The Editor, I wish to comment firstly on the need for a desalination plant to provide water for Port Augusta as well as towns on the Eyre Peninsula, Port Pirie and Whyalla in order to take pressure off the dying Murray River.

I acknowledge the fact that discharge can cause significant environmental problems.

However, if Mr Garret and Senator Wong were genuine, they would assist Aquasol in developing its proposal, which turns this discharge into salt which can then be sold as a by-product, adding value to the venture.

Next I would like to congratulate Business Port Augusta on their recent awards night.

This provides businesses that excel by going that extra yard for their customers with richly deserved recognition.

It also provides an incentive for winners to strive to maintain standards, and for the runners-up and others to improve their levels of service in order to gain nominations next year.

Congratulations too to a Uni SA Business classmate who will be graduating from Uni SA on April 17, and to the Port Augusta-based nursing and social work students who will reap the reward for several years on genuine hard work.

Well done guys.

In closing, I want to take aim at Kevin Rudd and Mike Rann over their love affair with China.

As part of my MBA studies, I recently completed a feasibility study for a major local company who were considering expanding their exporting operations.

China was the destination chosen.

Initially I thought it was a good fit because of location and market potential.

However as my research evolved, I found a country and culture that simply cannot be trusted.

As a result I recommended that the proposal be abandoned.

Yet Mr Rudd is quoted as saying that China equals Australian jobs through exporting.

What he neglected to mention was that any processing will be done in China, not here, meaning less local jobs.

And he is in the process of selling vast quantities of our mineral reserves to Chinese companies effectively financed by the state.