Council Elections
HAVE we seen the end of the “"29 Councils is too many” sterile amalgamation debate?
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I have looked through the candidate statements in The Examiner and can find only one statement advocating unconditional support for amalgamation. One out of more than 100.
Either the candidates do not think amalgamation is a burning issue or they know that amalgamation is electoral poison, or both.
After the 2014 local government elections, we saw a real campaign to push the new government into forced amalgamations of the neighbouring councils with Launceston. Almost a frenzy.
This was always the agenda of a small group, not the majority of residents.
Can we hope that these lobbyists will now realise the only path to either amalgamations or mergers is through convincing a majority of residents to vote in favour any proposal?
If this is ever to occur these lobbyists will need a radical change in their approach.
Peter Kearney, Lanena.
Nurses Pay
REGARDING Halina Steane’s letter (The Examiner, October 30) I am, in fact, fully in favour of recruiting sufficient nurses such that our public (and private) hospitals do not run on overtime and goodwill.
There is a correlation between poorer health outcomes and staff who are overworked.
However, the purpose of my original letter was to reassure those members of the public about to undergo surgery at the Launceston General Hospital that their operations will be safe, even if the theatre nurse attending to them is working overtime.
Stephen Brough FRACS, Urological Surgeon, Launceston.
Breast Cancer Support
MCGRATH Breast Cancer nurse, Mary Sweeney, deserves the high praise bestowed on her in (The Examiner, October 22) “Understanding and somebody to lean on”.
While accompanying a friend for interviews and surgery this year, I met Mary several times and found her to be in a class of her own.
Her manner, attentiveness, hospital visits and explanations were magnificent.
We are extremely fortunate to have a person like Mary in Launceston.
Anyone with breast cancer can be assured of excellent support.
Val Clarke, Kings Meadows.
Refugees and Climate Change
WE ARE now paying the price of all that green political brainwashing at educational establishments where consequences of decisions were and are still not on the curriculum.
Instead they learn that economic migrants must be called refugees and renewables are both reliable and cheap (because the sun never goes down and the wind always blows).
Gordon Thurlow, Launceston.
Political Similarities
THE similarities between the 1971-72 McMahon government and the present circumstances of the incumbent federal government are eerily profound.
Kenneth Gregson, Swansea.
Appropriate support
The problem that Mary T. Bates and others fail to grasp when it comes to same-sex marriage and LGBTI issues is that of appropriate support for minority groups in a liberal democratic society.
First of all, at around 4 to 5 per cent of the population they represent no threat whatsoever to the dominant values attached to heterosexuality that are entrenched in our society. Secondly, as a group that exists outside the perceived norm they are subject to discrimination from an early age purely on the basis of difference.
Addressing these issues in a caring and supportive way is going to throw up challenges in the way we are statistically defined and recorded. We should, with some imagination and dexterity, overcome these so that the perceived threats to heterosexual identification are suitably quashed.
In the meantime, it seems that the age old prejudices toward LGBTI people are really at the heart of the arguments put forward by Mary and her ilk.
Tony Newport, Hillwood.
Doubts not Myths
Martine Delaney's latest public comments about “fearmongering” in the transgender rights debate deserve some closer inspection. I have been watching a similar debate on gender recognition and self identity for transgender people currently going on in the UK. What is not surprising about the debate in the UK, is that women have been organising across the country to oppose the reforms.
Women’s opposition to self identity is based on very real concerns reported in the media. These concerns involved sexual assault of women in prisons by transwomen, women being harassed by transwomen in women-only spaces and groups, unfair advantages for women by participation of transwomen in womens sports and attacks on academics who are researching aspects of transgenderism.
The UK media has given very fair coverage to all voices on this debate as it is a debate that involves more than just transgender persons. It is a debate we must have in Tasmania. I know several people who made submissions to Robyn Banks consultation that identified negative impacts on children, women, lesbians and the wider community from Robyn Banks proposed reforms on transgender rights.
Very few people in Tasmania actually knew about Ms Banks consultation and now we have the opportunity for the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute to conduct a proper community consultation. .