If you disagree with what they are doing then I ask you a quick question. How long is it since you last opened a text book? Do you realise that an unused brain loses vast numbers of cells every day. If you have given up on formal learning that is what is probably happening to your brain, and that is maybe the reason why you think this way. The level of dementia in our community is rising rapidly.

Stir up your grey cells and support the kids.

Whilst taking a passing interest in the recent Ashes Test matches I was struck by the importance placed on a vigorous polishing of the ball on the trousers of selected players before delivering it to the bowler. This appears to be with the intention of affecting either the flight of the ball or it's performance on striking the ground.

It is in marked similarity to that recently offered by the use of sandpaper albeit for perhaps a different effect. Are there any cricket tragics out there prepared to offer a sensible explanation as to why one action is viewed with admiration and the other with some horror?

The Prime Minister, Mr Morrison, was interviewed by Leigh Sales on the ABC's 7.30 on Monday night.

Among other things, in the face of the Coalition government's plan to introduce the cashless welfare card more widely, he was challenged on the effectiveness of the introduction of the card system during trials.

Sales rightly pointed out that the Commonwealth Auditor General, in a recent audit on the implementation and effectiveness of the trial use of the cashless card, had concluded that "its approach to monitoring and evaluation was inadequate. As a consequence, it is difficult to conclude whether there had been a reduction in social harm and whether the card was a lower cost welfare quarantining approach".

The quintessential "ad man" Morrison, after brief hesitancy, blurted out that the government's own "surveys" had shown that the card was successful in lowering harm and helping people to "get off welfare".

Evidence of his "surveys"? Added to this, Morrison wants the unemployed now to be subject to random drug-testing. It is clear that in the face of rigorous evidence presented by the Auditor General, this government is hell-bent on penalising the unemployed through the introduction of the stigmatising approach to delivering income support to those most in need, coupled with drug-testing.

It is almost as if Morrison and his government assume that all unemployed are out of work by choice and are having a wow of a time living it up on drugs, gambling and consuming alcohol which by definition on the miserable amount they receive in welfare payments they simply can't afford anyway.

The prejudicial portrayal of the unemployed by the Coalition government is shameful. How about give them a substantial lift in unemployment benefit to help equip them to better compete for the few real full time jobs that are out there, instead of continuing to demonise them?

This previously rejected drug testing policy has only been raised now because the LNP government has no new policy agenda following their surprise election win.

So it's back to the future. Similarly, it is no coincidence that it has been raised now when anyone with any sense is talking and worrying about our flagging economy.

Talk about the masters of distraction. No plans for the economy or our future, just a bag full of old rejects to be dusted off and trotted out again. Wake up Australia.

I hope Ministers, all politicians, their advisers, office staff and lobbyists will be subjected to random drug and alcohol testing in their work environments - Parliament House and electoral offices. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Finbar O'Mallon's article, "Rezoning plan would allow cattle to graze" (September 3, p6) does tell a sorry story, but not quite all. In addition is the fact that E3 zoning has been removed completely from the planning toolkit available to Eurobodalla Shire.

This provides for the protection of "areas of special ecological, scientific and cultural or aesthetic attributes".

No other provision exists for such attributes. This was a deliberate goal set early on by the steering committee, some six years ago, and the decision to do so was flaunted in a press release by the current Mayor, (and steering committee member) councillor Liz Innes.

Other councils haven't seen any need to do so: why Eurobodalla? Such areas represent an irreplaceable inheritance to be passed on to the future; not mourned as in having "passed on".

While the pavers are again lifting dangerously from maintenance work done two years ago at, I believe, a six figure amount, at Charnwood Shops, the Barr government have announced upgraded facilities for Fraser and Dunlop shops.

There have been reports of people face planting on the Charnwood undulations, some needing medical assistance.

Fraser consists of a tavern and Chinese takeaway while Dunlop consists of a regional-sized Woolies store.

Labor and the Greens are on the ball again.

I had a wry smile at the accuracy of the letters from Robyn Saunders and D Edwards (Letters, September 2 and 6 respectively) about the peculiar yellow park opposite Cooleman Court.

