But  we cannot expect our PM, just like Tony Abbott, to be "the suppository of all wisdom" and we can forgive these little lapses because he is a dinkum Aussie who likes to wear baseball caps, eat meat pies and fish and chips and drink beer by the beach. What could be fairer than that.

And his Coalition partners have their own version of history with Senator Bridget McKenzie, supporting keeping January 26 as Australia Day because it was that day in 1788 that Captain Cook first set foot on land at Sydney Cove, not knowing apparently that Cook had been killed in Hawaii nine years before, in 1779.

They hardly need Barnaby Joyce's contribution to the history wars when historians of such calibre are running the country.

And of course those pesky Indigenous people complaining about Australia Day are being influenced by lefty academics and commos who know nothing about our glorious and peaceful colonisation of "terra nullius". They just don't know how well off they, ungrateful wretches.

Somebody by the name of Henry Parkes pointed out, in 1888 at the Centenary, that celebrating taking the land from the Aboriginal people, on that date would not be well accepted by them.

But what would he know.

Barry Stevens, Tura Beach

The last possible day to opt-out of the My Health Record system is Thursday this week (31/1/2019). After that, you will get a record whether you want one or not.

If you have a My Health Record, the information in it will be available to any Government agency that wants it, for any reason at all. That includes the ATO, Centrelink and law enforcement. The legislation also makes clear that your medical information can be provided to commercial third parties.

You have almost no ability to control who sees what. You cannot control what is recorded. With minor exceptions you cannot change or remove what has been recorded, even if it was uploaded without your consent.

Once you have a My Health Record, you cannot delete it, only "cancel" it. A cancelled record remains available to the Government. The Government says it will delete your record on request, but the sad fact is that they will probably not be able to.

This is not a party-political matter. Both sides of politics seem perfectly happy to put your sensitive medical information on the internet. The security is a nonsense; with hundreds of thousands of people authorised to look at it, anyone who wants it will be able to get it.

Get out while you still can. Search for "opt-out-my-health-record". If you discover (as thousands have) that a My Health Record has already been created for you without your knowledge or consent, cancel it. If you have children, opt them out too.

Karl Auer, Lochiel

There seems to be a lot of confusion about Labor’s proposal to stop cash refunds for franking credits for all except pensioners.

The facts are simple. Union controlled industry super funds are driving this because their members, on retirement, often withdraw their super as a lump sum and set up their own self-managed super fund (SMSF).

The union controlled industry funds view SMSFs as the enemy. These funds, that most salary earners contribute to, have enough tax liabilities so that the full value of franking credits is completely utilised and so they are immune to the proposed changes.

The union controlled industry super funds have Shorten dancing on a very short string using the false assumption that cash refunds favour those with very large SMSFs.

Labor fails to acknowledge Turnbull’s introduction of the Transfer Balance Cap of $1.6 million, which took effect from 1 July 2017.

As reported in the Financial Review on August 2, 2018 there has already been a $200 billion transfer from pension accounts into accumulation accounts, where the money is taxed at 15 per cent. There are no retired “wealthy” people obtaining “untaxed” superannuation payments.

Those likely to be hardest hit are the aspiring workers who have saved for a secure self-funded retirement, alleviating pressure on the government-funded age pension system. The franking credits proposal is a telling indictment on the unions, Shorten and the Labor Party.

Chris Young, Tura Beach

Apart from the disastrous bungling of the Darling River and Menindee Lakes by this Liberal/National State government, it seems that Andrew Constance, Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, and Premier Berejiklian have squandered more than $14 billion of our taxes on budget blowouts.

With most of the infrastructure projects planned for Sydney, such as WestConnex ($8.6 billion over budget), M12 motorway ($130 million over budget), Pacific Highway development ($1.2 billion over budget) and demolishing and rebuilding perfectly good sports stadiums ballooning to $2.2 billion, regional towns have been neglected and left begging for basic infrastructure.

Instead of wasting money on cost blowouts, delays, mismanagement and sheer incompetence $14 billion could have been spent on 10,922 more teachers or 12,217 more nurses statewide.

The Berejiklian Liberal/National government has been in power for eight years but Mr Constance will have represented Bega electorate for twenty years if he gets another term. Could someone please tell me what he has achieved?

Olwen Morris, Tura Beach