A look around the chamber would have revealed the former member who shunned Cabinet posts to make himself infamous for orchestrating assassinations (including at least one against a leader of his own party). 

Endorsing a candidate with an ego like the new Speaker was always likely to be a road to peril. 

As the senior Liberal senator was quick to remark, she is a self advancer (takes one to know one). Two suggestions made by Professor Kate Crowley left me wondering. 

Firstly, why a first-term politician believes that she should be elevated any higher than cabinet secretary and secondly, that winning a beauty contest makes her any more intelligent than hard- working fellow members. 

The only certainty that will eventuate from this fiasco is that she will quit the Liberal party. 

Some say she will become an independent. 

My feeling is that she will seek a home either in the Labor party or the Greens. 

D. Palmer, Newnham.

I REALLY believe it is time to draw the line under the present administration of our little city.

Launceston has been in the doldrums, suffering many of the indignities of third world issues, yet $19 million dollars is plucked out of the blue to update the mall in the hope of stopping the abandonment of shops.

The city’s real needs are overlooked by the present administration, causing an ever-growing list of major problems, some of which have become a canker on the struggling town. 

I’m sure with responsible council and staff the scene would be very different.

The scope of issues needing attention would need to be very different approach to the present shambles we see occurring, including private development.

I firmly believe that Launceston is in need of a change in caring, a turnaround in the obvious flawed system that is in place today, to provide the city with a new outlook and a new beginning ASAP.

Geoff Smedley, Trevallyn.

STEVE Rogers (Letters, The Examiner, May 2) demonstrates a degree of selectivity of thought or, perhaps is unaware that, in regards to corporate ethical behaviour.

Then it was a former federal Labor government, led by Julia Gillard, that introduced the Future of Financial Advice legislation in 2012. 

That legislation was considerably weakened by the later Abbott-led Liberal government, in part, by the grandfathering of commissions to financial planners and advisers.

And if he wants to know why it appears the Liberal governments of the past four years are being blamed for the corporate malfeasant behaviour of the recent past then he would be wise to consider the fierce resistance to the establishment of a Royal Commission into Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services that the Turnbull government exhibited and now so earnestly regrets.

Even Minister for Revenue and Financial Services Kelly O’Dwyer has reluctantly admitted that both she and her Turnbull-led government were wrong. 

Now there’s a first.

I too cannot wait to see what the Commissioner Hayne led investigations into both Retail and  Industry Superannuation Funds reveal.

By the comparative exemplary annual returns to members of the latter then I will be surprised if industry funds  have anything to answer for other than their good governance for their members’ sole benefit.

Douglas Ross Robbins, Trevallyn.

IF WE remember back some time, groceries were packed in brown paper bags that had more strength than some of the flimsy plastic bags that are used today.

The added practicality of the brown paper bags were that they were easily disposed of, and were biodegradable, not posing any threat to our environment.

Have our future decisions really been so practical and wise?

Ian O’Neill, Deloraine.

WHAT a stupid place to put a traffic Island in the middle of Amy Road, between Abbott Street and Punchbowl Road. 

It is hard to avoid, some car will run into it or worse still, cause an accident trying to avoid it.

Malcolm Scott, Newstead.

I NOTICED that M. Barter (Letters, The Examiner, May 1) complained about drivers travelling in the right lane along the West Tamar Road.

The last time I read the road rules you only have to travel in the left lane when the speed limit is above 80km/h.

The idea is to double the amount of traffic the road can carry, it is courteous though to move into the left lane if you are travelling below the limit.

Brian Lister, Riverside.

I AM horrified to hear of the proposed sale by the Anglican Church of 120 churches. 

Having grown up in Tasmania and done a lot of research as an architectural historian on these buildings, I know that many of them are of immense architectural, artistic and community value and form a significant part of Tasmania's cultural heritage, including those at small towns such as Bothwell or St Mary's. 

Selling them off would make a huge and irretrievable dent in Tasmania's heritage.

It's an incredibly short-sighted response to the churches’ problems that will produce lasting damage.

Dr Caroline Miley, Victoria.