I had found it to be a handy refuge though to avoid the inevitable passive smoking at the bus stop directly across the road, when my bus had departed without me.

With most (but not all) bus services now having been moved 250 metres around the corner, I find I have now resumed passive smoking in the more utilitarian, but enhanced, Cooleman Court Bus Station with its solitary south facing shelter.

These enhanced arrangements include the added spectacle of intending travellers trudging around or through the Cooleman Court southern car park, which must be the most pedestrian unfriendly environment in the ACT. Most make it unscathed and then get to decipher the tiny print on the posted bus schedule before the challenge of selecting the most suitable ride from the incoming menagerie of buses. I look forward to the yellow park and the new bus station earning design awards at some stage.

As a member of GetUp, I want to protest vigorously against Mr Morrison and his Liberal and National Party for again attacking this group of ordinary Australians who are grouping together to make their voices heard.

Here he goes again telling Australians what he thinks they are sick of. He offers no evidence of his description of GetUp, or indeed of any of the ugliness he throws at us.

Australians are not a group of homogeneous images of Morrison but have their own opinions. Some may be sick of GetUp (particularly those who have been exposed in its investigations) but there are at least one million Australians who are not.

Liberal MP Nicolle Flint has said "They are a front for Labor and the Greens," without quoting any evidence. She said "the government should consider a move to register GetUp as a political party to ensure accountability and transparency ".

"Accountability and transparency" are likely to be absent from political life in Australia until this government is gone.

Re Douglas Mackenzie on recycling (Letters, September 10).

I no longer put my bins out until 7am or daylight on the morning of collection. I don't have a lot so there's a lot of empty space.

But mine is all correctly sorted and washed in the water when I've finished hand washing my dishes. Even boxes that have had crumbed food items.

Unknown neighbours deposit their mixed stuff such as pizza boxes with half eaten food inside, half full bottles of sour milk, garden waste, dog faeces and hunks of just about everything.

If it's close by neighbours, then I do not want to know them but I do not want to seem like a recluse.

Doug Steley asks "will... religious freedom laws prevent people from mocking the Bible?" (Letters, September 9).

Much as I dislike people disrespecting the scriptures, this is not a matter for law.

The laws should deter people from harming others of different beliefs.

There are many in our midst who have experienced such harm in their country of origin.

They should feel safe here.

My sentiments exactly Bishop Pat (Letters, September 9). Our PM should acquaint himself with Matthew, chapter 25, verse 36: "I was a stranger in a stranger in a strange land and you welcomed me''.

On Q&A Zed Seselja defended drug testing of welfare recipients on the grounds drug taking is illegal.

So it is. Will he now take the same stance on any Catholic priests who criminally refuse to report illegality disclosed in the confessional, and who criminally incite others to follow suit?

The Federal Government has rebirthed its contentious plan to drug test welfare recipients.

This is interesting timing given an ACT government minister, Chris Steel, is trying to legalise marijuana in the territory.

Why did Doctor Eve Vincent ("Cashless welfare shames, stigmatizes," September 10, p9) in establishing that people felt insulted, punished and degraded, not also ask people if they found the card had helped them get off drugs or to consume less alcohol. A lost opportunity.

If "virtue signalling" (Roger Dace, Letters, September 2) means I am happy to be identified as someone opposed to public exhortations to violence against women, then I plead guilty. What is Roger signalling? That he agrees with Jones's call for Morrison to "shove a sock down" Adern's throat?

Could Heather Nash (Letters, September 6) in her attack on good Labor Parliamentarians, Keneally, Wong and Plibersek define her term "virtue signalling" and provide some examples?

I'm not sure if there's a set period for Anthony Albanese's honeymoon as Labor leader but, apart from seeming to be at ease in sinking a few beers, he's starting to look disappointing, mainly by default.

If anybody is travelling to London, could they please drop off a bottle of Brylcreem, plus a comb, to No.10.

Don't get me wrong, I love Cathy Wilcox's work. But I hope David Pope and Pat Campbell have not been sent to Coventry.

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