The debate is not helped when the waters are muddied with outright falsehoods. At the same time the ATO reports that a third of large Australian companies paid no tax, these same companies are paying fully franked dividends to wealthy retirees.

Strange, as that may seem, the law allows it. The poor old Australian taxpayer loses not once in the franking credit refunds saga but twice. As Kerry Packer was once quoted "you are a fool if you pay income tax". It seems as though some wealthy retirees believe that taxpaying Australians are fools.

Ben Morris, Wollongong

I refer to the letter from Adrian Devlin, 'Children as Pawns', 4 April 2019, Is Adrian Devlin a spokesperson for an organisation that does not support Public Education'.

In that letter he states 'No wonder he supports Public education, given it indoctrinates children in environmental communism'. This is bordering on a grotesque defamation of the public school system and is a slur on the thousands of teachers in the Public Education system

Peter Corkish, Wollongong

Time to be reminded that the Flu season is nearly upon us and many of us are considering Flu vaccination. This often means a visit to a General Practitioner. Given the numerous outbreaks of many diseases we thought were conquered and to which many people thought they had been immunized.

It is worth making a long appointment with the GP and discussing whether you need an immunization update to protect you, as an example some of your childhood immunisations may no longer be effective. There might also be others that are newer, for example, Shingles, pneuvax.

Your GP can advise you of your suitability. And you get to know your GP better and they get to know you.

Peter Corkish, Wollongong

An article in the Illawarra Mercury (1/04/19) headlined "Union to fight penalty rate cuts" with all the alleged ramifications of the current situation. I am confused by the Unions stand by stating that if the current LNP government were to stay in power employees were going to lose a further $24 million if further cuts to penalty rates were made. If I am not mistaken, it is not the federal government that decided to cut penalty rates in the hospitality section of the work force but the Fair Work Commission, an independent umpire.

The Commission was established by then Federal Labor Government, filling the Commission Benches with Unionists. Now we have a situation where it seems likely there will be a change in government where ideology and fiscal responsibility are miles apart and the Union is making misleading statements regarding the possible intent of the government concerning penalty rates. It would appear Labor does not have faith in its own Commission and is scaremongering to shore up candidates for local seats. Why do politicians go to such devious lengths to get our vote?

John Ernst, Kanahooka