Sadly, Betty passed away on Friday, June 3, just shy of her 89th birthday.

For five-and-a-half years the staff at Hillgrove House attended to her needs with loving care, respect and great skill.

The kindness they showed to Betty was extended to myself on my daily visits and to my four daughters and extended family during their frequent visits.

I would like to thank the staff and volunteers of Hillgrove House and Dr Mark Oatley for the wonderful care provided to Betty.

Betty’s life was joyfully celebrated at Bega Uniting Church on Tuesday, June 7.

The Bega Valley is very fortunate to have an aged care facility that is well managed, provides quality care and is developing its facilities and services for the future needs of this population.

The State Liberal Government is now attacking public education in prisons!

As an education officer with both NSW and ACT Corrections for many years, I have seen the value of having well-qualified and committed teachers employed by TAFE and Corrective Services, working with the many under-educated inmates, many of whom discover for the first time, that they can!

Consequently, many chose to continue with TAFE once released and that obviously impacts on recidivism. 

Sadly, like so many of our public services, this pathway has already been demolished by the policies of the Liberal Party.

Public education delivers quality training to widely established national standards, recognised by employers and which therefore encourages many of them to give jobs to released prisoners. 

We have already seen the fiasco of this Liberal Government's privatisation of public education where the service is driven by profit.

We have witnessed the slow disintegration of TAFE. Gonski Gone! So, with “public” obviously a bad word (not only in education),  just who is the Liberal Party servicing? 

It certainly does not appear to be  us!

All of the items we buy have got their carbon footprint, as well as the fuel we use for our cars, the waste we produce and so on.

Instead of waiting for our politicians to make decisions for the next century, we ourselves can act now.

Apart from the choice of what to eat, we also have the choice of what and how much we buy, print, drive, heat, throw away.

Re-using, reducing and recycling are great. Avoiding waste and leaving fossil fuels in the ground are the best solutions.

Our vote is our power. It could achieve even faster and better solutions to counteract climate change.

Having lived along the coast from Moruya to Bega with many friends along the way and not seeing those town’s local papers, I must strongly agree with Dick Robert (BDN, 21/6) in my disappointment in ABC South East no longer broadcasting funeral notices.

I understand that a new management has a “new broom” and all that, but it seems a most unpopular decision being made by those new to the area.

A decision that certainly would not have helped our new presenter, Simon Lauder, starting his new role.

Being told that ours was the last regional station to broadcast the funeral notices does not seem like a reasonable decision.

Maybe the other regional stations should reprogram them, being what listeners want to hear.