Well, isn’t that a joke?

This project is going to cost millions just so we can get more customers and visitors thinking, “What a great place to shop”.

I hope the people with money that come to sit on those great benches and eyeball the beautiful shops do not get offended by our Tasmanian normal man/women on the street.

We might not have teeth; we might even smell bad, but hey, let us make Tasmania great for visitors.

What a joke this is. Money being spent on inane prettiness when the normal folk cannot afford to go to a dentist and struggle to get a job.

What happened to juggling tax payers’ money for assisting the people of Tasmania?

There is always such a furore about its aged folks, but they paid their taxes and perhaps did not have savings for old age because they spent it on their children and grandchildren.

Don't try to dignify that fact that it might bring in more money because that never even touches the needy.

Felicity O’Neill, Deloraine.

READING of the tragic death of Ian Palmer, I might just point out that I think we’re lucky that there aren’t more cases like that in Launceston.

I frequently drive or walk through the David Street, Elphin Road and Hoblers Bridge Road intersection, living at Newstead as I do.

The number of people who ignore the crossings and cross over Elphin Road, either outside the Fortune Wok and Suwan restaurants, or by the Commonwealth Bank, gives me the shivers.

All they have to do is walk a few paces to the nearest crossing and wait for the lights but no, they put their lives at risk just to gain a few seconds.

As a motorist, I can say it’s bad enough when the jaywalker is at least purposeful, but when you get someone who realises they’ve misjudged the timing and they dither it’s awful.

You don’t know what they’re going to do and neither do they and how we haven’t had a fatality at that intersection is beyond me.

I just hope that at least some people will take note of poor Mr Palmer’s demise and do the right thing.

Richard Hill, Newstead.

MAY I add some clarity to the grim comments made by a contributor concerning Invermay and the 2016 floods.  The fact is that not even a teaspoon of flood water invaded Invermay during that event.  

This was despite the North Esk registering more than a one in 200-year flow, while the South Esk at a lesser one in 50, was still awesome in its power.  

SES under the command of Tasmania Police, advised optional evacuation to Invermay residents as a precautionary measure and have gained valuable experience of flood levels for public safety decisions in the future.  

Both rivers were an overwhelming sight, but were well accommodated by the recently completed levees with freeboard to spare.  

Some areas of Newstead suffered from the record breaking North Esk flooding, prompting an instant funding commitment from the City of Launceston council and state government.  

With designs and approvals now in hand, the construction of North Esk flood defence at Newstead has started this week.  

Invermay lies at Launceston's heart, with a wide range of community living, business, sporting, cultural, recreational and educational activities in particular, and has an exciting future ahead.

Alan Birchmore, Chairman, Launceston Flood Authority.

WHEN WAS the last time you saw a prime minister attend a Winter Relief, CEO Sleepout? I’d like to invite our PM over for dinner (cold baked beans), offer him luxury accommodation for the night (under the stars) and in the morning treat him to a sumptuous breakfast (colder baked beans). Give him a night to digest the idea of poverty and homelessness and I reckon in the morning he’ll get wind of it.

A.R. Trounson, Needles.

THE PRIME MINISTER’S wise legal mind fails again, with his pompous "and the courts will find it so" edict on his pal Barnaby Joyce. Well the courts did not find it so and found the laws were explicit  and precise in their current form.

Peter Taylor, Midway Point.

LEN LANGAN in his regular letter with variation on a theme continues to warn us of the dangers of Bill Shorten and his union background. On the other hand we should not worry about the influence of the IPA, Minerals Council, big business, fossil fuel lobby, the Murdoch press and far right religious zealots on the incumbent government. Double standards?

Ralph Marshall, Launceston.

TO QUOTE former prime minister Paul Keating, “the rise of the state secretary”, is a lucid reference to the “career political class”, with its ubiquitous contagion spreading to all major political franchises, with the unfortunate result of a bland, robotic, disengaged people’s representative - is this recent scenario an incompatible political juxtaposition?

Kenneth Gregson, Swansea.

HOW TRUE, Dave Robinson (The Examiner, October 22) I wonder what would have happened to this beautiful tree magnificent state of Tasmania if Gunns had had their way. The Greens have saved Tasmania for our new and very lucrative industry tourism, meanwhile saving Tasmanian native wildlife by saving natural habitats.

Elsa de Ruyter, St Helens.