We, too, were one of the 1000 applications received and we, too, had our funding application (for $50,000) rejected, citing, that we could not support of application with enough evidence to support growing our employee base etc etc etc.

Bollocks. From two people 10 years ago to six people today. We might be small but we are viable and will still be roasting our international award winning specialty coffee in the years to come.

The funding would have allowed our business to invest in the next (necessary) module for our in-line packing machine, reduce our unit cost of production and increase our workforce relative to our size and growth.

Is that not modernisation manufacturing worthy?

The figures just don't add up. Knowing the application process alone cost my business 100+hours to research, prepare, gather costings, quotes, the list goes on, it certainly feels like a kick in the guts not to get a look in, "it's disgraceful, absolutely disgraceful"

We may be small, but we will fight on to ensure our business survives and our current employees have sustainable jobs for the future.

With the world in seeming economic ruins because of a lack of a vaccine for COVID-19, the idea that anti-vaxers, and in particular elite sports professionals, can refuse a flu vaccination on the grounds that they "wish to control what goes into their bodies" is the ignorant, arrogant statement of the sports privileged.

Try offering that consolation to the residents and staff at Newmarch, the passengers of various cruise ships, and the millions who have lost their jobs or lives, simply because there is no vaccine for COVID-19 and no matter how much they might wish it, had no control over the virus that went into their bodies.

Obviously these guys have never had to bury their babies, and with economic development set back a decade in the world's poorer countries, the manifest privilege is even more astonishing.

These guys should be sent off the field and sent home, with no apology and no compensation.

They should spend time contemplating just how privileged the sports world they live in is made possible because of the existence of widespread effective vaccination programs amongst not only their fans and supporters but the general population, and the extent to which their sport is even made possible because of general vaccination programs.

What sort of world do anti-vaxers want us to live in?

A world of permanent lockdown with exemptions for the sports privileged?

Polio, anyone?

We have lost more than a billion animals and it is time to reconsider all activity which will further harm the surviving animals.

More than 79 per cent of the Shoalhaven was burnt in the Currowan fire, and this small patch of unburnt forest is vital for maintaining the genetic pool of species both animal and plant.

If the government is serious about conserving our remaining biodiversity it should withdraw the development consent of this area in Manyana and pay the developer compensation.