The Widow’s Allowance includes women who separated or divorced prior to turning 40 years of age. These women have Centrelink approval to stay home and grieve whilst other separated or divorced women over age 40 must get a job or die trying! The above can be confirmed at the Centrelink website.

No matter the outcome of the election it is likely that Dr Peter Shergold will retire from the Commonwealth Public Sector to take up a very lucrative academic role. Well, the Secretary of Departments/Agencies succession plan has been assembled and there are a number of stand-out positions; #1 New Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and likely successor to Dr Shergold will be Terry Moran AO.

Is it true that after giving its senior execs big rises, CSIRO will sack hundreds of its officers – presumably many of them scientists, just when the country has a crying need for better science to work on global warming problems?

As a breast cancer patient at Melbourne’s Peter Mac, I was told that I was unable to have a mammogram on a Monday (any Monday, but my appt is in 6 months) & that indeed, nobody can have them on Mondays anymore since a specialist next door has booked all Monday mammogram sessions for his private patients. I was told this by the breast cancer center receptionist – I travel interstate for these appts & many people come in from the country.

When some 60 players, officials and spectators became embroiled in a fracas in Central Australia following a great grand final it is embarrassing to some of us in the Central Australian community to discover that only one of the two clubs involved will have any players facing charges. It is becoming an annual event. For four Years Wests have won the grand final. This club has less than 5 “A” grade Indigenous players. Souths and Pioneers may have 5 non-Indigenous players between them. Two years ago Wests defeated Souths. Souths spectators were aroused by Wests spectators and a brawl ensued. It was the Souths club that was banished for twelve months. This year only Pioneer players have been charged with various offences that occurred during the fracas. I watched an insulting video of the action on YouTube. I cannot understand why there have been no charges of racism or vilification against the on air commentators and then those who put utter filthy comments to the site. Then one of our local papers printed those same comments. Is that OK? This is the town where Mal Brough has chosen to interfere with normal process. This is the town where the average life expectancy for an Aboriginal male is 43 years of age. Seems to many of us that AFLCA (aka Friends of Westies) are keen to sack most of the Pioneer key players (all Indigenous). I cannot believe that any fair person watching the action could believe that only players in green took any action worth reporting. What is even more alarming is that the police, presumably using the same video footage, also charged just green club members. Fair. Never has been. Why should one hope that it could be now? All fair footballers and the AFLCA need to take a long hard look at what is going on here.

At a conservative estimate there are at least $10m worth of cars sitting on the dock of White Bay wasting time. They have been there for over a week and include Ferraris, Lexuses etc. If a hailstorm hits someone will be opening their wallet.