His “let’s make Australia great” and “fake news” spiel, aping Donald Trump, just proves the man hasn’t an original thought in his head.

As for the making Australia great slogan, I can, as a migrant of almost 50 years, tell him it’s already great mate.

Not only that, I have lived in three different countries and two states in Australia and can tell you this state of Tasmania is just the very best of the lot.

I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else on this planet.

RECENTLY while driving on a country road, I came across a car stopped in the middle of the road.

Thinking there was some kind of emergency, I stopped to talk to the driver and discovered he was an international tourist looking for an address.

I have nothing against international tourists, but can't help wondering why they seem to have no idea of our road rules or just plain common sense.

I have heard horror stories of them wandering to the wrong side of the road, or charging through road works and ignoring temporary speed restrictions, and none of them seem to understand how to drive on a gravel road.

I believe that tourists, especially those who are renting a car should be given a booklet explaining our road rules and conditions, preferably printed in their own language, as it appears they don’t seem able to read our road signs.

WITH so many situations in society today seeming to encourage division and angst between women and men, what a delight it was to watch the recent Hopman Cup played in Perth – a tennis event where each team consisted of a man and a woman.

Played under sensible rules it showed that the difference in gender can build bridges rather than place barriers between us.

The more powerful serving men battled out the first singles then the women pitted their skills against each other in singles.

Then came the mixed doubles where there was no quarter asked or given, with the woman at the net often being the target of the opposing man's sizzling drives, but their volleys stood up to the challenge admirably.

If a mixed doubles set ever came down to one final deciding point, and the man was due to serve, he had to serve to the male opponent, and if the woman was due to serve, she had to serve to the woman.

There were no cries from the crowd of male chauvinism or tokenism, it was a sensible rule to ensure a fair and exciting result.

The excellent sportsmanship between all the players was a wonderful example of how we should celebrate not devalue our gender difference.

INTERESTING that reports of George Town Council considering the sale of their airport (The Examiner, December 21) mentions a spokesperson saying and I quote: “what they’ve decided is to commence the process”.

“Because it is public land that triggers a consultation process”.

How did that work for the ratepayers of City of Launceston when the council decided to give away Willis Street car park and the old velodrome? Not very well.

Council ignored a petition of 1494 signatures and the wishes of people at a public meeting.

I believe George Town residents get to keep their airport, while in Launceston we lose heaps of parking spaces and a shipload of money from the sale of the land.

Word of campus is the cost of the University move has escalated to $400 million, they can well afford to purchase our land, rather than accept handouts, at the cost of Launceston ratepayers.

IN response to Jim Armstrong’s letter (The Examiner, January 7).

Mr Armstong you are among many who have googled tickets to UTAS Stadium or to any event and you have unintentionally clicked on a scam website (most likely Viagogo) who have sold out of their overpriced tickets.

At no time were the official outlet Ticketmaster ever sold out of tickets for this event and Ticketmaster operated ticket sales from the venue from 12 noon till 8pm on the day.

This is a valuable lesson, only ever buy from the official ticket websites or outlets which are Ticketmaster and Ticketek.

WITH the coastal cycling and athletics carnivals for 2018-2019 over, it may be time to reflect on the etymology of the male and female gift for athletics.

The semi-finals for both events consisted of three, not two semi-finals.

According to athletics columnist Brian Roe, the world and Olympic athletics bodies have agreed that semi-finals are to have the etymological status of penultimate finals, whilst maintaining the term semi-final, which at first glance may seem to be a contradiction of terms?