria MP

AS WE wind down and reflect on a successful Daffodil Day last month, I wish to extend heartfelt thanks to all those in the local community who volunteered, donated, purchased daffodils or bought a pin. 

With 90 Victorians diagnosed with cancer and 30 people losing their lives to the disease every day, supporting Daffodil Day has never been more important.

The funds raised through Daffodil Day are already at work, allowing Cancer Council to continue to fund some of Victoria’s brightest researchers and their cutting-edge projects.

We have made phenomenal strides in cancer control, leading us to improve the five-year cancer survival which is now at 68 per cent in Victoria. However, we have much left to do. Cancer Council Victoria is working to increase survival for low survival cancers through research, including our Forgotten Cancers Project.

Each year we also fund research projects that are working on developing new treatment options for less common and low survival cancers.

Over the past three decades Cancer Council has provided about $20 million in funding for clinical trials through the Cancer Trials Management Scheme.

We want to enable as many people as possible to have access to a clinical trial and to extend opportunities to potentially lifesaving cancer treatments to all. 

Todd Harper, Cancer Council Victoria