The average age of the victims was 11 years old.

The senior council assisting the Commission revealed these disturbing figures and also revealed that the Catholic Church had refused to hand over documents involving priests accused of abuse.

The sentencing of Archbishop Wilson for two years imprisonment is important. The church is now no longer above the law.

The Commission has recommended that the Australian Bishops Conference should request the Holy See  amend the canon law so that the pontifical does not apply to any aspect of allegations or canonical law relating to child sexual abuse.

We will all say amen to that.

Reg Wilding, Wollongong

This is a thank you too Glen Humphries, who wrote the article on June 13 about how to claim green slip refunds. 

Glen gave all the relevant information, including a contact phone number, and because of this I was able to make a successful claim.

Thanks Glen.

Bill Condon, Cordeaux Heights

The way the real soldiers are treated today is appalling.

First of all we have the boss of all armed services informing the soldiers they aren't allowed to wear death masks as it isn't in keeping with Australian ideals.

We had Moaris with tattooed faces, American Indians with war paint and head wear, Samurais with masks and horns on their heads.

 We are telling soldiers to go out and kill people but don’t scare them.

Now we have the legal people looking into the way our elite soldiers performed in Afghanistan.  We send them to kill people but only the right people.

Maybe the legal people could get out of their safe warm office and mark the people in red that they want to be killed.

Or get the Afghani soldiers they want killed to wear a uniform rather than looking like everyone else. 

These warriors are in life and death situations not in  a court room.

Bush, Blair and Howard ordered troops to invade Iraq on the reason of weapons of mass destruction and 400,000 innocent people were killed.  And there were no weapons of mass destruction.

These politicians were cleared of killing 400,000 people and invading a country. 

Germans were hung for doing the same thing in the second world war.

Australian troops were told to fight in Vietnam so 'communism didn't spread'.

Two million people were killed there for no reason.

Pol pot financed by America killed 2 1/2 million innocent people with no one accountable.

So leave the real warriors in the life and death of war alone and charge the people who actually give the order of war if they feel things aren't right.

Ray Jaeger, Coledale

Between 80,000 and 130,000 children, women and men are thought to be held in the North Korean gulags at present.

Political torture, murders and executions are common, this is a ‘Rogue State’ that makes income by selling weapons and drugs illegally around the world.

I can remember a time when the political line was “We do not negotiate with terrorists”

I guess the opportunity for good PR footage outweighs that.

Doug Steley, Heyfield