Cycling
Your editorial is spot on (The Examiner, January 31). The key to a sustainable heath system is a serious investment in preventative health.
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However you didn’t go far enough. The key to preventative health is getting people more active and the obvious next step is to invest in making walking and cycling easier for more people.
An investment program could include completing the missing link in the Inveresk-Rocherlea trail around the Mowbray turf club.
This would mean people could safely walk or ride from the northern suburbs to the CBD with widely recognised significant health benefits – a key plank of the City Deal.
Other measures would be completing the sealing of the new flood levee trails and developing strategic links between these trails to encourage more social and commuter active transport. Finally support for traffic calming measures in the CBD would see more people walking and riding from suburbs into the city.
The evidence is clear. A recent UK study found that regular cycling reduces incidence of cancer, heart attacks and diabetes by nearly 50 per cent - something a pill can never do.
We call on all candidates and political parties to get serious about preventative health. Investments not talk are needed.
Malcolm Reid, president Tamar Bicycle Users Group.
Dismay
MY FATHER, Arch Flanagan, served in World War II.
He was a Japanese Prisoner of War who in his later years attended a lunch for ex-POWs at the Glenorchy RSL every month. I know the venue well.
For my father, Anzac Day was a day to honour the comrades who didn’t make it home from the prison camps; for my family it is a day of great sadness and enormous significance.
I don’t have words for the depth of my dismay at the pro-pokies lobby ad using the Glenorchy RSL.
I am horrified that the RSL would allow itself to be featured in an advertisement for an industry which is bleeding Tasmanian communities white, and that they would suggest that ex-service personnel would be left without support.
I can’t express my anger that Glenorchy RSL manager John Chivers would announce that the community won’t celebrate Anzac Day if there is a drop in pokies revenue. This is completely disrespectful to this community and to our former service personnel.
The RSL exists to promote the interests and welfare of serving and ex-serving men and women. What is it doing allowing itself to become dependent on machines which the psychologists call the ‘crack cocaine’ of gambling products?
Here are some options for Mr Chivers: Look at the ALP transition package and the help it would give him.
Consider getting business mentoring from one of the managers of 44 RSL clubs that don’t have poker machines.
Jo Flanagan, New Town.
Barnaby Joyce
So Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, his supporters and others are pleading for his right to privacy over the revelation that he and his (former) Press Secretary are "madly in love" and expecting a baby together.
He is still married and was, at the time of conducting the "relationship' with his staffer. This was also happening in the same period of his public and enthusiastic support of the no vote in the same sex marriage debate.
A position based on his support of "traditional family values" as the linchpin of a civilised and stable Australian society.
Disingenuous at best, hypocritical at worst. Maybe the Kiwis should have kept him after all.
Sue Gul, Newnham.
Beneath Contempt
WHEN a man only ever claims responsibility when good things are happening and always blames others when they are not - you know deep in his heart he holds the rest of us in contempt.
Tony Newport, Hillwood.
Pollies promises
IT SEEMS like all the politicians are promising every thing for all parts of the state.
For instance, a new bridge across the Tamar River at Riverside, an underpass at Campbell Town, limit the rise of electricity prices to the public, plus all the other comments by all three parties.
If we only get 10 per cent of them we would be lucky. The amount of advertising by mainly the Liberal party on the roads must be costing them a small fortune
Anthony Galvin, Mayfield.
Big Show Glenn Maxwell
BIG show Glenn Maxwell certainly lived up to his nickname at the recent T20 game at Bellerive Oval between Australia and England, with a six to score his century and to win the game.
Kenneth Gregson, Swansea.
Tasmania
WHAT is the way ahead for Tasmania?
Some people see old growth forest, others see dying trees.
Some people want to protect Aboriginal heritage, others want more tracks for recreation.
Some people welcome eco-tourism, others regret the loss of access for Tasmanians.
Some people want tougher justice, others fear political interference.
Some people welcome investment and jobs in roads, others fear change.
Some people would like to control gambling, others promote free choice.
There are many opinions, but what are the facts?
Margaret Dertesi, Perth.
Susan Lamb
I BELIEVE Somerset House in the UK has all the information MP Susan Lamb requires readily available.
Even the local council would have copies of marriage certificates available.
John Cullen, Norwood.