Some charities have not always respected donors by holding back and giving sparingly to those in need so they can use the excess for other projects. Years ago people opened their hearts and purses to the now defunct Freedom from Hunger and Unicef charities. Little did they know that Peter Huxley, a Rural Bank boss, was helping himself to millions. He was jailed for nine years.

One of the best known charities, Oxfam, was accused of covering up an investigation concerning the hiring of sex workers for orgies by staff in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. Four of their staff were sacked while others including the country director were given the choice of resigning.

Charities must be scrutinised regularly to make sure they are doing the right thing.

While I am not suggesting anything untoward from the Newcastle earthquake charity, I will point out Novocastrian Jennifer Matthews has suffered with health issues since the Newcastle earthquake ('Aftershock', Newcastle Herald, 27/1). If money is there, why can't she be assisted by the former Lord Mayor's Earthquake Appeal rather than funds go to other charities?

DR Fiona Mueller from the Centre for Independent Studies blames a "waffled, overstuffed Australian curriculum" as the reason for our children's alleged "shame" at the latest NAPLAN and PISA results ('Human cost of failing the education test', Herald, 28/1). Others like to blame our incapable 'leftist' teachers and their union (the inference is only those in the public system of course), while others blame parents and even the kids themselves.

However, late last year our ABC discovered that "Australia's four richest schools spent more on new facilities and renovations than the poorest 1800 schools combined". Add that to the fact that the federal Coalition government sends 80 per cent of its education budget to non-government schools and the measly leftovers to the government system and you have the recipe for the alleged testing result disaster.

Looks like we can blame the curriculum, the teachers, the unions, the parents and even the kids themselves - but don't dare question the funding system that underpins education in Australia.

I AM an avid reader of the Herald opinion pages, especially the last two months. The answer to all our problems (by a huge majority might I add) is clear.

Firstly, Scott Morrison should be sent on permanent paid leave. Despite Scott Morrison being the devil incarnate and doing such a terrible job, your writers think he should not have gone on holiday when clearly that would have been the best thing to stop him destroying the country. I am stunned by your contributors' detailed knowledge of the reasoning and motivations of a person I doubt they ever met.

In addition I can only remember just one of your daily cartoons that did not lampoon and caricature Scott Morrison - unfortunately he would be out of work should Mr Morrison depart. But hey this is a Newcastle paper after all.

Secondly, close all the coalmines down tomorrow, let's not worry about how hospitals work without power etc.

These two steps would also clear your opinion pages for others who might be more closely connected with reality at least for a short period or until your regular contributors find something else negative to write in about. I advise those people that it takes no effort to stand idly on the sidelines and criticise and postulate the cases of failure and denigrate those who dare to have a different opinion. There are plenty of you. What we need are people with solutions and the ability to implement them.

It's so much easier to suggest solutions or where we go wrong when you don't know too much about the problem.

THE death of Monty Python's Terry Jones last week revived many memories of the group's work. For me, one was a scene from The Life of Brian in which Brian implores the fawning and adoring crowd to think for themselves. "You're all individuals," he pleads. "Yes! We're all individuals!" the crowd responds as one.

Which brings me to Australia Day. My attitude has changed over the years. I did once find ways to participate, without really understanding what it was I was celebrating. I then became indifferent, and I now find I dislike the occasion more each year. Many, no doubt, would find such an admission "unpatriotic". So be it. I simply find the glib, shallow jingoism of the day meaningless, and the group-think which abounds stifling.

No such qualms for Scott Morrison. Nothing less than full-throated declarations from our Prime Minister in his Australia Day message (SMH, 26/1), headlined by the sweeping statement that Australia is the "best country in the world". A statement which reveals nothing more than the insecurity which lies behind the making of it.

There is much to be thankful for, and even proud about our country, and so there is some cause to pause and reflect on those things. But we should also reflect on the fact that it could just as easily be said that Australia was founded on a crime, built on theft, and is now sustained by lies.

WHILE linking climate change denial to what, in wartime, might be considered treasonous may be a bit of an overreach, Michael Hinchey (Letters, 26/1) raises an interesting question: why are the few climate change deniers in this region given space in the Herald letters pages?

Is it a free speech issue? Do we just happen to have a few deniers who are willing to openly declare themselves? I don't see letters from climate change deniers in the Sydney Morning Herald. Is it SMH editorial policy not to give them space, or are denial letters submitted to the SMH deemed not to be particularly interesting and not warranting publication?

Perhaps if that simple test was applied here we would not see any more denial letters published. At another level, we do not see the publication of letters in favour of smoking, asbestos, DDT or thalidomide. Surely, like climate change, there are still a handful of people out there who see nothing wrong with these?

Perhaps the difference is that in those cases governments were willing to take positive action to prevent or limit their harmful impacts. If only this inept government would do something positive in respect to climate change. That in itself might discourage our deniers from attempting to air their views.

IN saying in true bogan form that "Indigenous people have a chip on their shoulder about this Invasion Day thing" or similar words, one wonders if Pauline Hanson has a potato chip embedded in her brain from her old chip shop days. No Pauline, it's not a chip, it's a great big chunk of ironbark on the shoulders of our Indigenous Aussies regarding wrongs done to them in the past, and rightly so.

WITH the bushfire crisis still happening, responsibility is a word in motion. There are two main areas of responsibility. Firstly it is the primary responsibility of an elected government of any country to do the right thing by all its citizens; secondly, it is the primary responsibility of every citizen of every country to stand up against their government if they are not doing the right thing.

I ENJOYED Paul Scott's article ('Hazy as a middle-aged fan on lunatic soup', Newcastle Herald, 27/1) and his memories of "those magic times of the guaranteed long weekend in January". In my view Australia Day should be celebrated on the last Sunday in January with a public holiday Monday. Australians all let us rejoice.

POLITICAL point scoring aside, I would think the majority of Newcastle ratepayers would agree with the independent councillors that a "planning workshop" weekend at a luxury resort in Port Stephens is a waste of money ('Council meeting split', Herald, 28/1). And if it is necessary to stage such a workshop "away from the workplace", why isn't that money being spent within Newcastle?

GRAHAM Boyd (Letters, 27/1) wants voters to get rid of the federal government and doesn't care who else we vote for. Some political analysts suggest that to unseat a government at an election, the opposition leader has to be both charismatic and articulate. I'm afraid that Labor's Anthony Albanese doesn't quite fit into that category, so it's going to be a battle for him. When Mr Boyd claims our government is corrupt, lying and neo-fascist, I doubt he has a shred of evidence to back it up.

GRAHAM Boyd (Letters, 27/1) you certainly have a way with words and have described this government to a tee, their ineptness has been on show for all to see as they fumbled, stumbled and desperately searched for something intelligent to say as we struggle through a merciless drought topped of by severe bushfires, now that they can no longer just revert to blaming everything on the opposition.

GARY Robinson (Short Takes, 27/1): I think any reasonable person would expect a thorough examination into the sports rorts scandal that you allude to in your comment. Even the Prime Minister has referred the matter to be investigated. You are right about one thing, internationally we are looking like a joke.