Car Parks
THE NEW parking payment system in multi-storey car parks will reduce queues at exit points, the City of Launceston pamphlet declares. And you know what? We now enjoy having to queue up twice when we come out of Village Cinema upon entering Paterson Street car park. First there will be a long queue at the pay station, where people have to put in their vouchers and figure out how we pay, and after all those people have finally made their way back to their cars, it starts again. Moving slowly in a queue of cars which make their way to the exit point, where people for a second time have to put in their voucher or credit cards, which for some drivers is not a quick action.
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Helena Lettau, Grindelwald.
Oatlands bypassed gem
WE ARE constantly being enticed to travel overseas. Like Londoners who never do the sights of London, we ignore our own gems. Three fantastic ones are: the Thylacine Pub at Mole Creek, the Lake Leake Inn and the church, graveyard and view at Kirklands. I now add Oatlands which should really be called “Wheatlands”. Yes, I know the mill, but there are three other important attractions besides it. Oatlands has the greatest collection of Georgian buildings in Australian.
The second is the Catholic church designed by Pugin, who designed the British Houses of Parliament. The church is only one of two built from models given to his great friend William Willson, first Catholic Bishop of Hobart Town. The third is TKO Bakery Cafe, it is not just the food and excellent coffee, but the building is full of movie memorabilia of Errol Flynn and Marilyn Monroe. Unfortunately it hides its light behind an uninviting entrance. Please don't leave Tasmania to the tourists, be a tourist in your own state, it is great fun.
Malcolm Scott, Newstead.
Wicked campers
IT IS a double standard for the Tasmanian government to legislate against Wicked Campers' offensive slogans at the same time as it is watering down Tasmania's laws against hate speech.
Clearly, freedom of speech isn't the government's motivation, so what is? The only consistent link between the two policies is that the Australian Christian Lobby wants them both. The ACL wants to ban Wicked Camper slogans because they offend its religious sensibilities. It wants to weaken hate speech protections so that religious folk have a special exemption allowing them to say whatever they want about women, LGBTI people and other minorities.
I call on the government to stop pandering to conservative religious lobby groups and start listening to common sense. Our hate speech laws have prevented any return to the public homophobia that disgraced our state in the 1990s. They have prevented the kind of religious extremism we have seen in other states in the last few years. Our hate speech laws work. Keep them as they are.
Rodney Croome, South Hobart.
Refugees
I AM convinced Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has finally lost the plot.
Catching her on television the other night, there she was bellowing about Australia’s supposed obligation to take in yet more endless streams of refugees, while at the same time using tired out old labels to describe anyone, including the current Turnbull government, who doesn’t agree with her views.
This is odd, since Miss Hanson-Young is no longer the Green’s spokesman on immigration, Nick McKim is. So what right does she have to vent in her old portfolio is anyone’s guess. Maybe if the Greens turned their attention to fixing up the third-world, poverty-like living conditions experienced by Australia’s first people, our indigenous friends then perhaps cleaning up their own backyard will bring them a medium of respect. Charity and help should always begin at home first.
