Flogging the assertion that our systems have never been hacked merely encouraged hackers to show their acumen and embarrass the government. They succeeded.

Now, the government, public, and media are pursuing a "witch hunt" (many media references), after which "heads will roll" (Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and many parliamentarians).

While IBM and ABS own responsibility for providing the system, the government owns funding it and ensuring all requirements are met. The first flies in the face of "productivity dividends" which expect Rolls Royce solutions for Corolla prices. 

The second results from the government maintaining insufficient internal IT systems expertise to oversee its own IT departments and contracts.

I doubt whether parliamentarian decision makers will lose their heads for insufficient funding, inappropriate monitoring, and wrongly unanticipated system needs.

Why was Census Minister Michael McCormack's office informed of the outage only at 8.10pm?  Why was he not part of "all hands on deck" actively monitoring this seminal event, versus returning to Parliament House only after at least four Denial of Service events, after several periods of system outages, after contact with ASD?

Pointing fingers and assigning blame before any investigation begins - "This has been a failure of the ABS." (PM Turnbull) and "one of the biggest shambles in government" (Opposition Leader Bill Shorten) - is a certain way for those with significant information to dive for cover.

Then, we'll never know.

It is with selfish sadness that we have farewelled Matt Schofield from our community. 

I had the opportunity to thank him and wish him ‘all the best’ over my back fence last Friday afternoon as he was loading his golf sticks into his vehicle ready for the trip north. 

Schoie has been a massive asset to our community for the past decade and the sportsgrounds, parks and gardens and streetscapes are certainly testament to the care and pride that he put into his work on a daily basis.  

I’m sure the time, effort and preparations he put into getting the playing surfaces ready for action most weekends through the year was well beyond his ‘paid’ hours.

This goes right across many sports including footy, soccer, touch, cricket and the racecourse. 

The condition of our grounds are often envied from outside of our community, something that Schoie and others can take a lot of credit for. 

I’m sure and hope that Schoie’s legacy will continue through the guidance he has given to the existing staff at the shire and we look forward to them following in his footsteps.

Thanks for all your hard work Schoie, and I wish you all the best as like the ‘Hayne Plane’ you follow your dream up north.

As an Ahmadiyya Muslim, I denounce killing of the elderly Priest in France in strongest possible terms.

I totally agree with Honorable Pope Francis that the world is at war not due to the religion but because of lust for power, money and resources.

Religion is there to establish peace in our society by uniting us on common grounds.

Our ways may be different but we worship the same God, creator of our universe.

Being a Muslim, it is a condition of my faith to believe in all previous prophets including Jesus and Moses and all previous books, including the Bible.