We could call it Thank You Day for the lavish supply of fresh food, vegetables and meat. Thank you for the doctors, hospitals, dentists and other health personnel. Thank you for teachers and free education for the young. Thank you for the free drinking water in the main street of Wagga and most parks and gardens.

We should also give thanks to our police force, which endeavours to maintain law and order but is hampered by a less than co-operative judicial system.

Finally, thank you to Centrelink. Those who have never contributed to the state or federal coffers should be eternally grateful. The taxpayer is a very generous donor.

With Australia Day almost upon us perhaps we should be reflecting on our history with our First Nations people. In 1770 Lt James Cook declared Australia terra nullis which was overturned by the High Court in 1992. However, the High Court accepted the British assertion of sovereignty in 1788 and held from that time there was only one sovereign power and one system of law in Australia.

Indeed our First Nation’s people, following white colonization on January 26, 1788, were badly treated and it was not until the 1967 referendum that they were allowed to vote. On May 26, 2017, the Uluru Statement from the Heart was released by delegates to an Aboriginal and Torres Straight Island Referendum Convention held near Uluru. The Uluru process, being the dialogues held with more than 1000 indigenous people across the nation, and the Uluru Convention, were historic in both scope and resulting unity.

Sadly, this historic statement was rejected by the federal government. So we may well ask how far have we come with our First Nations people in the last 230 years? On Saturday, January 26 let us reflect on this.

I read with amusement about the suggested name change for CSU.

Three years ago the University of Western Sydney (UWS) undertook a similar and pointless step and changed its name to Western Sydney University (WSU). The logic for this ridiculous name change can be found on the web.

It takes more than a name to make a university great. Great universities are great because of their academic standard, the quality of their academic staff and the cutting-edge research output. Great universities are well managed and well-funded.

By no standard can CSU be considered anything other than a bottom-level university. In the ranking of Australian Universities, CSU is ranked equal number 33, that is, at the bottom of all Australian Universities. On the world stage, CSU is ranked lower than 800.

The issue with CSU is not the name, but the academic standard, which flows from poor funding and poor management. 

CSU would do well to consider raising its academic standard and research output..