It's been a week where there's been all sorts of discussions about how and how well we pay or do not pay those people essential to our daily lives.
In particular, there's a Parliamentary inquiry into the ambulance system in New South Wales. And on top of poor pay, there are revelations of overwork, bullying and awful administration at the top.
Then there's a massive shortfall in nurses in New South Wales, and you wonder where we're going to find them.
Yet letter after letter to me telling me the system's wrong and the pay is wrong. And we're asking too much of good people for too little.
And then there's the police. Similar concerns and suggestions this week that basically they too have had enough. And for what we're asking of them, what we're giving to them is inadequate.
In fact, in Sydney the pay that many of these people get doesn't even allow them to afford to live in the city that they're servicing. But to prove on the police front how absurd it is, I've had stacks of letters about the very cost of even becoming a policeman or woman in New South Wales.
There are two parts to the training here. A six month practical course at the Goulburn Academy and then a two-year university diploma in police practice.
Here's the rub. Police trainees have to pay to do these courses. Some write to tell me they've been left with HECS debts of $20,000.
A probationary constable only gets $50,000 a year. And applicants tell me that on top of that they pay more than $500 for a medical assessment before they get in the door.
Dave - that's not his correct name - has written to me.
He received a scholarship of just over $1700, because he had a few assets. But Dave told me you'd have to have nothing in the bank or be unemployed to get a full scholarship. And he's not heard of anyone getting support like 12 to 18 thousand dollars that the Police Minister often refers to.
So all this $1700 dollars paid for was his accommodation and food for the period he was at Goulburn. Part time students get no scholarship. And if you're a distance education student and you go to Goulburn, you pay for your own food and accommodation. And Dave tells me that Charles Sturt is the only university he's aware of in Australia that you have to repeat a subject in the associate diploma in police practice degree for any reason.
For example, if you take time off for sickness, family or a financial issue and that leave is for more than two semesters, all previous subjects you've passed are null and void.
So if you start again, you start from scratch.
All other police forces across Australia pay their police students a wage to go to their police colleges.
Victoria are now considering adopting the New South Wales model.
Why wouldn't a government consider such a move? After all, it costs the State virtually nothing.
No wonder we struggle with recruitment.
And that's just the Police Service.
