The speech and the response may not be so important if it was being made in some country run by a small-scale dictator but this man is theoretically the most powerful leader in the world.

He may seem to be a joke, but if so he is a very bad joke.

Reading the letters in the Daily Advertiser, it makes you shake your head sometimes. We have a letter from Robert Walker from Wagga, Paul Bosman from Estella, A J East from Cootamundra and Mehreen Faruqi from the NSW Greens.

The DA web site states you have to state your address. We know the Greens are not real good at filling out forms but to try to get political points from sexual assault is a disgrace.

I don’t believe any party would condone sexual assault. But here we have the Greens making it political. I am shocked at how low will they stoop and amazed that people would vote for them.

The subject of same-sex marriage is something Labor keeps beating the Liberals over the head with, but it may soon be resolved.

Many Christians think it is wrong, that it is not what their version of God wants for us. Remember that Jesus spoke of one thing as being important and that is love. He did not say anything about who to love or how to love, He just said to love each other.

If two same-sex people love each other, why is this different to any body else’s love? (The apostle) Paul took over from Jesus’ teaching, but I still believe Christians should listen to the words of Jesus and allow love in whatever form to grow and unite us and not divide us.

The federal government's proposal to tackle illicit drug use through a drug-testing trial and changes to welfare activity requirements will have major consequences for people battling drug and alcohol addiction.

Changes being proposed will force around 5000 Newstart and Youth Allowance recipients to undergo drug testing and will subject them to a variety of restrictions if they test positive.

It’s simply not feasible that a program of this nature can operate effectively across Australia, due to the lack of accessible pathology and treatment services available. The trial’s design is skewed and unrepresentative. The government wants to trial the testing in sites where services are already available so it won’t inform any national program nor will it add to a meaningful evidence base of how drug testing works.

This measure will see the government essentially say to people who are facing extremely complex drug and alcohol addiction, “If you miss a job interview perhaps you are withdrawing or you are having a relapse, we are taking away your support”. In reality, it is applying a blunt instrument to a very complex problem. It won’t help these people and it won’t motivate them to seek treatment. 

More must be done to help people in accessing treatment and support. Doctors see the enormous damage caused by drug and alcohol addiction. We know that the majority of these patients are suffering from other issues, for example, trauma, domestic violence, mental health issues or homelessness. These measures don’t address those underlying problems. Taking payments away from these people will only cause even greater hardship.