But as the death toll of my fellow aged in care homes approaches 700 I believe that our Prime Minister and his aged care minister should be devoting more of their time to stopping unnecessary deaths.

The head of the department of health, Dr Brendan Murphy, recently admitted that many of these deaths could have been prevented with proper planning and help.

The Royal Commission into Aged Care has heard the litany of abuse and neglect in this sector and made urgent recommendations but it also reported the government had no plan to deal with the outbreak in Victoria despite the evidence of these problems in the NSW Newmarch House tragedy months before.

If the Coalition Government can find $1.9 billion to launch a proposed gas led recovery that is so uneconomic that the industry players are not prepared to risk their own money doing it, why is the government proposing to spend this huge sum when they have hundreds of seniors dying from lack of care?

As older persons, all we ask of the society we have served, and in lots of cases still serving if you look at who is managing community sports that could not function without the grandparents, is that we be treated with respect and compassion in our hour of need.

The fact that another 16,000-plus of us are expected to die this year waiting for care is a shocking indictment on our political class.

I am personally fortunate that I live in a not for profit care community that over the 17 years of my stay has provided wonderful care for our residents. Moving here was the best decision of my senior years but this care is the exception rather than the rule as the Royal Commission has reported.

Further to the article in the Examiner ['Seaham planning proposals blocked', October 1], I too have serious traffic safety concerns at the intersection of Italia Road and Pacific Highway.

Surely the proposed Stone Ridge Quarry to be developed on part of the Wallaroo State Forest must now be in jeopardy, unless a fly over is included over the Pacific Highway, which would then allow the current Boral proposal to also go ahead.

The proposed quarry covering 391 hectares of state forest is also another known koala habitat, as is the current proposed Brandy Hill rock quarry enlargement area.

Look at our TV ads - surely a reflection, sometimes good, sometimes unfortunate - of now times.

I'm thinking of seeing men enthusing about the power of certain dishwashing detergents in the kitchen (wasn't that always a woman's domain?), then seeing a woman coming home with a new car she's just bought without so much as asking for her partner's opinion - wasn't that usually the male's decision?

There have been some very enjoyable and clever ads though. One of my favorites is the one showing a young man in a life drawing class being mortally embarrassed from finding the model is his own mother. His reaction is wonderful. Then there's the iceberg lettuce floating in a tub of water when a little ocean liner bumps into it - clever.

But I'm actually waiting for one of those ads with 4-wheel drives parked up on high rocky cliffs, and seeing the handbrake suddenly unexpectedly slipping so the vehicle rolls backward over the edge and into the valley way down below. I'd love to see that.

But why are there so many of them showing these vehicles being parked in such limited spaces and how did they get them there anyway? The world has changed so much (thanks Germaine).