The first young man is in his early 20s and his addiction stops him from looking for employment as, if he were to find a job he would no longer have time to pursue his addiction. I know that he has been able to apply for, and receive, Newstart payments but because he will not go and apply for jobs his payments are eventually cut off, and rightly so.

IN OTHER NEWS:

How then does this young man exist? Through the love and generosity of his grandmother who supports him from her meagre Aged Person's Pension.

The second young man is in his mid 20s, and his story is similar with the exception that he will not even apply for Newstart because he knows that he would then have to apply for jobs etc, so he does not even want to try. This young man is supported by his mother from her payment as a single mother.

The sad part is that both of these young men are physically fit, mentally above average intelligence and yet are willing to "sponge" off others and see their lives slipping away one day after another.

I live in the country. I enjoy the peace and tranquility of country life. The cattle mooing, the sheep grazing and the beautiful clear sky showing the most amazing, uninterrupted sunsets. Then there is the unspoken joy of having acres and acres of your own land to do what you like. Yet reading the commentary around the drought in metropolitan papers, I would be left to think the current drought we face was caused by ourselves.

When I stop and look at our cities, how could anything be further from the truth. Horizon to horizon chimney stacks emit smoke, cars, trucks and buses pack the roads and at night there are so many lights are on, you can not see a star.

I would just hope before city people blame country people for climate change, they took the time to clean up their own act. If this drought was caused by climate change, let's be clear, it is because of the filth generated in our cities.

My daughter-in-law was unfortunate and fell down the stairs at the Gardens Medical Centre breaking several ribs. The ambulance attended and took her to Albury Base Hospital where she stayed the night. She had nothing but praise for the ambulance and emergency staff. I visited her and it looked like every ambulance in Albury was waiting there, and the emergency area was bursting.

The following day she had to call the ambulance again and was taken to Wodonga Hospital because Albury was full. It just reinforces what I have found for years at Albury Hospital, the staff are great but overworked and under-resourced. More funding is needed but our politicians lie to our faces and tell us everything is fine. In reality, the only reason it works is because staff go above and beyond to make a broken system work. To the emergency staff and ambos I say you are great but the government has shown they will not support you.