I would like to know if as Dr Greg Mewett states, there will always be a small minority (of people) whose suffering cannot be relieved when, in a democracy, the minority rules?

Also, I have heard that in Oregon where this law has been passed, they are trying to extend it to mental illness and depression. Is this correct?

I am a great grandmother and consider I have a little wisdom. I don’t have a problem with an individual choosing to end their life but believe it would be very dangerous when other people (even doctors) come into it.

Anglicans have often been relieved to be trailing in the religious disgrace stakes but in opposing marriage equality we are neck and neck with the front runners. Reports of $1 million donated by the Anglican diocese of Sydney toward the “No” campaign could prove an investment in an urgent review of the financial exemptions and benefits currently enjoyed by religious institutions that have lost touch with contemporary Australian values. 

When I wipe a stranger’s spit from my face I understand it as a natural reaction to clerical abuse and the institutional failures and brutality with which it has treated vulnerable people. Similarly there will be inevitable cynicism about donations from institutions deriving financial benefits from the public purse toward policies that compromise community outcomes. 

We expect the collection plate to help the homeless, to feed the hungry and to welcome the stranger but when it is donated to make refugees out of children in our own families and faith traditions to support prejudice that destroys human life and frustrates human rights, it looks like the church's traditional navigation system has crashed again as when it opposed the abolition of slavery, votes for women and a number of other wrong turns in history.

Complaints fell on deaf ears when they closed the West End Plaza branch of the Hume Bank. Now myself and many retirees try not to use the unfriendly space centre in Olive Street that reminds you of a Bar in Bondi Junction. They tell me the new Wodonga branch is built the same.

Ater all the support people have given the Hume Bank since day one, it has treated them with total disrespect and no consultation. Whoever is running your show better be ready for a big financial loss this year.

What a sad situation we find ourselves in on the Border, with Wodonga leading Victoria for disconnections of power and water. This issue is not going to go away and I actually dread to think how much worse things are going to get.

Even middle-class Australians are now feeling the pinch, which only leaves me to wonder how on Earth the battlers are coping. I can’t imagine the kinds of stress this must be causing some households.

One thing is for sure, we can hardly continue to call ourselves the lucky country when so many of us are seriously battling to pay our power bill.