Gorge
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THANK you for your excellent opinion piece (November 12) calling on a serious rethink by our whole community regarding the extraordinary economic and environmental cost to us by allowing the Hydro to degrade our beloved Gorge as it does.
"We should demand action, let the Gorge and the Tamar River run free."
With your position of influence this call to action by The Examiner is potentially monumental for all of us who have felt so dis-empowered by the all mighty Hydro.
Let's never forget who owns this business.
With public support assured, let's ask the Government where it stands on this issue.
Why not simply turn off the Trevallyn power station for a year say and see what happens.
— DAVID JAMES, Trevallyn.
Greens Beach
I WRITE to respond to the front page article in (The Examiner, November 13) on the Greens Beach Development.
I would like to congratulate Peter Gutwein for bringing the West Tamar Town Planner and councillors to heel, for the most unreasonable decision they made to try and get the developers to pay for water reticulation that would benefit Clarence Point, Kelso and Greens Beach.
Councils statewide need to take note, that just because a developer has a great plan, and is willing to put his own money on the line to make the state a better place, they can't just add their own wish list onto that developer.
If more politicians had the courage of Mr Gutwein, to cut through the red and green tape, people would be more inclined to have a go, and Tasmania would progress accordingly.
Keep up the good work Peter.
— BRUCE CHURCH, Trevallyn.
Robots
DON Davey’s letter, The Rise of the Machines, (The Examiner, November 7), highlights the potential threat posed by the adoption of robotics in manufacturing.
What is more important is that as parents and grandparents we ask how we future proof our children in a changing world.
Encouraging a child to leave school at year 10 probably limits their possible employment to a relatively small number of labouring or desk jobs.
Entering TAFE, or reaching year 12, the child now has a much larger number of options.
To go on to tertiary education, particularly in science, mathematics, engineering and computer related studies massively expands the employment options again and allows the child, now an adult to contribute in a significant way to our productivity, technical advances and the prosperity and well-being of the whole nation.
As parents we have a moral obligation to encourage our children to take the long term view of their education so they can take advantage of the amazing options which will be available in our future.
— JOHN PAULL, Lanena.
Cycling
ON THE wave of growing popularity for this activity it would be great if the government in its work on the Midlands Highway made provision for safe cycling between Launceston and Hobart.
This would mean some dedicated lanes beside the highway, but also utilising bypassed sections of the highway as exclusive bike lanes.
Obviously riders would be keen to pass through all towns for sight-seeing and refreshments. Cyclists could use the old highway to Breadalbane and other by-passed sections from Oatlands southwards, including the lengthy Jericho section, and from Granton to Claremont leading onto the rail pathway into central Hobart.
A not-too-impossible provision to boost bike riding possibilities.
— DICK JAMES, Launceston.
Education
SAUL Eslake (The Examiner, November 13) mistakenly believes, as many do, that retention rates are low in Tasmania because of isolated students unwilling to go to college.
There is no evidence that there is an effect large enough as the number of such students is relatively low.
The evidence that is being ignored is that the retention rates at Independent and Catholic Schools are also low - less than the All Schools Average for Australia and much less that the rates for those schools for the rest of Australia.
The trends for non government schools show the same trends as government schools though movement fluctuate more because of the low numbers problem.
As a matter of interest - It looks like the Catholic system has retained traditional lower retention rates than government schools.
The correct answer to what causes Tasmania’s low retention rates is: we do not know. However, our guesses should correlate with facts and not our feelings.
— RICHARD PICKUP, Karoola.