Health system
THE attack on Health Minister Michael Ferguson by the Labor Party is both hypocritical and in poor taste.
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Sure, there are problems, always have been, and probably always will be. The Labor Party fared no better when in power and since the election have done nothing but criticize everything the Liberals do.
The problem with the Health Department is two-fold: lack of funds and an ageing population in Tasmania.
I am a so-called Baby Boomer and it is people of this category clogging up hospitals and until we move on problems will always be with us.
Walk through the Launceston General Hospital, the people in beds are predominantly 50+, we are like an old car simply wearing out and our health system can’t cope.
Unless you throw a huge amount of money at the problem (and we simply don’t have it) problem will persist.
Putting photos on a lawn is both childish and unhelpful.
Rob Kenna, Riverside.
Medicinal cannabis
HAVING a close relative with stage 4 terminal cancer, I am at a loss to understand why this person has been refused, without explanation, access to medicinal cannabis.
If the drug proves effective to the patient, would not quality of life be much greater than treatment provided by opoids etc. and perhaps significantly reduce the need for them?
The patient should be allowed some input into the decision making process rather than it be made by a faceless panel with no personal connection to the patient.
Anything having potential to improve quality of life is surely worth a trial.
S. Green, Longford.
Progress
IF I posted a letter to my neighbour across the street, apparently it would be put on a truck and sent to Hobart, they would then decide where and how it would be delivered, so far so good.
Now it would be loaded on to a truck and sent back to Launceston, this it would seem is efficiency. To enable this system we paid a bloke $5.6 million yearly to produce an expensive slow and inefficient system we all dislike. And that people is progress.
Ron Baines, Kings Meadows.
Penguin tours
IT SADDENS me that something I did for years for free has now become a money-making tourist scheme.
We decided to take a daughter to Low Head to see the penguins only to be greeted by a woman expecting me to pay $54 for the three of us to do this.
I refused to pay that amount to go onto a public beach, so we left. Three days later we thought we would go down to Lillico Beach and see what that is like, stopping for a counter meal on the way.
We were greeted with four wonderful knowledgeable guides who explained everything to us, went around with special torches spotting out the penguins and this in turn was free, there was a donation tin which we happily donated after how wonderful these guides were.
I find it so sad that we had to leave the north of the state and travel North-West to have a better, cheaper experience.
Jodie Goodyer, Launceston.
Local government election voting
JIM Collier (Letters, November 17) is himself being mischievous in his interpretation of the 2018 local government election voting.
Certainly, on his pro-amalgamation platform, Mr Collier received 4.11 per cent of the primary vote to put him in ninth position on first preferences.
However, what he fails to mention is that the eight candidates ahead of him at that point, none of whom support forced amalgamation, received a combined total of 71.69 per cent of the first preference vote.
Ultimately, in the West Tamar, a council that does not support forced amalgamations was returned unchanged.
The fact is, asides from the small number who will always believe big councils, and less of them, are better the issue of forced amalgamation is no longer a headline issue as in the North as councils are actively looking at ways to work together to deliver services much more efficiently.
Tim Woinarski, councillor West Tamar.
Voting in council elections
IN reply to Tarlia Jordan’s column (The Examiner, November 11).
There are many and varied reasons why we choose not to vote. Not caring, quite the contrary. We already “get out and get involved” in our communities.
I certainly have a serious passion for my community, and as an Australian sure as hell have a right and responsibility to complain. Voters vote for decent people who initially try to make a difference, only too often get swallowed up in power plays, and forget the reasons why they were elected.
With all their efforts more and more voters are second, third, fourth, placed behind politicians, as well as behind billion-dollar businesses, tourism ventures and the like.
Tourism is great, agri-tourism and so on, but how many helicopters in the Highlands do we need? Search and Rescue, of course, but we also need balance and serenity. It’s said “money makes the world go round”.
Our amazing world has gone round and sustained life billions of years before greed, before capitalism was invented.
When the majority within political systems, local, state and federal genuinely listen to the people and our planet without condescension.
When power stops corrupting decent people, many more people will freely choose to vote. Hope springs eternal with fresh faces in councils.
Deb Johnston-Andrews, Newnham.