How many more of these abused and broken people are to be allowed to die, often by their own hands, as they wait to be helped financially to rebuild their lives?

In my opinion if the federal government had any heart, the solution is easy and clear.

The government grants most of the offending groups billions of taxpayer dollars each year.

All the offending bodies should be advised by the government that it will process the thousands of applications for compensation as set out in the report and deduct the payout funds from the billions the government pays them each year.

All it would require is a ledger to be created for each group and as the settlements flowed a debit would be created against the annual grants.

This would mean the abused could get some peace and the churches just having to adjust their programs, but not have to put up the money.

The suffering of those abused cannot be imagined. I was raised in an orphanage and am forever thankful for the care given to me by the nuns.

I have a friend whose boy was brutally abused in a flash private school. His life was nothing, but history of mental and physical ill health with the usual reliance on drugs to help forget.

Prime Minister, you profess that your Christian faith guides you.

Please extend the same charity and compassion that was given to me by the nuns to ensure organisations pay out these claims and allow these desperate people peace.

IT was interesting to see that Prime Minister Morrison is supporting Donald Trump in his current war of words with Iran ('Talk of Iran action 'premature', Newcastle Herald, 29/6).

Here's hoping that verbal support does not lead to any support from Australia's armed forces.

Australia has supported the United States in a number of conflicts since the end of the second World War, all of which through the application of military and political incompetence have ended in various grades of military defeat and political humiliation for all countries that participated in these so-called minor conflicts.

I would have to say that under the somewhat erratic leadership of the current US president that any potential conflict in or with Iran is likely to end up the same way.

Given that Iran is a major supplier of oil, it is possible that China may also become embroiled in this potential conflict.

So what if any advantage could Australia gain from being involved in any potential military conflict in the Persian Gulf area? The answer is none.

If Mr Morrison follows former Liberal Party heroes such as Menzies, who took Australia to Vietnam in 1962, or Howard, who meekly followed George W. Bush into Iraq in 2004, Australia will end up going down the same path again.

Here's hoping that wiser voices and influences will guide the decision-making processes concerning this matter inside the Canberra bubble.

WATCHING the American president Donald Trump ridiculously pout, pivot, pose and point this week on the North Korean border ('Trump meets Kim Jong-un in DMZ', Newcastle Herald 1/7) is like watching one of those movies in which the lead character is miraculously and randomly plucked from obscurity and deposited into a position of fame and power to which they are patently unsuited.

The only problem is that in this all too real movie, there is no Pygmalion effect and the character proceeds to confirm rather than exceed people's expectations.

In my opinion, Trump playing at being president still has shock value.

His presence in that office is such an affront to common sense and decency, I believe it defies rational thinking.

It pushes our face hard against the discomforting probability he is the inevitable product of a venal, lazy, selfish and ultimately doomed world.

The best we can do is hope the popcorn lasts until the credits roll, and that we will all get to leave the theatre alive.

DAVE Watson (Letters, 1/7) criticises Gladys Berejiklian for appointing parliamentary secretaries to support senior NSW government ministers and suggests that it is just another way of having their noses in the state's financial trough.

Actually, the Commonwealth and other state governments have similar appointments, although some are referred to as assistant ministers.

Mr Watson may be surprised to hear that it was Paul Keating who said in 1993, "The institution of parliamentary secretary provides a very inexpensive means not only of giving talented individuals executive experience but providing Ministers with needed support".

I believe that if State Labor leader, Jodi McKay, eventually becomes Premier of this State, she will earn and deserve a Parliamentary Secretary to assist her.

FREEDOM of religion and free speech are cherished in this country, but it appears they do as much harm as they do good.

Here is why I believe that: take freedom of religion and the Israel Folau furore.

The problem here is that it has not been designated precisely just what the freedom means, and some take it upon themselves to believe it gives them the right to say or do anything under their particular religion.

When that happens, it can breach other laws that also make this a great country, such as freedom from discrimination.

In my opinion, Folau has discriminated against a section of the public.

It is the same section of the public recently subject at great expense to a plebiscite that decided they should be treated no different to any other person.

The question I ask is, who should be protected under the law in this case?

Does one man's personal belief win out, or the rights of a young child who has been born transgender?