In his mid-80s and suffering indifferent health, Father Francis nevertheless made this trip for quite some time, demonstrating what a caring person he was.

My wife and I happened to be in Barellan visiting friends on one of the occasions Father Francis was there and we joined him for coffee afterwards, which was his normal practice before returning to Wagga.

I had met Father Francis a number of times prior to his retirement and always found him to be "a man of the people".

May he rest in peace.

The continuing frustration over the lack of support from both the Victorian and NSW governments for a new, modern hospital to serve the wider Border region is really no surprise.

With governments regarding Wagga as the NSW boundary (have you seen Wagga hospital) and Wangaratta as the Victorian boundary (lots of medical upgrades at Wangaratta) the area in between is a 'no-government health responsibility land'.

How the population votes should not affect providing such a vital service.

Having cleverly developed a cross-border health administration that has no real direct government influence, both governments can continue 'passing the buck' indefinitely, as the blame cannot be sheeted to either state.

At times like this we could do with the skill and expertise of the now long defunct Albury Wodonga Development Corporation where, despite some shortcomings, its officials really fought for and put the Border area on the map and firmly in the sights of both state and federal governments.

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In reference to the comments made by Donald Trump about Kevin Rudd it must be acknowledged the interview was with Nigel Farage.

It was Farage who falsely promoted Brexit and now we are seeing the demise of the British. It is Farage asking Trump leading questions to stir the democratic pot as Farage is after his own self interests; Trump's immediate response was to not even know who Rudd is. This is an absolute beef up.

George Brandis has publicly spoken about this issue in saying that the Australian ambassador must have bipartisan support otherwise it undermines the authority of that position and the ability of the Australian government of the day to voice its policy standings.

Therefore Barnaby Joyce is again exhibiting his lack of respect for our government and our country. If the Liberal and National party coalition do not condemn his theatrically political point scoring denunciation of the ambassador then again it proves the Coalition has no respect for our institutional norms.

This has been demonstrated many times by Morrison's secret multi-portfolio self-appointments, robodebt, the lies they spun in the Voice referendum, the unabashed lie to the French over the submarines, the Howard lie of the Iraq war, the lies of kids overboard.

These are all sackable offences under the Westminster system, a 700-year-old system, but it now appears our elected politicians can, and will, say anything to save their own necks and income. This is pertinent to the current Coalition, vote independents.

In the last 25 years since 1999 Labor has governed Victoria for 21 of those years whilst the Liberal Party/National Party has only governed for four years which was from 2010 until 2014.

In Victoria's mid-year government financial report now released, it showed government debt in Victoria has ballooned to $126 billion. Victorian taxpayers are now paying around $24 million each day on interest to cover Labor's debt.

The government's own report found the state's debt could increase to as high as $247.2 billion in three years' time in 2027 which is just after the next state election. Daily interest will then be $33 million per day. This debt will be double the debt of NSW.

Earlier this year the Victorian ombudsman criticised the state government for not having a plan to reduce the state's debt.The Victorian Labor government has acted recklessly and selfishly by overspending which means future governments in the next 15 years will not have any spare cash to implement their own programs.

If our children or grandchildren acted so selfishly and irresponsibly we would address the problem.This has been an abuse of power.

Recently thousands of Victorians received a bill from the Victorian government for land tax. These land tax bills have increased dramatically. Most of the people paying land tax are not rich.They are only trying to get ahead and support themselves in retirement.

The Victorian government has abused their power because they could.