Politician pay rise
I READ with total nausea the news that within a week of stripping workers of their weekend penalty rates, Australian federal politicians have gained a pay rise of around 2 per cent. As mongrel acts go, this is up there with the best. Reason being that the government doesn't want to lose our "talented people" to the private sector. Not much chance of that, most of these clowns would be unemployable in the private sector. And what really shows the contempt for the Australian people, is the defence thrown up by the pollies. Give me a break.
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Brian Lee, Riverside.
Heavy vehicle toll
AN ECONOMY is not a society; so when the body representing Launceston's economic well-being voices strong reservations about a proposed development, surely that society must take notice? I sincerely hope that all our aldermen read and, if necessary research for themselves, the article "Truck traffic drives ring road proposal" (The Examiner, June 22). Thank you Jan Davis and the Launceston Chamber of Commerce for speaking out.
Ken Partridge, West Launceston.
Picnic Island
THE developer of Picnic Island is advertising for guests to spend a night on a rocky, windswept, penguin and shearwater rookery 800 metres off Muirs Beach at Coles Bay.
He claimed he was inspired by the boatsheds at Dove Lake, and thought, “I want to build something that looks like it’s been here for 100 years”. So why did he put copper covered sheds on this island with the backdrop of Freycinet Peninsula? Profit.
He persuaded the council to go against early prohibitions on coastal reserve developments. He modified the canvas temporary camp endorsed by BirdLifes Tasmania and council approved plans to be permanent structures on rookery.
Such modifications have cut across both the interests of the community and the natural and scenic values of our precious coastal wilderness. He even managed to persuade the federal government to award a tourist grant of $250,000 for these sheds.
Where is the real concern for our diminishing wilderness and threatened bird species? Will this unwanted development gain community support? I hope Picnic Island guests ask some of these questions. They may see what this development has done to diminish Freycinet. Perhaps the island could be given to the Tasmanian Land Conservancy and that government grant used to restore the island to protect its species. He might then gain community praise.
Adrian Sullivan, Coles Bay.
Gonski 2.0
RE THE Gonski 2.0 educational funding scheme, perhaps Albert Einstein’s (attributed) dictum about insanity and its results needs its own 2.0 update: repetitive stupidity and bone-headed obstinacy is spending more mega-millions on the same processes and expecting different products.
Leonard Colquhoun, Invermay.
Power prices
WE ALL need to be thankful that we live in Tasmania where almost all our electricity comes from renewable sources, largely produced by harnessing our abundant water resources. While mainland users face 20 per cent or worse increases, we should largely be immune with our state government wisely capping any increase.
This is a change from a few years ago with the previous government when prices seemed to escalate year on year to produce big dividends to a hard strapped government and even exporting power to severely run down our storages. Those two new wind farms now being planned will further immune Tasmania from escalating prices, but also justify another Bass Strait cable (maybe via King Island, which has great wind farm potential). We can certainly become the ‘battery’ of Australia.