The report confirms that lengthy school closures, created many social and educational problems, especially for disadvantaged students.

These manifested themselves in ways, including high truancy rates, and classroom discipline and distraction.

Problems such as these impact on teachers and parents, as well as students themselves.

However, I can't help thinking of children in war-torn countries such as Ukraine and Gaza, who live in conditions beyond our imagination.

They often don't even get the opportunity to attend a school of any kind.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no end to the current, long period of madness in our world.

Congratulations to the councillors of Orange City Council for the courage to pass the motion, proposed by Cr Frances Kinghorne, for an independent review in relation to the Lords Place development.

The ratepayers and the business owners deserve to find out the truth in relation to the failed development.

All along, I have held some sneaking suspicions ... but I may be wrong. Hopefully, the independent review will provide the answer.

It is essential that the findings of the review be made public. If not, it will be an insult to the ratepayers and business owners.

Corporate boards must include at least one director with "some real health and safety knowledge" because they frequently make decisions with significant WHS implications, according to University of NSW Emeritus Professor of Management, Michael Quinlan.

For large organisations, having someone with health and safety expertise on the board is "just as important as managing financial risk because they overlap; if you have major health and safety incidents, that's a huge financial risk," Professor Quinlan said.

He also observed that boards are rarely (if ever) faced with the risk of prosecution over a WHS incident.

Rather, senior managers are more likely to face prosecution in such circumstances, according to Professor Quinlan, who said it would take a significant prosecution for things to change for corporate boards.

"The first time a director of an organisation is dragged up through the courts and charged with industrial manslaughter will cause a sea change," Professor Quinlan said, whose primary expertise is the field of OHS and risk, focusing on work organisation, management, and regulation.

"Punitive action is not the be-all and end-all, but unfortunately, it seems like you do need it in some cases for people to be aware of their responsibilities."If you're a board director, you absolutely have responsibility for the financial decisions that that organisation makes, and it should be the same with health and safety."

(Source: Australian Inst. of Health & Safety[AIHS], Feb 2024).

As someone who grew up in and loves regional Australia, I too want to keep Australians safe from the ravages of floods and fires ("Us survivors are fed up with shock jocks" 26/2).

I'd also like all 1900 threatened species of our beautiful flora and fauna to survive and thrive.

In this context, like Jo Dodds, I also find misinformation that threatens the rollout of renewable energy, the most credible solution to the climate challenge, extremely disappointing.

There are examples across Australia of communities making themselves more resilient by installing wind turbines, solar and/or batteries that provide reliable, safe and cheap energy without polluting the local air and environment like fossil fuel energy sources do.

Hosting renewable energy is also an opportunity for land owners to have a diversified, drought-proof source of income.

Working together on solutions beats negative fear campaigns every time.