Ferry
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THE four hour fast ferry from George Town to Port Welshpool that operated 25 years ago carried more than half the car and passenger traffic between Victoria and Tasmania.
The service catering for those people who did not want to be landed in the Port of Melbourne.
What a pity that a second less expensive port in Victoria is no longer an option.
— ROBERT CLIFFORD AO, Incat Tasmania chairman.
Councils
COUNCILS of Tasmania need to get their heads out of the sand and get a more efficient system in place.
One can only wonder at what could be done with the extra money to run a smaller more streamlined system that is not outdated like we have at present.
Amalgamation is a start but needs to be done quickly, not take years of talking and power shifting.
— DAVID PARKER, West Launceston.
Tony Abbott
I WISH to question Corey Martin (The Examiner, March 15) for his belittling attack on the Prime Minister, who did not say that Aborigines cannot live where they want to, but if they want good health they must live in larger communities.
I do not believe that to be an ignorant statement, as inferred.
As for the Gillian Triggs fiasco, he failed to mention that she drew up her report when there were 2000 children in detention under Labor, sat on it until after the election when the Liberal Party came to power, and had only 200 children in detention.
It is a pity these journalists must always alter the facts, because if they did not we would hear more of Bill Shorten’s misdemeanors.
— R. B. ARCHER, Longford.
Euthanasia
I FOUND it interesting in relation to a front page report in The Examiner (March 15) titled “New push for euthanasia bill” where former premier Lara Giddings and her co-sponsored private members bill (with Nick McKim) `Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill’ is to be re-introduced later this year in the lower house.
What I found intriguing was the comment of the Greens spokesperson.
Not only was this spokesperson not named but stated that a recent opinion poll showed approximately 80 per cent of Tasmanian support voluntary assisted dying.
This is at best questionable.
Australian Christian Lobby Tasmanian Director Mark Brown in my opinion is more on the mark when he states that we should be focusing on ever improving palliative care. Assisted living - not assisted dying.
— ROBERT LEE, Summerhill.
Pensioners
THE 2014 federal budget, Treasurer Joe Hockey's constant assertions, and now the Intergenerational Report, are all harbingers of doom for the old aged pensioner.
More and more retirees, living longer, are sucking the very life out of the federal economy.
In fact, it is claimed each pension recipient will increasingly swallow the income taxes paid by more and more workers.
But here's the "elephant" in the Coalitions' money room.
If Australia's population is going to increase by about 12 million people in the next 20 years, the vast majority of these will become tax paying wage earners.
This PM has promised to create one million jobs in his first term.
By my logic, more workers paying more income tax must mean increasing revenue for the government.
As more retirees (over the next 20 years) will have accrued superannuation, the demands on Treasury funds to pay the old aged pension will be commensurately reduced, not increased.
So there goes the scare campaign which Messrs Abbott, Hockey and Morrison are using to justify reducing the rate of OAP increases.
Cut out this phony spin and accept that today's over 65s have earned the right to a generous pension.
In our working lives, superannuation was not available to most of us.
Robert Menzies and his successors told us that part of our income tax would be dedicated to pay us a pension after we retired and he did, and they did.
Mr Abbott, respect us and leave our money alone.
— TIMOTHY O’SULLIVAN, Riverside.
AFL
l would hope that one day AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan would be able to sit down and plan a roster that would truly recognise AFL football as a national sport and not one that travels around the country but eliminates Tasmania.
To be a truly all inclusive game the, AFL directors must devise a plan that would see top clubs visit Tasmania on a rotational basis.
This would enable the thousands of club supporters to see their club in action right here in Tasmania.
At the risk of being parochial, l would be arguing for the high end matches to be played at Aurora stadium.
Why?
Because Launceston and the North and North-West patrons have proven many times they will attend to see high quality matches without quibbling.
l understand the financial implications and the loss that would be incurred by the individual club that was rostered to play here but l am sure that with a logical and rational approach, a projected roster could be established to enable supporters to see that on a given day in say July 2016 for example, Collingwood and Richmond would be at Aurora stadium.
How exciting would that be for Launceston? And how much would the supporters love to be able to plan for the big day.
The AFL is a multi million dollar operation, for the good of the game they can afford to underwrite the loss.
Come on Mr AFL dig deep and make football a truly National inclusive game.
— TED SANDS, Launceston City Council Alderman.
Road kill
I NOTICE the amount of road-kill seems to be increasing.
I believe the reason for this is that wallaby and other game, over the last 10 years or so, have been rapidly multiplying in our farm lands due to an abundant supply of fresh feed.
Plenty of fresh feed and lots of roads through the farm lands equals plenty of road-kill.
In the mountains, the only place we see significant road-kill is where the grass or scrub has been cut on the side of the road.
This encourages fresh growth that draws the game out to the killing field.
Unless there is a plan to stem the explosion of wildlife, we will have more road-kill in years to come.
If you think that there is a lot of native animals on our road now, just imagine 10 years down the track.
We will end up with nice fur pelt covered roads.
Native wildlife on the road will cause accidents, and tourists who are not used to seeing wildlife on the road will be involved in these ever increasing accidents.
People will be killed in these accidents caused by wildlife.
My concern is that no one is seeing this problem and so there is no plan to address this ever increasing issue.
Please tell me I am wrong and that there is a plan.
— PHIL STEERS, Westbury.
Smoking
THE proposition that Tasmanian retailers will suffer as smoking rates decline is demonstrably absurd.
Money spent on cigarettes will be used for other purchases and clever retailers will benefit.
A lesser amount will go to Canberra as tax and none will flow offshore to support the immensely profitable foreign tobacco companies.
This tobacco-free generation will be spend less on health, will be more productive in the work place and the self-employed will have fewer unproductive sick days.
They will live longer and better.
For retailers this is heaven not hades.
Hopefully, for every retailer gullible enough to swallow the tobacco company line and keen to sell his business for a discount, there will be a smarter purchaser who will be a part of a Tasmania vibrant in health and with an improved economic outlook.
Hopefully the parliamentary audience will be wise enough to understand this sideshow for what it is.
— PROF. MATTHEW PETERS, Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand president.