Parliament
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IT IS noted that changes to Legislative Council elections are being mooted (The Examiner, April 13).
It might be a good time to consider changes to both houses.
At the same time that we desirably change upper house elections to a four year cycle with half facing elections every two years, we could make parallel changes at lower house elections.
It is strongly suggested we dispense with the Hare-Clark system and replace it with 30 single member electorates.
Single member electorates would have advantages for electors with members more likely to be community based and easily accessible.
Preferential voting would still apply allowing scope for minority voices to be heard.
We have five House of Representatives seats.
If these electorates were divided into three we have the Legislative Council provided for, and if each of these electorates was further divided in two we then have 30 electorates for House of Assembly elections.
— DICK JAMES, Launceston.
Gorge
ANDREW Fullard of the LFA (The Examiner, April 11) called for more water down the Gorge to help flush silt from the Yacht Basin.
May I suggest the $3 million commitment from the Feds could help in this regard by purchasing one of HydroTas’ wind turbines and offsetting the generating capacity with a commensurate flow down the Gorge.
As a back of the envelope calculation; Trevallyn generates one megawatt for every cumec; so each cumec of extra flow through the Gorge needs to be offset with one megawatt of power generated elsewhere.
Each turbine at Musselroe for instance, delivers one megawatt (from a capacity of three megawatts) into the grid and cost $7 million; so as an offset, $3 million effectively buys a permanent extra flow of 0.43 cumecs.
Admittedly this isn’t much, but $30 million, an in-kind contribution from HydroTas and pulsed releases from the dam would significantly contribute to restoring the Yacht Basin to its former glory and could be done tomorrow.
This is a pittance compared to the federal buybacks for the Murray.
The Thiess International River Prize is a prestigious environmental award presented on an annual basis to the best river restoration in the world.
It could be us; imagine the kudos for the local members, state and federal governments, LFA, LCC, and HydroTas.
— IAN KIDD, West Launceston.
TUU election
I’M writing to disagree with Emily Baker’s opinion piece (April 9) concerning James Ritchie’s TUU election. He would be a fantastic choice for the position.
It is a genuine shame that the gun was jumped before he was given a chance to be judged on his deeds, and not on his gender.
However, whilst she does raise some valid points in her article concerning female misgivings about confiding in a male, there is a bigger issue at stake here: democracy.
Male or not, it is simply wrong that a group of students who chose not to vote in the election could hold such sway in subsequently forcing him out of the position. That is not democracy, that is ochlocracy.
Furthermore, the very idea that this should solely be a women’s position is an injury to democracy.
Can you imagine the social uproar if we had an elected political position to be held exclusively by men? The double-standards need to stop.
You will never achieve true gender equality by simply reversing the coin of gender partisanship.
— CODY HANDLEY, Hadspen.
GST windfall
TREASURER Peter Gutwein I trust will heed the wise advice of Saul Eslake and use the GST windfall of $132 million in an efficient manner.
Mr Gutwein would be wise to seek the counsel of retired former president of the Legislative Council and now MAST chairperson Sue Smith who gave an excellent summation of allocation of state funds after her retirement and the need not to support businesses who are not viable, but continue to seek handouts to the detriment of essential services such as health, police, education and ambulance services, etc.
In 2004 former prime minister John Howard, committed millions to save forestry operations in Tasmania.
A subsequent Senate Committee investigation revealed the rorts that took place.
Taxpayers must be cognisant the Howard scheme supported by his Forestry Minister Eric Abetz, and the Gillard-Swan forestry agreement saw double dippers.
Mr Gutwein will have to constrain Resources Minister Paul Harriss otherwise further funding will become a trifecta.
As Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey stated these businesses must understand the days of entitlement are over.
— BRIAN P. KHAN, Bridport.