On religious freedom
On Radio National this morning, Senator Eric Abetz claimed that religious schools had the right not to employ teachers who did not "share the ethos" of the school.
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Those who agree with gay marriage, for example, should not have any right to employment at a school run by a church which doesn't agree with it.
But this freedom to require employees to share an organisation's ethos does not apply to Rugby Australia.
If it did apply to Rugby Australia, according to Senator Abetz, it would be like telling people to play rugby but not Aussie Rules.
For the Senator's information, I spent six years at a school which did exactly that.
When one parent wanted to introduce the choice of Aussie Rules at the school, he was given the same short shrift as the parent who wanted to introduce soccer. "This is a rugby school," was the flat answer to both.
And of course these parents had complete freedom to take their sons elsewhere.
This school also refused to teach German, for patriotic reasons dating back to World War 1. Any parent wanting a boy to learn that language could go elsewhere too.
Similarly, the parents of Jewish boys simply had to accept that the school was a Christian one.
Catholic parents had to accept that the school was Protestant.
These things, and rugby, were part of the school's ethos.
Rugby Australia has just as much right to require its freely-contracted players to accept its own ethos.
If Rugby Australia decides that its ethos and its religious policy include the acceptance and quiet toleration of various sorts of people who may disagree with each other, then its contracted players have to comply with that ethos and that religious policy.
Rugby Australia is just a rugby organisation. Anyone who doesn't like this has complete freedom to go elsewhere.
Grant Agnew, Coopers Plains
Support blood cancer patients
It takes 18 people donating blood monthly to treat just one person living with blood cancer. That is why this National Blood Donor Week (9-15 June), the Leukaemia Foundation is challenging more Australians to become a regular blood donor.
More than 100,000 Australians are affected by blood cancer and many of these people require regular donated blood products to manage their cancer.
What many people don't realise is the sheer volume of blood needed to support blood cancer patients.
More than a third of all blood donations (34%) collected by the Australian Red Cross Blood Service go towards supporting cancer patients and people living with blood diseases - and with good reason.
One 470ml blood donation unit includes red cells, plasma and platelets. On average, one acute leukaemia patient will need nine units - or 2.25 litres - of red blood cells each month, or just over 1 litre (36 units) of platelets each month during treatment.
This means for every blood cancer patient in your community, we need 18 Australians to roll up their sleeves every month - not just once, but for every month of that person's treatment time, which can be anything from eight months to years.
With 35 people every day diagnosed with blood cancer in Australia and this number increase to 50 people per day by 2025, we know more Australians will become critically reliant on blood products.
The need for blood products to support blood cancer patients doesn't stop, so neither should blood donations, and that is why we are calling on more Australians to make blood donation part of a regular routine rather than a once-off exercise.
Find out more about how you can support people living with blood cancer in your community at www.leukaemia.org.au or to join fight against blood cancer by making a blood donation, visit www.donateblood.com.au.
Bill Petch, Leukaemia Foundation CEO
