Women play a significant role in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and this NAIDOC week we are asked to reflect on their contribution to the growth and development of our country.

For at least 65,000 years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have carried dreaming stories, song lines, languages and knowledge. In more recent times, they have been there at the forefront of major turning points in Australian culture and history. From the Torres Strait Pearlers strike in 1936, to the 1967 Referendum - which included Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples in population figures – to more modern issues such as the 2008 apology, Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander women have been a driving force for Aboriginal rights.

Having strong female role models is absolutely crucial to helping young people grow, not only is it important for young women, but young men draw so much from mothers, grandmothers, aunties and friends. Across my organisation, Youth Off The Streets, we have female staff in every program who contribute enormous amounts to bettering the lives of young people.

We have so much to learn from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their culture. There are many inspiring stories from women on the NAIDOC week website at: www.naidoc.org.au. This NAIDOC week I ask you to reflect on the theme of ‘because of her, we can’ and think about how important women have been in supporting you and your community.

Well another seat warmer gone from the Labor Party. Jenny Macklin made a great career doing nothing and living off the tax payer. Can't wait for a few more to go on all sides of Parliament.

So now we have, at last, a small insight into the motza monetary kick-back involved in Coles’ and Woollies’ new-found status as eco-warriors (“Big bonanza from bags”, Daily Advertiser, July 5), at least as far as one relatively benign type of degradable plastic is concerned anyway.

QUT Professor Gary Mortimer has calculated a total per annum rake-in of about $250 million extra, by the two grocery behemoths, just by ridding themselves (“themselves” – not the planet) of so-called one-use bags. 

Plus, one presumes that bag cost was already factored into item pricing so they’ll keep that little bonus too – oh, and charge us to buy thicker bin-liners and doggy-dropping bags to replace “single use” bags: another few hundred gorillas per year at least. Good news for shareholders!

Prof Mortimer’s research had to rely on Googling a lot of his costings because the “big two” steadfastly refuse to tell anyone at all how much profit they make on bags.

They could start regaining trust by openly showing that all of the profit from this nanny-state exercise is being donated to grass-roots (not bureaucratic quangos) environmental groups; that’s what all the brouhaha is about, isn’t it?