Guess what, few people know about this and fewer particularly politicians and bureaucrats care. Bet none of their grandparents will ever have this problem with all their lurks, perks and pensions 10 times larger than the rest of us.

The emotional and financial load is horrendous particularly if you have a number of grandchildren. It is particularly tough if you are not young anymore.

A lot of these children come with emotional and behavioural baggage that you get little assistance to turn around.

Most people I have dealt with have little hands on experience and most advice comes from text books or online gurus who are completely divorced from real life.

Sure you get a small amount of family assistance to cover the cost of living, like food and clothing, but there is a big shortage in the amount needed to raise a child properly to become a productive contributing citizen.

I am an avid reader and watcher of all media and know where this issue is mentioned. It is certainly never mentioned in political platforms or debates.

If you want to do something about this issue write to the PM, premier and any politician you can and get it put on their agendas. One thing politicians hate particularly leading to elections is bad publicity. So let’s give them some.

Just in closing I would like to thank all the staff of both Bega Centrelink and FACS. Not only super professionals, but more importantly super people who have gone above and beyond.

Message to all politicians it was us older Australians who through blood sweat and tears built the lucky country.

Start giving us the respect and help we earned - you owe us bigtime.

Name withheld on request 

No-one knows how many pure blooded dingos there are in South East Australia, but if habitat destruction and hybridisation hasn’t made the remaining few of this vulnerable species extinct the Federal Wild Dog Elimination Plan surely will.

Death by shooting, trapping, poisoning to kill any dingo, wild dog, or domestic dog the farmer believes to be threatening his livestock is the aim of the expensive, coordinated programme.

The advice of ecologists, naturalists, conservationists will be ignored until it’s too late and even then we will not know for sure how many of these iconic animals have been killed.

The modern, scientific view is that increasing dingo numbers is essential to protect what little biodiversity remains. 

Sad enough if it’s your pet dog that has been “eliminated”, but the government plan could result in the end of the iconic dingo as it joins the long list of native animal extinctions.

There is still some controversy over whether the dingo should be recognised a “native” even though it has survived in Australia for an estimated 4000 years, has special cultural significance to Indigenous Australian people, and has adapted to the environment in ways that makes it behaviourally and physically unique.

The Animal Justice Party has listed among its key objectives:

For more information on dingoes contact the Dingo Conservation Society.

Susan Cruttenden, Dalmeny