On the face of it this would be a sensible response, but when we consider that the changes principally affect only farmers the public should reconsider.

Farmers are among the most responsible gun owners.

For farmers, guns are a tool of their trade needed to control feral animals including predatory stray dogs, control stock and other farm related duties for which a gun is simply a tool as basic as a tractor.

The public should not see these changes as a casualisation of lethality, but as allowing farmers access to the tools necessary for their trade.

I READ with interest the interview with Eric Hutchinson about his role as administrator of Norfolk Island (The Examiner, May 5).

I was honoured to serve as the deputy administrator of Norfolk Island in the early 1990s and as administrator of Christmas Island and The Cocos (Keeling) Islands from 2012 to 2014.

While Mr Hutchison outlined many of the complex issues facing Norfolk Island I think it a pity that no insight was provided into the basis of the decision to remove from the residents of Norfolk Island their basic democratic right to have some say in or control over decisions critical to the quality of their day to day lives.

All decisions on issues as fundamental to any community as education, health care, aging, the environment, justice are now made on behalf of Norfolk Island by the Parliament of NSW with no reference to or involvement from the residents of Norfolk Island. Norfolk Island has in effect been re-colonised.

Such a draconian response to the issues being faced by Norfolk Island was not warranted and cannot be defended.

There were other options that could have been explored and implemented.

I am wishing Norfolk Island every success in its case before the United Nations.

What Australia is doing on Norfolk Island, and is mirrored on Christmas and Cocos Islands, is quite shameful.

I TOTALLY agree with Paul Murphy remarks (The Examiner, May 6) in regards to the live sheep and cattle export.

I myself watched that segment on TV and was horrified and sickened by the content.

How can our esteemed politicians allow this practice to continue? Where’s their heart and feeling? One would have to be heartless not to be affected.

Not only am I disgusted with the federal government, particularly Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, for his attitude but also the Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and his Labor party, no comment from them.

I find politicians do not rate very high with me at any time, but in this situation they have reached ground level. 

The suffering of these sheep was barbaric.

The Farmer Federation can make all the excuses they like as to why they need live stock export, but one is not stupid, it’s money and greed that’s the reason.

If our esteemed pollies turn their backs on this issue then shame on them.

I have written to Mr Turnbull voicing my disgust, now I wait with bated breath for his reply.

THE sale of some churches has caused much angst among many people in Tasmania.

I note that some parishioners  have been saying, " I didn't commit the crime so why should I have to suffer?".

How thankful I am that Jesus doesn't say that about me.

IS IT fair to blame all police officers when a few bash people with disabilities, gun down unarmed people with disabilities, is it fair to label all of them when a few have committed atrocities including rape and pedophilia? It's not fair? Why then is it considered fair to claim all bikies, all their associates, are criminals?

IT IS extremely difficult to understand the decision of the Queensland Division of LNP to pre-select Julian Simmonds to contest the next general election instead of the incumbent, Jane Prentice.

Senior ministers in the Coalition have praised her contribution particularly with regard to NDIS and she also has the respect of the opposition (maybe this is the problem). Surely the public should believe that selection is merit based and federal government should represent the best available, but we are often left wondering.

TRAGIC, no market on May 12. An understandable cancellation according to the Bureau of Meteorology predictions, but finally with weather that wasn’t as bad as predicted.

Maybe the policy should be ‘never cancel’, just as Salamanca Market never does. Then it is up to stallholders to decide whether to set up or not. Just a few may stay away, but most will chance it. And I will continue to get my gozleme and cup of coffee.

WHY did the last group of MPs wait so long to resign their positions in Parliament when it was obvious that they were ineligible because of the previous ruling by the High Court of Australia.   Does this mean that the salary that they received while being a temporary members of our federal government has to be paid back?

And what of the votes they were involved with when the parliament was sitting? If anyone else was to commit this fraud on the Australian public, we would charged for doing so.