Utas
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
THE Federal and State Government fund UTAS , all three have multi million dollars budgets.
Launceston City Council (ratepayers) has a budget about $100 million.
Why should the ratepayers of Launceston subsidies (give Willis Street and old Velodrome) to UTAS for nothing.
Treasurer Peter Gutwein stated he would make available $60 million to help the move of Utas to Inveresk.
Well come on Peter, let us see your generosity.
Bass electorate was very kind at the last state election voting into office three Liberal members.
Will you compensate the ratepayers for loss of funds?
— BASIL J. FITCH, South Launceston.
Abuse
BRAVO for White Ribbon Day.
We must all shout out loud against the abuse of women.
Jesus Christ cared for mothers and widows with remarkable love and tenderness, and risked his reputation to aid women exploited by prostitution.
He was a shining light in a world where women had few rights and protections.
And just as he gave his life for others, so he commanded his followers not just to abhor violence, but to positively sacrifice their lives for the good of their wives and children in daily acts of love and self-denial.
In the face of growing abuse and exploitation, I believe that we can all look back to his beautiful example.
— CAMPBELL MARKHAM, Hobart.
Global
VIV Forbes from Queensland (Letters Nov. 24) claims that global warming is "a minuscule increase in atmospheric plant food, caused mainly by gentle natural global warming which has triggered minor outgassing from the oceans".
NASA on the other hand reports (November 20) that "Humans have burned enough fossil fuels to drive atmospheric CO2 to levels that world hasn’t seen in at least 400,000 years, that’s driven up temperatures, melted ice and caused oceans to acidify."
I wonder which conclusion has the greatest validity?
— MICHAEL DAVIES, Kings Meadows.
Alcohol
WELL said Juanita Miller (The Sunday Examiner, November 22).
Unfortunately, I doubt, the intelligent consideration you ask to be taken into account will eventuate.
Alcohol sales generate massive profits for business owners and are a major revenue source for governments through alcohol taxes, sales tax and GST.
Alcohol is a drug, the use of albeit legal, with only one legal requirement before the user can purchase or consume it.
They must be over 18 years of age.
There currently seems to be alcohol sales outlets opening at a greater rate than ever.
No I am not advocating for a dry society.
What I am questioning is, does the increase of alcohol sales outlets not normalise the use of a drug, alcohol?
There is ample evidence of alcohol abuse not only in Australia but worldwide and the effect it has had on society.
Over the past decade alcohol availability has been made easier.
My question is, has this made society better or worse?
— ANTHONY CAMINO, Youngtown.
Speech
WHILST most of us Aussies have been preoccupied with the major issues of life…AFL footy, Test cricket, drinking, pokies, racing, TV, even work, subtle changes made (via law) to our values and culture over decades, cannot now be ignored (unless you agree to be silenced as in pre-war Germany).
One hidden issue now clearly evident is free speech.
As Julian Porteous and the Roman Catholic Church have discovered the smokescreen of ‘discrimination’, is in reality a means of silencing free speech if it is contrary to the ‘beliefs’ held by minority groups …or even one person.
Let the authorities be warned, there is trouble brewing, the silent majority will soon not be silent.
Of course, it can be avoided by simply changing the law.
— DAVID BISSETT, Somerset.
Foxes
I UNDERSTAND that foxes were imported into the other island, and Tasmania, from Britain in the 1800s, for the landed gentry to indulge in the elegant pastime of riding to hounds.
Logically, they would have included both dogs and vixens.
They were probably confined in pens, to be released one at a time as required.
It's likely some escaped, or were released into the bush.
But until someone fronts-up with a warm corpse that has reddish fur, a long bushy tail, lots of fleas, and that distinctive fox smell... .
— JOHN CHIAROTTO, Trevallyn.
Bushfires
AS authorities advise us that 2015 appears certain to be the hottest year since measurement began, the bushfire season is already upon us.
Yet, Tasmanian politicians like Stephen Parry advise us that they don’t believe the consensus of research, preferring, according to a letter the senator once sent to The Examiner, the views of ‘other scientists’.
Pity he never named them.
Similarly, Eric Abetz was at the very vanguard of climate change denial, and as he fights for his political future we’d do well to remember his chirping about how the end of the carbon price was going to slash our power bills.
All we’ve really got is the end of the only meaningful action the nation has taken to curb temperatures.
As we see the results of recent fires in WA and SA, wait for the fire season to arrive on our own baked landscape, and ponder the impact of drought, it would be nice to think the Tasmanian Liberal Party might abandon their ideological position in favour of the facts before us.
— PETER LLOYD, Reedy Marsh.
NBN
LABOR and its supporters have all the right in the world to rubbish the NBN, Steve Rogers (Letters, November 21) because it is just that, rubbish.
People are quick to forget that they are giving us half the product in still using the old copper nodes, with a cost blowout nonetheless under our new Prime Minister.
And as for the GST, if you're to believe our best years were under the people that implemented it and ruined the idea of independent business in Australia, then I suppose you wouldn't care about the poorest having to pay 50 per cent more.
If we had a government with the backbone to make the multinationals pay their bill, we'd not have any such issues, and if our Liberal government could curb their spending in the same way they love to attack the Labor platform on, that would be significant too.
— KYLE KERSLAKE, Launceston.
Equality
HERE’S a big “thank you” to all those MPs - Green, Labor and Liberal - who voted in support of the marriage equality motion in state parliament.
The Liberals who voiced their support for the first time deserve special thanks for their leadership.
Everyone who voted ‘yes’ has sent a message to Canberra that it’s time to get on with marriage equality.
You’ve also sent a message to the world that Tasmania is an increasingly inclusive society.
Most of all you've sent a message to my family that we truly belong.
— DEIDRE MURRAY, Lucaston.
Correctness
I WISH to thank Barry Prismall for his article (November 18) and saying all of the things I've been wanting to write about but haven't been brave enough.
I find I'm becoming quite 'fattist' as I grow older, yet I am unable to write about that as some of my friends are rather porky.
I also have several letters in my head about the Muslim situation, which I am afraid to write.
What does that say about the country in which I live at the moment?
Anyway, well done.
Thank you for publishing my letters from time to time.
It always gives me a buzz.
— VAL CLARKE, Kings Meadows.
Year 12
IT IS good to see that the state government has finally decided to come into the 20th Century .
After coming to the state from Victoria 15 years ago, I was astounded that high schools didn't go through to Year 12.
Only private schools offered this pathway and people were wondering why Tasmania had a low retention rate.
Maybe now this Pilot Program Option will encourage the young that education is key to success and prosperity, and the high youth unemployment rates will drop, creating a smarter Tasmania.
— MARTIN LEACH, Kings Meadows.
Rates
WITH the discussion of rates to the forefront, I note that once again they are trying to slug those who can least afford it with the suggestion that people who rent should be made to pay some sort of rates.
May I suggest that most who rent simply can't afford to buy a house.
The cost of rates is built into rent, renters don’t have the benefit of all the tax breaks such as negative gearing etc.
Most rental houses are investments, with many owning multiple properties.
By the way, I'd be interested to know if any councillors own investment properties.
If so surely this would be conflict of interest?
— JENNY BISHOP, Newnham.