Kidney Health Australia does a great job educating the public about kidney disease, its treatment, support services and ways to lower your risk factors. There will be free blood pressure checks for anyone on Friday at The Bridge Plaza Batemans Bay. Please come along and see Brad and the team and learn about Kidney Health and organ donation.

After the recent fires, there has been the much appreciated community contributions to our Rural Fire Service.

There is no greater feeling for a brigade member than the feeling of service and community. The community must be sure their good will is finding the mark.

There is a  cloud over the telemarketing fundraising of the RFS.

Most brigade members are members of this association, but it appears we could well be used by a company structure employing the telemarketers, with the funds raised going into a company structure then being divided up. There are many unanswered questions.

Make sure your generosity finds the mark and donate directly to your local shed or to the people in yellow holding buckets.

On the eve of Mardi Gras, a reminder of the overwhelming joy expressed in Ireland when marriage equality became a reality.

It's well past time for our federal Parliament to get its act together and vote to end this discrimination.

Have a look at the banners that were being held up by the people and you'll see the word "EQUAL". That's what it's all about folks - equality. Surely that's not such a difficult concept to understand?

"Only those who have known discrimination, truly know its evil," said Noel Pearson.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly," said the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I  was really upset to see the swamp wallaby roadkill on our doorstep. Whoever had hit it had not even bothered to move the body onto the grass verge. 

I can understand that on the major highway,  roadkill is an inevitable consequence of our modern society and it may be dangerous to try to remove an animal from the roadway. But, in this instance, it was quite inexcusable in what is a driveway situation with good vision and regulated 50km speed.

I was a little angry at this state of affairs. I stopped my car and went back and pulled the deceased animal off the road. I also came back with a spade and shovel to bury it later.

I donned my Yuin black T-shirt that I bought some years ago as a statement of respect to the Yuin people and their spiritual and cultural beliefs. Their beliefs and culture underpin the principle of only taking from the earth as much as they need to nourish and survive.

In that context, it must be disappointing for Aboriginal Elders to see their own people occasionally letting their conservation standards slip by taking much more than they need – but worse to allegedly sell it illegally - such as in the recent abalone incident. Surely by taking more than "a feed for them and their family", they are not fulfilling their aboriginal culture and spirituality.