Who could forget the loving embrace from one of the two wheelchair athletes competing, as the other went into shock due to the “chopper” passing overhead. A flashback of time spent in Vietnam? Afghanistan?

Then we have our Prime Minister announcing a $500 million upgrade for the Australian War Memorial.

I am incensed (knowing of the upcoming federal election in a few months) that this “upgrade” we’re told has “bipartisan support” and “will better tell the stories of Australian servicemen and women in modern-day conflicts”.

My late father spent the years 1940-46 at war. He never spoke of his time in “service”, this has been the case with the vast majority of those who were fortunate enough to return home from war, I suggest.

Scomo  likened the War Memorial to the “soul of the nation”. This is typically a government telling the people what they want us to believe (vote catching).

I call on my fellow Australians to consider (demand) the long overdue services in caring for those who served.

Nothing else will offer the security and worth of one embrace.

WHILE Christians in Australia may feel somewhat under attack from progressives they should spare a thought and prayer for Christian mother of five Asia Bibi in Pakistan, who in 2009, was sentenced to hang on trumped-up blasphemy charges emanating from her drinking from the same cup as muslim co-workers.

She has spent nine years in a windowless cell. Last week the Supreme court acquitted her of any crime causing thousands of enraged Islamists to riot in the streets, with their leader vowing to "paralyse'' the country until she is killed.

Already two politicians who supported her have been assassinated, her lawyer has fled for his life and the three Supreme Court judges are also in peril. Let’s pray she can escape to a country where she will be safe and may it be a wake-up call for Australia to never allow such barbaric religious hatred to get a foothold in our country.

THE Australian Bureau of Statistics stopped collecting the number of Australians who don't have superannuation after 2014-15. I assume that was at the direction of the government - reason not given. Up-to-date statistics would be an insight into those living in poverty. Understanding how charity food distribution is struggling to copy with demand.

A man recalls the highest wage ever received was $78. He supported a family - no super. As expected from the old figures available women are the highest percentage of those without. Very high numbers of Tasmanians aged over 65 without.

Australia is a massive wealthy country. It has nearly every precious resource under and on top of the ground and sea. There is a deep reluctance when confronted with evidence. They turn a blind eye. There is a devastating culture in Canberra that refuses to act on pleas from well-respected organisations for relief for those in need.

TASMANIA may well be on the way to being the first state to remove gender from birth certificates. While this will address the discrimination faced by transgender people further amendments should be made to birth certificates to address the prejudice faced by the elderly in areas such as employment, access to services and social life.

Seniors should be allowed to remove a decade or two from their birth records. This will not only lower the average age of Tasmania’s population, but will lessen the need for more nursing homes and services for the elderly. People will access their pensions much later and will remain in the workforce to continue their contributions to the state. Flexible birth certificates will create a win-win situation.

PRESSURE to remove reference to gender on the birth certificate comes from those who seek to impose radical gender ideology on society. This ideology claims a person’s sexual identity depends on the sex they feel they are or would prefer to be, not on their anatomical makeup. Passing a law that requires  an important document to conform with this ideology is wrong. It normalises and gives credibility to the notion that a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthy. It is truly sad that those who experience confusion about their sexual identity can feel isolated and misunderstood, and this should be addressed, but not by tampering with the birth certificate data.

A BIRTH certificate is a legal document and the basis of identification; not to include a gender would be dangerous in this world of stolen identities. If baptism records are included the gender of a child has been recorded for many centuries. A legal process is required to officially change a name and this should also be required to officially change a gender, which should includes proof of gender reassignment. The suggestion that a person can legally claim that they are transgender is nothing but naïve and dangerous. 

A recent case in the UK involved a man, who was incarcerated in a woman’s prison as he claimed to be a self-identified female. He subsequently was found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting female prisoners.

Individualism has gone too far by those who wish to impose radical gender ideology on society. The tail is trying to wag the dog.