Without doubt teachers in remote areas of the NT are feeling the pangs of isolation from family and friends imposed by Covid 19 restrictions. What impact must isolation have had on remote area teachers in past times. No phones, no internet connection, no live radio and TV, no email, sporadic delivery of supplies, irregular letters and parcels mail, little if any other than tinned food, few roads, limited plane services to unsealed airstrips, rudimentary medical care and no awareness of the world beyond community boundaries. That WAS isolation.

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The reluctance amongst Indigenous Australians to be immunised against Covid 19, is being fuelled by misrepresentation about vaccine side effects. These outright lies being peddled through social media and in some cases by personal misrepresentation are nothing short of criminal. Indigenous Covid deaths arising because vaccination has been rejected, should be held as manslaughter against those guilty of peddling this false information.

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Marty Aust’s periodic columns on the redemptive way forward for young people canvas the subject in detail – with one area of omission. Mr Aust (and the reports to which he refers in his column (Sun. Terr. 4/9)) never touches on the issue of parental responsibility for their children who become the subject of reports and commentary because of their aberrant and wayward behaviour. Why is it that on this subject, Mr Aust and others avoid mentioning and advocating the responsibility of parents in the bringing up of their children.