One in five homeless people seeking assistance are being turned away from vital, emergency accommodation services.  In modern Australia, these statistics are alarming and there is a lot of work to be done to fix this.  Homeless Person’s week raises awareness of these figures in the hopes of gaining support for this significant issue.

After 25 years of working with homeless youth, I have witnessed first-hand, the troubles that these people go through at such a young age.  For the third year in a row, at Youth Off The Streets we will be running our Lace It Up Campaign to raise awareness and funds for these disadvantaged youth.

As part of the campaign we are asking people to swap out their current shoelaces for our blue, #LaceItUp shoelaces.  The idea behind the campaign is that the dangers of living on the street are so prevalent that kids living on the street often do not have the luxury of taking their shoes off before going to sleep; they must be ready to move at any moment.

Swapping laces during Homeless Person’s Week is a small gesture that can provide vital funding for our homelessness programs. 

Father Chris Riley, Youth Off The Streets

With the Baird government’s ban on greyhound racing, many country showgrounds will change their identity to whatever developments take their place.

The gallops, harness and greyhound racing have either combined or separately distributed much of their hard-earned funding towards improvements at many showgrounds across our great state.

Most showgrounds also combine other activities such as rodeos and gymkhanas, which give great pleasure and enjoyment to both participants and spectators, and also more funding to assist with employment.

The character and development of country people from children to adulthood is so different to city folk. Our upbringing on farms and country towns is the character building of who we are, and a lot of this occurs at showgrounds.

The annual country show is an arena of pride and joy for so many, yet so varied from show ring events to side show alley, with all forms of entertainment for young and old.

To prepare our array of animals for show and events takes a lifetime of time and devotion, it is all part of the character building of country children and adults.

All of the above goes on display at Sydney’s Royal Easter Show and the effort to travel and produce these wonderful animals at great expense contributes to the economy far and wide across our state.

The ban on greyhound racing is the thin edge of the wedge leading to showground closures across the state. The result of showground closures will encourage more of our youth to go to the big cities to gain employment.

Tony Callaghan, Kearsley

Some media outlets and several of my more cynical friends are denigrating PM Turnbull for rolling-over to the more conservative factions when not recommending former-PM Rudd for the office of UN Secretary General.

How quickly we forget. The Labor Party itself torpedoed Rudd's candidacy when Rudd campaigned against then-PM Gillard.  "Dysfunctional," "paralysis," "psychopath," "narcissist," "sabotage," "chaotic," ... "unfit" ... a very few of Labor's own accusations against Rudd.

An ancient wise man is reported to have said, "As you sow, so shall you reap."  )Paul, Galatians 6:7)  Let's refrain from blaming Turnbull for something Labor brought on itself.

Judy Bamberger, O'Connor