Thank you
THE CEO and the committee of management of the Launceston Benevolent Society, wish to pass on their extreme appreciation to the people, businesses and organisations of Northern Tasmania for their generosity and support of the Empty Stocking Appeal.
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We also pass on a huge thank you to the staff of The Examiner for their dedication in the reports and stories which highlighted the need in the community.
To raise in excess of $90,000 to assist the needy is truly sensational.
The funds that we receive will enhance the work we do, to help the under privileged in our society over the coming months.
Over the Christmas period more than 300 children received toys and we continued to provide food assistance daily.
We are truly blessed to live in a wonderful caring community to which everyone should be very proud.
John Stuart, CEO, Launceston Benevolent Society.
Prisons
I CANNOT believe it would cost $270 million for 270 beds in a new Northern prison and $70 million for 70 beds in a new Risdon remand centre (The Examiner, January 22).
What’s wrong with a $100 swag the homeless are forced to sleep on?
A.R. Trounson, Needles.
LINC
THERE MUST be a campaign to tell us what LINC stands for.
I have no idea and nobody seems able to tell me.
I note we still have a State Library, not a state LINC and all other states and countries still have libraries.
I had to take copies of a book I had written into the LINC and had to address them to the “LINCIAN”.
We had to unscramble the egg with academies and polytechnics, maybe we could do the same with LINCS.
It could become a vote-getting policy for say the Jacqui Lambie Network at the forthcoming state election.
I think it would get considerable support.
Malcolm Scott, Newstead.
Hospital waiting Times
I REFER to the article by Matt Maloney in The Examiner, December 30.
I read the article with interest.
Whilst the findings of the Productivity Commission form an important part of health delivery, they are just one part.
Issues not covered in the article or by our Health Minister Michael Ferguson are:
- Waiting times for appointments with specialists in outpatient clinics in both the Royal Hobart and Launceston.
- As we have an ageing population with complex health needs, these delays can't be good for the health of the population.
The question then becomes is it a lack of funding?
I would have thought that they form a vital part of preventative health.
Tasmanians deserve better.
Ella Miller, Lanena.
The swinging voter
I AM that bane of all politicians, the swinging voter.
Many years ago, after moving to Melbourne in the days of Sir Henry Bolte and then Dick Hamer, it was Liberal all the way.
Not because they were Liberal per se, but because they got things, and things went along very nicely under their respective governments.
Since returning to Tasmania, I have voted Liberal, Labor, Greens and independent (always independent for the upper house).
I have always voted for the party that I felt would be the best in the interests of Tasmanians generally.
Unfortunately, with the quality of politicians these days, it’s more a case of who’ll do the least damage.
Richard Hill, Newstead.
Genderless Driver Licences
IN RESPONSE to Jack Sonnemann's comment (The Examiner, January 22).
He seems to feel that Queensland not displaying gender on a licence is somehow 'bad'.
I'm curious as to what this 'bad' that he imagines entails. We've not had gender markers in Tasmanian licences for at least 10 years, and society has yet to crumble.
Perhaps Jack could enlighten us as to what, specifically, is this bad thing he imagines.
Maggie Crowe, Launceston.
Pokies
YOUR correspondent Todd Hills (The Examiner, January 29) suggests that World War II was fought partly to retain poker machines in pubs and clubs.
The absurdity of his argument is that removal of machines programmed to psychologically prepare users to lose money is not an attack on personal freedoms, so much as protecting the unwary and the vulnerable in our society from exploitation.
Those intent on gambling have many willing recipients of their money beyond pokies, which would be unaffected by any move to rid pubs and clubs of pokies' sinister and unfair advantages.
Bruce Lindsay, Longford.
The Tourisim boom
TASMANIA wants to sell itself to the world as a clean and green tourist destination. How can this be?
There are towns where you have to boil the drinking water before you can drink it.
Sewerage treatments are barely coping without the added burden of increased tourism.
The first and last view the cruise ship visitors get of Tasmania from Burnie is a huge mountain of wood chips. Soon our wilderness will be spoilt with hotels.
The unique wilderness that tourists come to experience will slowly cease to be a wilderness experience. Surely the right infrastructure must be in place before we get carried away with counting dollars.
If we build only hotels and do not care enough for our infrastructure and wilderness the tourist bubble will burst.
Horst Schroeder, East Devonport.