To be sure, the new hospital in Bega, the South East Regional Hospital, was built in one long, painful episode. So, surprise surprise, we have a fib teller as Premier.

Sorry, but it only gets worse. Once our beautiful, state of the art facility opened, the house of cards began to fall. Underfunding since day one has caused havoc. Nurses and ancillary staff have quit in droves, mostly claiming extreme workloads and bullying as their reasons. Waiting times for surgery and emergency procedures have become even worse.

Even though the name of this facility is "South East Regional Hospital", it has been reclassified as "non regional"! The main result of this has been a 30% decrease in pay for Doctors!

Further, one of three orthopaedic surgeons found out his contract was not to be renewed only days before it's expiry. Needless to say, the other surgeons are under extreme workloads now. It remains to be seen how many of the other Doctors who work there will stay.

And worse again, senior management has "resigned" under pressure, and an Administrator has been appointed. We can't wait to see what this will result in.

Dear people of Griffith, be warned....be careful what you wish for! I'm sure that the vast majority of South East residents would agree with me; better the devil you know than the devil you don't.

Andrew McPherson, Bega Valley.

I reached the Sikh Temple at 7am to receive the NSW Premier and the cabinet. A lot of Griffith people including local MP Piccoli and Griffith Mayor Dal Broi also reached there. The Premier and the cabinet reached the Sikh Temple at 8am. There were formal speeches. Mr Piccoli and Dal Broi praised the contribution of the Sikhs in the life of Griffith and surrounding areas. Then all of us came down for breakfast.

When I was coming to the library some ladies were talking with the Health Minister Brad Hazzard near the Exies Club about the new hospital in Griffith. Mr Hazzard was listening to them attentively.

In the library I gave an interview about the problems of Griffith to the ABC Radio. I talked about the need of a new hospital a university and a crematorium in Griffith. I said, “for every ailment we have to go to Wagga Wagga. Similarly for the funeral  we have to go to Wagga Wagga.  About the University I said “We desperately need a University in Griffith. We are enjoying life here in Griffith. But when our kids grow up we have to move to Melbourne so that our children should get education in a University in Melbourne”.

Amar Jit Singh, Griffith.

Now that it has been decided to have a voluntary postal “poll” instead of a compulsory plebiscite, may we finally have a reasoned discussion about same-sex marriage, please?

So far, all we have heard in the public domain has been emotive rhetoric from both sides of the proposition, with little or no real information. What we have not heard is exactly what changes are actually proposed to the Marriage Act of 1961 as amended? The Act defines “marriage means the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.”

Is it proposed to simply remove gender from this definition or will there be other changes? What are the practical implications of changes to the Marriage Act? For instance, what will it mean for inheritance law? I am not prepared to vote on this issue until these matters have been properly discussed.

John Wadsworth, Leeton.