This latest round of funding is aimed at getting more women and girls to take part in sport, something I actively support and encourage.

The grants will be targeted at clubs that can boost female participation rates, or introduce people into the sport by offering modified versions of the sport.

Research shows female participation in sport is still lower than male involvement and women and girls can find it hard to reach the recommended 2.5 hours of moderate physical activity each week.

Two funding levels, of up to $3000 and $10,000, are available to eligible sporting clubs.

The program closes on Friday, March 10 at 4pm.

EMMA KEALY

Member for Lowan

THE royal commission of inquiry into child sexual abuse shows us how little has changed.

Consider this excerpt from Paul K Christianson’s work Savonarola of Florence: A Son of Thunder (the Catholic monk Savonarola lived from 1452 to 1495):

‘What doest thou O Lord? Why dost thou slumber? Arise and come to deliver thy church from the hands of devils (the clergy) ... be ye not scandalised, O my brethren. The only hope is ... God may soon smite the earth’. 

Savonarola displayed his outrage over the condition of the Roman Catholic church at the end of the 15th century.

What can we learn from Savonarola?

First, take inspiration from his boldness.

Secondly, it is not enough to preach moral and ecclesiastical reform.

Savonarola taught that man must regain a spiritual nature capable to rule personal carnality.

It is humanist-theory on steroids that is disciplining this church for past great injustices, but which does not address the same injustice hugely prevalent in suburban society.

The police know this abuse is currently happening in thousands of private homes.

A prophetic voice would speak objectively and not politically.

Hope for change is not in the impossible demand for justice, but in a faith we have inadequately considered.

ROBERT WORTHINGTON

Warracknabeal

COME, come now Mr Allender (Mail-Times, February 6), whom do you think you’re kidding?

Summer is now 75 per cent gone and we have had only two days considered hot – not successive days either.

There has been no heat wave of successive days over 37. How many days over 33 that stopped the trains? 

Has your electronic thermometer lost an electron or has the shade structure fallen off or been taken off?

RON FISCHER

Horsham

HEART disease is still the leading cause of death and disability in Australia, and sadly touches two out of three families.

Statistics are one thing, but behind every number is a person with family and friends who care deeply about them. And with numbers like that, it’s not something we can fight alone. That’s why Heart Research Australia needs your support.

Wear red on February 14 and make a gold coin donation to help our community of highly skilled cardiologists and researchers continue their life-saving work to keep hearts beating for longer. 

MICHELLE KEARNEY

Heart Research Australia