Why do we have a tiny segment of our population totally reliant, generation by generation, on taxpayers for all of their needs? Why must we endure lectures about how uncaring -- indeed, callous in the most racist way -- are their fellow citizens? What we don't see is the embrace of the most basic responsibility to gain an education and become proudly self-reliant

When the next Sorry Day rolls around, it should be Aboriginal people saying sorry. Sorry for not being thankful for what European settlers have done on their behalf. Sorry for not appreciating the educational, housing and health services freely supplied. Sorry for accepting preference in health services and employment opportunities. Sorry for constantly expecting help and hand-outs not available to other Australians

To the rabble-rousers wanting to insert race into the Constitution, stop lamenting your self-imposed poverty, show a bit of enterprise and become self-sufficient. More than that, filter your ancient culture to keep the good bits while discarding the violence, misogyny, clan feuds and humbugging. Make those changes and you'll have no need of a Voice

Aboriginal culture when Europeans settled our wide brown land, and as it persists in remote settlements, was and remains a vile, dominating, patriarchal ethos that, among its other ills, condemns women and children to physical and sexual abuse by older men. Before we start tampering with the Constitution, let our so-called leaders find the courage to acknowledge the truth and act accordingly

The Aborigine with the white locks and flowing beard stopped, stared at me and said, 'Did you ever play rugby at Leeton?' I replied in the affirmative and he went on to ask, 'Do you remember Harry Penrith?' Of course I did, I replied, recalling the fleet-footed fly-half of my youth. 'Well that was me,' said the activist whose guiding principle held that colour-blind decency is the greatest force for good

Governments need to stop hindering productive enterprises and rekindle the flame our potential. Our nation today is a shadow of the spirit that characterised our early settlers and was boldly echoed by the instigators of, amongst other initiatives, the Snowy Mountain Scheme. Do we still have the will and wit to succeed?

Are we are witnessing a growing revulsion at the fecklessness of the two major parties, a loss of faith in their capacity to govern for the common good? It seems to me that is the case, and I wonder how future governments will placate a restive electorate when the chickens of today's spendthrift profligacy come home to roost

Not everyone will concur that all water licenses presently held by the Commonwealth and speculators should be sold only to active irrigators, as this open letter to the PM suggests. But there can be no disagreement that the current management of the Murray-Darling is a dreadful mess. Here is one man's vision of how it might be set right

The Federal Water Act of 2007 spawned an unnecessary federal bureaucracy, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, manned by over 400 inexperienced and water-unaware people implementing only one directive: to return water to 'the environment.' As an example of well-intentioned stupidity it has no equal in the entire history of environmental mismanagement