Roadkill
A headline in (The Examiner, December 1) suggested that tourists are disgusted at the amount of roadkill on our roads, this is according to Elleke Leurs a PhD candidate at University of Tasmania.
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How wonderful that the other states with thousands of kilometres of roads and highways haven’t got this problem.
The answer is, of course, obvious education. We have to train our wallabies, echidnas, wombats and other wildlife not to wander along the roads as if they own them.
The crows and others must also be careful when feeding on the roadkill to not get skittled themselves. Of course, we could fence every road in the state, oh, by the way, Elleke how high can a wallaby jump?
Ron Baines, Kings Meadows.
The Great Gulf
THERE is a great gulf developing between the wealthy haves and the rapidly increasing number of poor or have-nots.
In polite Tasmanian society, you can talk freely about: politics, religion and sex, the latter is very fashionable in some circles today, but you must not mention money, debt, poverty or homelessness.
More and more Tasmanians are moving to live on “struggle street”, as the cost of the basic essentials, food, clothing, shelter and electricity increase dramatically.
On television, there is advertisement after advertisement for luxury cars, furniture, electrical goods and holidays, these rub salt into the wounds of the poor especially at Christmas and during winter. In spite of the fact that some get a grander “send off” than others, we are all equal in death.
Malcolm Scott, Newstead.
Proposed encryption laws
I AM writing to express great concern over the proposed legislation being reviewed in regards to encrypted messaging.
Firstly, I would like to know just how impossible it is to actually prevent individuals from using encrypted messaging services.
With all of the big players ie: WhatsApp, Signal etc being based overseas, they have no reason to comply with requests from foreign governments.
Secondly, these two services, in particular, are based on open source encryption technology.
There is theoretically nothing preventing me from using this open source code to encrypt my communications or to stop other similar messaging apps appearing in their place if the government was in some way able to get the major players to comply.
You cannot beat mathematics, the principles which computer encryption is based on. I have grave concerns about the implications this has for me as a private citizen who simply does not want my communications monitored.
I should, in a free country such as Australia have a right to communicate with people and have the knowledge that no one can read these messages other than the intended recipient.
The metadata laws implemented some time ago, have done nothing to prevent any crime or terrorism (to my knowledge) as the criminals simply moved onto other platforms. The same will occur again.
My entire family, including my grandparents, use WhatsApp as it’s an amazing tool for us to communicate as a family.
We are just some of over a billion people that use this single application worldwide.
Mitch Duhig, West Launceston.
Christmas
THE question seems to be “how much will you spend this Christmas?”
It seems as if the message of the economy, profit has overtaken the true message of Christmas, the Prophet.
Elsa de Ruyter, East Devonport.
Baby formula rorting
WE hear nearly every day about the Chinese buying up baby formula to ship back to China.
Well here's a solution for you, to buy baby formula you have to have a frequent shopper card. There would be a weekly limit, say two cans per customer, which would be recorded on your card.
No one deserves to be harassed in the workplace, and this is just blatant profiteering, nothing else.
Protect Australian workers in the workplace and stop profits going overseas.
Rob Newitt, Moonah.
Sewage, water, garbage
COUNCILS need Southern Cross care to pay for sewage, water and garbage, but that’s all. Not-for-profit aged care should be encouraged not hindered by excessive rates.
Reduce the number of councils, the ones left will be more viable.
Tru Dowling, Ross.
2018 word of the year
WHAT a disappointment that Justin Langer inspired “elite honesty” was not chosen as word of the year.
The notion of elite honesty challenges us all to be morally better, to be totally honest to ourselves and others.
A great concept simply expressed and born from Australian sporting history.
Out of misery comes hope. Inspirational stuff. What did we get – Canberra bubble?
Given what has gone on in Canberra recently one would think that the less said about our national capital the better.
If there had been some elite honesty among the Liberals none of that debacle may have occurred.
Phil Stevenson, Riverside.
Councillors, not Aldermen
MALCOLM Scott (The Examiner, December 12) might like to reflect on the fact that it was also tradition to only have male councillors.
There is nothing wrong with a more inclusive title to reflect the diversity in councils in the present day and age.
Not everything has to stay the same purely because of tradition and we should not be appreciating the parts of history that saw women excluded from leadership positions.