Guns
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ISN’T it ironic how our secular regressive friends forget their "prohibition never works" mantra when it comes to guns.
— JACK SONNEMANN, Lucaston.
Children
THREE years jail for abusing and destroying the lives of a dozen innocent young children.
Society cannot even protect them in the education system. What is going on?
— SUZY JONES, Devonport.
Eagles
IT IS very distressing to read that our endangered wedge-tailed eagles are being killed by wind turbines at a rate of almost one a month (The Examiner, October 5).
At that rate, they’ll soon be extinct.
Wouldn’t you reckon they would have worked out some sort of protection (distraction) for the birds ``before” installing the towers.
— A. R. TROUNSON, Needles.
McKim
THE ink had not yet dried on the proposal for a hydro development in a wilderness area before Senator Nick McKim was opposing the idea as he has done for every mining and forestry proposal in this state .
Sadly we are going the way of Queensland where the Greens and every fringe group challenge all job creating developments in the courts.
Perhaps Tasmania should be renamed Banana: Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything.
— R. PARKER, Summerhill.
Agreement
OBVIOUSLY Liberal MHR Brett Whitely is trotting out the party line in his glowing endorsement of this unratified agreement details of which,as yet, have not been revealed to those outside the present government.
It still has a long way to go before all party’s can commit their countries to the deal.
Given that Presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, and a hostile Congress have stated that they will not accept the agreement in it’s present form, perhaps we should put on hold the present back slapping.
— A. CARTER, Mowbray.
Launceston City Council
LAUNCESTON General Manager, Robert Dobrznski, (October 6) says the now failed paving of Centreway Lane was a trial so Launceston City Council designers could test their designs in real life.
The work, including the inlaid signage, conducted at the ratepayers expense, should have been done properly, without the need for expensive repairs.
Surely standards for both engineering construction and materials exist so paved surfaces can be designed to accommodate heavy traffic presumably with a margin for error.
Let’s hope the LCC designers have got it right and the recently repaved Dickies Lane is up to a serviceable standard.
— ARTHUR LYONS, Trevallyn.
Parking
THIS morning my husband was walking in the Myer car park when a gentleman in a car with a West Australian number plate stopped to ask directions to Cataract Gorge.
While my husband was telling him a woman parking attendant came up to the car and issued the gentleman a parking ticket.
She asked no questions, just wrote out the ticket.
He clearly had no intention of leaving the car.
I feel that it was so unfair and not a very friendly gesture towards a tourist to this state.
If we want tourists to come here turn a blind eye occasionally.
— H. SCHNELL, Grindelwald.
National Anthem
FOR the first time in a long while I totally agree with Barry Prismall and his article about the Australian National Anthem.
The song/anthem is a shocker and why people voted for it in a referendum is one of great mysteries of life. (along with where do socks go?)
Was the song at the top of the ballot list, and people could not be bothered to look at the other choices?
Hardly anyone knows the words to the anthem, at least God Save The Queen was simple to learn.
The Spanish have got it right, there are no words in their anthem, just music.
Perhaps we should follow their lead? You only have to look at major sporting events to see how bad this song really is, especially the AFL grand-final.
None of the players know the words, none of the crowd know or care about the words and if they are wearing a hat or a cap, no one removes it and stands up while the anthem is playing.
Years ago, we would go to the Launceston picture theatres and they would play God Save The Queen.
Every person in the theatre would stand, you will not see that happen with Advance Australia Fair.
— JOHN DENNE, Longford.
Mental health
BEING Mental Health Week, I’d like to reply to W. J. Greer (Letters, October 6).
While it’s true that no Australian resident need worry about getting shot, beheaded or tortured by ISIS here, some of those long-term homeless and unemployed Australians must be going through a living hell, due to their predicament every day.
It may be less apparent, very silent and stealthy, but is just as insidious as any type of physical torture anyone could be expected to endure, and it must play on their mental health as well.
The grinding, relentless poverty faced by those Australians would be enough to send any of us more fortunate Aussies off the deep end mentally, asking the question, ``No end in sight, why bother going on?”
It’s not being racist or xenophobic to want to see any homeless or unemployed Australians being taken care of first, before we can take care of any genuine asylum seekers or refugees.
I bet if W. J. Greer found themselves ever facing the grim prospect of long term homelessness or unemployment, with no end in sight, he/she would agree.
— CARMEN FRELEK, Launceston.
Concert
I DECIDED to fore-go most of the AFL football grand-final as I felt the outcome would turn out as it did.
Instead, I went to a performance of Haydn’s Nelson Mass at the Holy Trinity Church by the Evandale Village Singers.
I have been to many choral performances, from the Mahler Symphony of a Thousand at London’s Royal Albert Hall, to tin pot choral societies performing the Messiah as Handel had ``intended”.
This performance of the Nelson Mass was magnificent.
The setting of Holy Trinity was superb, the excellent soloists able to perform from the organ loft.
The orchestra and choir seemed to really be enjoying themselves and it was not laboured as so many choral performances are.
It was a completely magical experience, further it was civilized with abundant refreshments at interval including a complimentary glass of champagne.
The Nelson Mass is also known as ``Mass for Trouble Times”, how appropriate for today.
— MALCOLM SCOTT, Newstead.
Gorge
FOR many years calls for additional Cataract Gorge flows have fallen on deaf ears and it is indeed pleasing to see the Launceston Flood Authority and Andrew Nikolic now supporting the cause.
However, I detect a subtle difference in motivation with the LFA wanting flow assistance for their raking program and others wanting a return to pre-dam conditions in the Yacht Basin.
In principle I support both causes; they are not mutually exclusive.
The recent tracer study confirmed that in the absence of floods, the raking program does not remove silt from the estuary, but temporarily displaces it downstream.
Redirecting water down the Gorge will not alter that situation.
The positions of the salt wedge, flocculation and the turbidity maximum will not alter (no additional freshwater in the system) nor will the total volume of silt.
A permanent redirection will prevent some silt returning to the Yacht Basin as the equilibrium position is increased but the net effect will be a transfer of silt from the Yacht Basin to the Tailrace (where the equilibrium position will decrease).
The success or otherwise of redirected flows must be assessed on the permanent improvement in the Yacht Basin, not on the efficacy of the raking program.
HydroTas will surely turn off the taps if the latter is the sole criterion.
— IAN KIDD, West Launceston.
Salaries
FURTHER to the letter from Robert Lee (The Examiner, October 10) I have also recently read the advertisement regarding another review of Tasmanian politicians salaries and the 10 or more allowances to be included.
The same day I read about the thousands of homeless people in Australia.
Politicians salaries were reviewed last year and the report is on the internet if anyone has time to read it.
This report in itself must have kept an army of people in work, it is massively long.
Perhaps instead of another review so soon, the huge amount of money it costs could be re-directed to the homeless and have a partial solution, at least, in place before next winter.
In short, politicians are handsomely rewarded for what they do and a review of their salaries is just not on.
— LYLE COOK, Shearwater.