US Election
ANOTHER two months to go before the US goes to the polls to elect its president - Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.
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The American public must be so sick of all the hype and promises but then that’s a way of life for them and they look forward to it every four years.
One day its Mrs Clinton by a landslide, which will send the US dollar soaring upwards. The next day it's Mr Trump, who had no show and is now just around the corner catching up fast and the dollar is going to plunge if he wins.
Give me good old-fashioned boring Australian voting anytime.
David Parker, West Launceston.
Foreign ownership
AUSTRALIANS should be concerned that the release of figures (compiled by the Australian Tax Office) shows national farmland now in foreign hands, equates to twice the size of Victoria.
Now that's getting seriously large.
Admittedly as federal Treasurer Scott Morrison states: "foreign investment is integral to Australia's economy". Yet surely investment in the so called 'national interest' that takes the ownership of valuable agricultural land away from locals may in the long term have the opposite effect.
I say, it would be far better for the federal government to allow foreign investment through lease agreements, (not ownership) therefore securing opportunities for local farmers to buy back land once circumstances change.
Footnote|: 342,000 hectares of prime Tasmanian farmland is now under foreign ownership.
You be the judge.
Robert Lee, Summerhill.
Decentralised Admin
WE IN the North applaud the state government’s efforts to decentralise administration with Mining and Minerals moving to Burnie and Health Services moving to Launceston.
However I understand these moves are facing stiff opposition from present employees who are resisting relocation. Maybe understandable, but only in the short term.
Advertised senior positions in these departments in their new locations will surely find employees keen on advancement, while those refusing relocation will be gradually phased out or transferred to other employment. The last thing we need is expensive travel and overnight costs.
Tasmania, with the most decentralised population of any state, must overcome this Hobart-centricity.
And what a wonderful thing it would be if the University moved the Institute of Agriculture to Launceston or Burnie, where most future students are located.
Dick James, Launceston.
Pensions
GOUGING attempt to take $ 4 a week from Tasmania’s poorest residents is unconscionable.
Head of the ABS Census, David Kalisch, is paid more in a fortnight ($27,000) than a whole year’s pension.
Restraint on excessive remuneration packages for overpaid (and outlandish perks) public servants, would entirely cover the National Disability Insurance Scheme .
For any government to contemplate taking $4 a week from a total income of $300-$400 a week is without compassion and shameful.
I believe our Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ‘s personal riches divorce him from understanding the difference in the “haves and have nots”
Bad choices, failing economy, no jobs, tumbling shares, old age, broken marriages, poor health, have forced millions of people onto welfare.
Value to the have-nots $4 is food for a day, to the haves, a small tip.
Tony Abbott understood.