Euthanasia
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TO follow up on A R Trouson (The Examiner, August 17), it’s not just pain, it’s not being able to live a meaningful life.
My aunt who gave so much to help people in her life, suffered in her last years, doubled up in the fetal position, unable to do what we take for granted, to have her son, bath her, change her nappy, besides the pain she suffered.
We don't need people spouting religion, we need to consider that when a person wishes to end their life, repeat, their life, then should it not be their right?
Would you, reading this, wish to suffer.
Think about it.
— GRAHAM MOPPETT, Longford.
Child welfare
The failure of the child welfare system in Tasmania highlights the need for experience in government ministers and departmental heads.
Over recent years both State and Federal governments politicians and public servants seem to be chosen not for any ability or skill instead for who they know or their ability to present one liners and the ability to talk about nothing.
Our child welfare system would seem to require a new broom, starting at the top.
Let’s have people with business acumen and organisational skills.
Either they are accountable or they move on.
We should be paying for what they are, not what they may have been in the distant past.
— WALLY REYNOLDS, Perth.
Vegetarian diet
MICHELLE Wisbey (The Examiner, August 18) complains about people criticising her vegetarian diet and then said “I would never tell anyone else how or what they should eat" and then goes right ahead and does that.
So Michelle, I feel I can say to you, "How many animals starve because their foraging area is being used for crops that you think you can eat with a clear conscience?"
"How many animals, birds and smaller beings are killed so that your food can be provided without being eaten by others?"
Please, eat what you like but stop preaching from a biased, uninformed opinion.
— JAN HORTON, West Launceston.
Housing Tasmania
CONSIDERING the relatively low cost and high positive impact of forgiving the $185 million dollar debt accrued by Housing Tasmania and the practice of returning 40 per cent of the funding allocated by the federal government per annum, this should disappoint most Tasmanians if not those on waiting lists.
According to the A.H.U.R.I report on housing in 2010, the present position has been a culmination of factors over a thirty five year period, highlighting ,ambivalence and apathy towards this issue because of relatively short election cycles, which has inhibited states from taking on real long term planning and resource renewal.
The debt has increased by approximately 30 per cent over the past fifteen years which suggests only 50 per cent of interest is paid back per annum creating an ever increasing black hole and a half effort realized by the federal governments input.
What form of accounting is this?
Shouldn’t it be an election issue?
— DAVID BRIMBLE, Scottsdale.
Politicians
BET I am not the only one losing patience with the pundits push for us to feel so sorry for the pollies not seeing their families often enough that we will indulge them their business class flights to holiday locations.
These pundits overlook the very simple fact these people know what they are signing up for, if they didn’t then they should not be there.
Same pollies are happy enough to send our young servicemen and women to foreign hell holes.
It’s these people I have sympathy for.
— PETER TAYLOR, Midway Point.
Obscene wealth
I KNOW I am just jealous.
I saw on television an obscenely extravagant, tasteless wedding in Sydney.
It took over an entire street and involved Australia’s most expensive car worth over two million dollars.
With most Australians just surviving on “struggle street” and with many thousands homeless and even more unemployed, it rubs in the massive inequity in Australia. today.
This was shown in the Bronwyn Bishop debacle.
They are out of touch with reality.
I hope they give secretly to charity, because there will be a judgement day.
Strangely, with very little, I am very happy, I doubt if they are.
— MALCOLM SCOTT, Newstead.
Marriage
COUNTLESS Australians prayed this week that our government wouldn’t redefine marriage.
We’re not worried for ourselves.
Yes, we’ll hear “Bigot” more.
Yes, books will be banned: for our Tasmanian of the Year has already called the anti-discrimination commission against a catholic marriage booklet.
Nor do we worry for marriage itself.
One man and one woman, joined into one flesh by public promises and the loving union of their bodies, is a magnificent God-given reality.
It can no more be changed or lost than the sun.
We are concerned for the future of the Australian family.
For to render marriage genderless is to say loud and clear: ‘Mothers are nice, but we don’t need you. It’s beautiful and healthy for babies to feed at their mother’s breasts, but we can take you away. Fathers are handy, but optional. And children may yearn for their natural parents and identity, but we will love you, and you will cope’.
Marriage can’t be lost, but should these inestimable treasures be sold for a counterfeit? Millions of people of mature goodwill, whether same-sex attracted or not, have joined to say, “Please, no.”
— CAMPBELL MARKHAM, Moderator, The Presbyterian Church of Tasmania, Hobart.
Ross Hart
IN HIS letter - Waterway action needed (The Examiner, August 12), the first published since his endorsement as a Labor candidate in the federal seat of Bass, Ross Hart included in his comments the following.
“To his credit, the member for Bass, Andrew Nikolic, has recognised that the river deserves federal funding and has delivered on that promise” - Bipartisanship personified’.
Ross Hart went on to talk of being “a united community, local, state and federal government developing plans to improve”, (the problems surrounding the Tamar Basin).
In his letter - Higher education reforms (The Examiner, March 30), Andrew Nikolic, of not endorsed Ross Hart, opened saying, “Ross Hart (The Examiner, March 27) joins a growing list of Labor identities supporting the Coalition’s higher education reforms”.
Ross Hart rightly in his reply - Risks to UTAS too great (The Examiner, April 15) claimed, “No Andrew Nikolic, I do not support “the reforms”, it is disingenuous to say that I have.
Given the treatment you dished out to the then Bass Labor MHR Geoff Lyons (as acknowledged with distaste by several correspondents in recent months), it is time Mr Nikolic to stop unfairly discrediting those of a differing opinion to you and the government you represent.
Take a leaf out of Ross Hart’s book.
— SYD EDWARDS, Launceston.
Chefs
I FIND it inconceivable that there is a shortage of chefs in Tasmania.
Firstly, I am a qualified chef of 25 years in the Industry.
I trained in Melbourne working in fine dinning, outside executive corporate catering, offshore gas and oil Industry and the hotel industry.
Tasmanian Hospitality Chamber of Commerce business owners are crying poor of qualified chefs, (I think not) their motivation by calling this out is, to employ cheap foreign 457 visa
workers, and to cut Sunday penalty rates.
They say by doing this, is to create jobs.
The only thing that it is going to create is unemployment because the businesses only want to make more money for themselves .
Hospitality workers are classified as second class servants, uneducated and unskilled.
When I did my training I went to college for four years, we studied accounting, food science, hygiene and menu design, on top of our cooking classes so to refine our craft.
Our schooling is as long as a nurse or a paramedic.
Chefs are one of the lowest paid trades.
Our wages range from $16 a hour to $27 a hour before tax.
You can work 10-12 hours a days or more, over seven days a week.
Qualified electricians and plumbers as well do four years training, but they charge $100 a hour.
Try calling a plumber on a Saturday or a Sunday, they will charge you $200 a hour.
They would refuse to come out if you offered them less money.
The other misconstrued saying about being a chef is (professional) so why don't you pay us like one, while the normal person is enjoying their weekends off.
If businesses want to employ qualified professional Australian chefs in Tasmania, offer the right money and conditions and there will never be a shortage.
This is the reason why there might be one in the future.
— MARTIN LEACH, Kings Meadows.