Let’s not always be quick to blame politicians and others for all that goes wrong.                                                                                                   

We no longer have a car manufacturing industry.  We did not support Australian jobs when we made cars here, instead we bought imported cars.                                                                                                           

Similarly, most shoppers use self check outs in supermarkets thus disregarding job loss.                                       

In the banking sector people do internet banking for convenience, but jobs will be lost and branches will close.

It is obvious that every overseas internet purchase goes against Australia’s interest in the long run.

As for the housing crisis, well most home owners expect to sell their homes for a huge profit after a short time.

Houses now are seen as investments and not as homes.

It’s little wonder that they are becoming more expensive.

So please let’s all be a little less greedy and think more about Australia’s future.

Collectively we can make a big difference in securing a better future.

QUITE a number of readers have written regarding the ailing central business district in Launceston and the number of empty shops.

Mainland investors can buy a CBD  investment property here at what they see as bargain prices and if they cannot achieve mainland rents their clever accountants can utilise all the perks to leave it vacant and still be in front.

Vacant properties can be sold much faster when required and still increase in value while empty. Victoria has introduced a vacant property tax.

The current great expenditure on the mall will unfortunately not fix the problem, like Devonport's Living City fiasco.

There must be something in the water at council meetings.

I HAVE to reply to a recent letter by Bill Chugg (The Examiner, April 30) regarding the use of fire as a management tool used by Aboriginals in Tasmania.

Mr Chugg, your idea of fire management as a fifth generation white Australian needs to take a look at how the Tasmanian Aboriginals actually used fire as not only a management tool, but also as a way of feeding members of their community.

By burning down a few trees and keeping the saplings from re-growing, they could use the land for cultivation of food and by keeping the grass that grew there at a reasonable length, could attract animals such as wallaby, wombats and possum to feed on the grass and thereby provide food.

An example of this is an area behind Wineglass Bay that is still visible.

There were nine Aboriginal nations and about 7000 indigenous people in Tasmania, until 1803 when the British started taking everything away from them and giving it to settlers.

By October 1847, there were 14 Aboriginal men, 22 women and 10 children remaining.

They used fire management for more than 35,000 years, which is a little bit more than you and your forefathers have been in Tasmania, on land that was taken off the original peoples of Tasmania.

Does farm management by you and your forefathers include cutting down every tree in sight within the Midlands area of Tasmania, to leave nothing but a dust bowl?

Does it include the importation of such wonderful things as hawthorn, gorse, blackberries, rabbits, blackbirds, starlings, mice and rats into this state?

The people doing the news report and the local farmer that was mentioned may know a little bit more than you think they know.

THE death of Professor Goodall in Switzerland is a cause of great sadness.

At 104 years of age he had a wealth of experience to offer Australians as well as the opportunity to affirm that old age is not an illness but a blessing.

In choosing death over life every senior person who takes their own life must encourage the rest of us to establish a culture of care for the elderly and their families.

HAS anybody put a cost on this fiasco.

I think the disillusioned taxpayer deserves more than just “sorry”.

There are High Court costs and byelections and this must add up to many millions of dollars, all because some of our politicians don’t seen to know who they are and where they come from.

This doesn’t cut it with me, or in their words, pass the pub test.

THE problem Northern Tasmanians have is we don’t make enough noise.

A bit over a year ago our southern cousins made a big noise about the Bridgewater Bridge and bingo – they now have over $500 million in funding and will start soon.

We only need one fifth of the cost to build ours – (mini Tasman Bridge would look great and allows the boats through).

In 10 years from now, when traffic is building up back to the top of the Landfall Hill and down to Legana, we may see a bridge.

In the interim, no amount of reshuffling streets and reprogramming traffic lights will fix Launceston’s traffic woes, just put a temporary Band-Aid on a frustrating problem.

In 10 years, like we see in other cities around the world, yet another bridge will be needed, but we won’t even have the first one finished.

The Mowbray and Newnham connectors both need a flyover overpass, but wait and see what we get. Someone needs to go to Hobart and thump their fist on someone’s desk.