Job losses
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THE Family Services Minister says it was the blame of low level public servants that was the reason for failure of the warning notices to be processed.
Assessing that statement indicates that the Liberals mania to sack public servants has led to the loss of the experienced core of the departments.
This type of sorry saga was always going to happen with the loss of so many jobs.
— PETER TAYLOR, Midway Point.
Construction
TASMANIA has recorded the highest growth in residential construction over the June quarter of any state ('Home building rises in Tasmania', The Examiner, August 27).
When the economic signals are showing the current planning system is working, the state government cannot justify the radical move to a single statewide planning scheme.
At least the state government must stop the secrecy surrounding this process and tell the community why the change is needed and what the impact on councils and local communities will be?
— PETER MCGLONE, Director, Tasmanian Conservation Trust.
Syria
I OBJECT to the Prime Minister sending Australian troops to fight in the Syrian conflict: with or without a request from the US President.
This decision to send more of our soldiers to their possible deaths should be made by the Australian people and not the Australian Parliament.
It is clear that this question should be put to all Australians by way of a plebiscite so that we can all have a say in the matter.
— DAVID BROUGHTON, Legana.
Schools
THE parent demand for more support staff in schools (The Examiner, August 27) is warranted.
A recent coroner’s enquiry in NSW last year recommended a ratio of one school psychologist for every 500 students.
In response the NSW government has guaranteed one for every 750 students.
Even if all six extra professionals Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff says will be employed as part of the government’s Family Violence Action Plan are school psychologists, and they won’t be, it would still not see our public school system supported at even the ratio that exists in the ACT.
The difference in need between the ACT and ours does not need elaboration.
For the state to achieve the NSW guaranteed ratio, Tasmania should be employing an additional 24 school psychologists.
— TERRY POLGLASE, AEU State Branch President.
Telstra
I HAVE just received my Telstra bill and I am only too happy to pay my Telstra account.
I only object to the $2 for my last paper bill, approximately nine months ago.
I spoke to a gentleman from Telstra and he looked the charge up and stated it would be removed.
Every time I phone now I get a person that cannot speak English well and I get the run around.
All they can say is that the $2 was for my last bill.
This is something that I know, but it appears that as I am on the internet with Big Pond they want me to pay accounts via the internet.
This is something that I won’t do.
Just how many people are being ripped off by Telstra.
If this keeps up, I’ll just change my telephone, mobile phone and my internet to another carrier.
— COLIN SMEE, Beaconsfield.
Media
WELL said Robert Lee (Letters, August 24), couldn’t have put it better myself.
Surely the main reason the media exists, in all its forms, is to present the news in an un-biased format, not champion one side or the other when it comes to issues involving the community.
Whether these issues are contentious or not is irrelevant, as the media should always be seen to be doing its job in telling both sides, not favouring or pushing one belief over another.
Let the public decide what should occur regarding gay marriage, not the media.
— CARMEN FRELEK, Launceston.
Vegetarians
JAN Horton (The Examiner, August 27) would have us believe that when it comes to vegetarianism, we are damned if we do, and damned if we don't, so it's best to do nothing if we wish to remain unbiased and informed.
My reading of Michelle Wisbey's opinion piece (The Examiner, August 18) on her personal reasons for adopting a vegetarian diet was that she went out of her way not to impose or prescribe her dietary position.
Rather, she was merely highlighting the antagonism and defensiveness she and other vegetarians often encounter from non-vegetarians.
The truth is that she could have utilised far more damning and incontrovertible facts and statistics about our endemic exploitation of our fellow animals than she chose to do.
One can accept Jan Horton's argument that any form of farming impacts upon non-human animal life, but why this fact obviates the need for moral and ethical reflection and deliberation strikes me as blatantly biased and uninformed.
— THOMAS RYAN, St Helens.
Suspended sentences
IN HAVING a genuine concern, it is easy to write for your columns without first thinking it through.
Writer Dave Pitham (The Examiner, August 25), says we need another prison instead of suspended sentences.
Suspended sentences certainly need to go, but another prison?
In a small state such as Tasmania, with a small population, absolutely absurd.
What is needed is some other answer than prison.
Suspended sentences are a joke, why not home detention, that way not so much cost to the government.
The cost of a person confined to prison is I believe very expensive, and what good does it do.
Prison sentences should be for the re-offenders and real criminals.
— P. GROUT, Launceston.
Gorge
ABOUT 20 cumecs of water will be released from Trevallyn Dam, as the state government continues to try and rid the Tamar River of silt (The Examiner, August 24).
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that releasing 10 times more water than the South Esk River’s daily flow will bring down 10 times more silt.
Treasurer Peter Gutwein said the trials cost had not yet been determined.
It shouldn’t cost anything to release water Mr Gutwein said.
"This is good for jobs”.
What jobs?
It only takes one man to turn on a tap.
— A. R. TROUNSON, Needles.
Referendum
I NOTICE there is going to be much more expensive discussions to even frame what is going to be put to the vote in the Aboriginal Recognition Referendum
Please keep it simple like "This constitution recognises the aboriginal people as the original inhabitants of Australia”.
Australians hate referenda, as seen by those opposed to marriage equality trying to have it put to one.
They cry "Leave the constitution alone”.
If it is too complex, people will get worried and vote No.
Both sides have to be presented in printed form before it takes place.
I could name, but won’t, three states where I would be surprised if it got a majority of votes and a majority of the states is necessary for success.
Since Federation, only eight out of 44 referenda have been successful, the last in 1977.
The whole thing could end up being a humiliation for the aboriginal people, which would be horrible.
— MALCOLM SCOTT, Newstead.
Dying
THE debate has begun.
This topic should never have arisen in our civilized society.
It was heartening to see M. Templeton’s response to the death of their loved one (Letters, August 25).
This response is assuredly the real truth about dying, effective symptom control and full support from caring people.
This is available now, many people opting to die at home with all the supports in place.
However, where home care is not possible, we need to have a “stand alone” Palliative Care Unit for anyone who requires it.
It is well known that sick people, and particularly the elderly, who may have been very active all their lives,
can become depressed by age related conditions, some major and some minor.
The loss of “being needed” as families move off and make their own busy lives, a sense of being forgotten, needing help from their busy family, or indeed from outside their home, with tasks they could once do themselves.
There is also, of course, having to leave the family home and go in to care.
Simply put, in their depression, they feel that they have become a burden to everyone and sadly to some families they are a burden.
Small wonder then, that some become depressed, and cannot cope in the event of a terminal illness and they
want to die, because they feel that they have nothing to hold on to.
The above scenario applies to every human on this Earth; we all need to be loved and needed, from the cradle to the grave.
If you have people that you love who are terminally ill and in some distress, take care of them as they die, don’t
sit holding their hand and watch a doctor end their life with a lethal injection/infusion.
— MARY BATES, Exeter.