I implore the Labor party to echo the Liberal’s position on this issue. Locking up parts of our state is never the answer. Sure, there will always be people who do the wrong thing but if we applied the same tar-everyone-with-the-same-brush decision that’s been made regarding this issue to other potentially problematic things, no one would be allowed to have a beer, drive a car, or go out after dark. Trying to stop idiots by punishing everyone else is simply wrong. As someone who loves visiting the remote places on the West Coast – one of the last truly wild places in Tassie - I say let us see more of our great state.

WE HAVE truly thrown the baby out with the bathwater in the renewable energy debate.  Completely forgotten is the urging in the Paris agreement to focus on reducing emissions rather than setting goals for renewable energy.  

Also forgotten are gas-fired heating and cooking have emissions about equal to those from electricity generation. Wind and solar contribute about 1.6 per cent to the world's electricity production and less than 10 per cent of the total from all renewables with biomass, geothermal and hydroelectric the main contributors; and the gross unfairness in using emissions per capita as the yardstick, which makes no allowance for a country such as Australia, with its small population occupying a very large country, that consequently lead to very high network costs as well as many others such as transport.

What is truly remarkable is nearly everyone has become an expert on this issue with politicians leading the charge. Imagine seeking opinions on the selection of systems to land safely aircraft or how to conduct brain surgery.  Fortunately the relevant professions have assumed the dominant role for these even though there may be strong political overtones.  Where are the engineering professions when we most need them?

FOR HEAVEN’S sake Labor Leader Bill Shorten. We've had Hurricane Harvey barrelling into Houston with disastrous results, Irma is even more destructive and has already wreaked havoc before hitting Florida or maybe poor Houston again, and we have chaos and the threat of war on the Korean Peninsula.

All you can do is nitpick in parliament so that nothing is done while sniping at Barnaby Joyce and others, the former having the misfortune to have had a father come here, 70 years ago, from New Zealand. Get real Mr Shorten and start behaving like the politician you aspire to be. With the disasters in the world at the moment we do not need a man pontificating in the chamber about matters that the majority of the public do not give two hoots about.

IT CAME as no surprise to me that reasonably credible evidence of the existence of the Tasmanian Tiger has come to light. Three years ago the Queensland night parrot, that had not been seen for 75 years, was found to be alive and well. More recently, the Western swamp tortoise that had not been seen for more than 100 years was found and is now on a breeding program in Adelaide Zoo. Tasmania is a linear frontier settlement with vast unknown areas, we could not even track down a fox even though there was evidence of its presence. Thylacines live on other marsupials, small rodents and birds, so could live and survive independently of civilisation. I am a true believer.