During her stay in hospital, the landline service to her home in Charters Towers was discontinued by Telstra as the NBN was rolled out.

As my aunt's release from hospital drew close, it became abundantly clear that she would be returning home without critical access to a standard telephone service and as a result, would have no capacity to contact emergency services for potentially life-saving assistance in the event she became unwell again.

Not comfortable with the prospect that my aunt would not be able to summon help in an emergency, I contacted Telstra in an attempt to organise the reconnection of her landline before she was discharged from hospital, but was told that was not possible as I was not authorised to provide instruction on the account.

At a loss to come up with an alternative course of action that would allow my aunt to return home safely, I called the offices of both Rob Katter MP and Shane Knuth MP in the hope that they would be able to bypass this roadblock and assist in facilitating the restoration of the service.

I cannot speak highly enough of the help provided by the staff in both offices.

Not only were they extremely empathetic and understanding of the magnitude of the situation, they were able to cut through the telecommunications red tape to have the service reconnected within 48 hours.

I would like to say a sincere thank you to Kim Coghlan from the Member for Mount Isa’s office and Eliza Rogers from the Member for Dalrymple’s office for being able to convince a colossal organisation like Telstra to let common sense prevail by circumventing procedures that, until their intervention, seemed too rigid to allow an elderly woman to return to her home safely.

The residents of Charters Towers can rest assured that in the event Rob Katter is elected to the newly-established seat of Traeger, that they can depend on receiving the same outstanding standard of representation that Shane Knuth has been providing them since 2009.

Denise Ballard

Mount Isa

I applaud the federal and state government for being on the same page to improve key roads in the Flinders Shire, which are vital to delivering a more reliable freight and tourist route in our region.

Work has started on a $25 million upgrade of seven ageing culverts on the Flinders Highway between Charters Towers and Richmond, thanks to Australian and Queensland Government funding.

For far too long investment has focused on upgrading the Bruce Highway, but now federal and state funding is starting to flow where it is needed to ensure the economic sustainability of rural and regional Queensland.

However, there is still a long way to go to bring our inland network up to standard.

Sections of the Flinders Highway, are among those listed in a network of around 16,000 kilometres in the Inland Queensland Roads Action Plan (IQ-RAP) that are not up to scratch.

The IQ-RAP is not just about providing a more reliable and safe road network to our regional towns, it is also about providing a funded forward program to provide certainty for local governments to retain critical skills sets and maintain a stable workforce.

This is vital to the 33 local governments in the IQ-RAP region, with regional unemployment rates at an all-time low, particularly youth unemployment.

We look forward to further bi-partisan commitments to regional roads to support regional economic development.

Cr Jane McNamara

Deputy Chair IQ-RAP Working Group

Mayor of Flinders Shire