My teaching was that Captain Cook discovered the east coast of Australia, which today is a known as Australia was not lost and the first boat peoples were around 60,000 years ahead of him. 

Cook's claim could be he was the first captain to run aground in Australian eastern waters. The Dutch may have been first on the west coast to run aground and the Arab spice traders on our southern coast.

A good lesson is to realise, today’s Maoris appear to have come to New Zealand long before Cook did his sail around and before that, Melanesians were the inhabits.

Of note, the Polynesian fleet that arrived in New Zealand was only part of the floating nation as another part landed and integrated in the Mekong Delta area of what is now Vietnam, living DNA evidence remains in this region.

Please, Prime Minister, forget this Trump-like induce folly and turn refugee camps and army camps into basic-needs housing, letting these people organise themselves as a community to survive the heat and freezes ahead with programs of available schooling, university and hands-on trades or IT.

The maximum stop to be two or three years and rent paid will be reimbursed to those leaving who have commenced waged work and obtained housing in society.

These communities to be alcohol and illicit drug-free.  

My understanding is there are specific trails for these people to use. Apparently they choose not to take advantage of these.

So why did myself and other drivers coming up to Trevallyn from Kings Bridge (a very narrow roadway) have to cross onto the wrong side of the road with no view of oncoming traffic to avoid this idiot cyclist?

How about banning them on such potentially dangerous roads?

And they should be registered so drivers can record their behaviour when it puts people’s lives at risk.

I commend Rod Stone (The Examiner, February 5) for all his work over the years retaining history and ensuring that the wonderful men of the 2/40th AIF are never forgotten.

In remembering the brave and strong men of the 2/40th AIF we must also acknowledge the women who supported them upon their return 1941-45. Because as Mr Stone said, behind every good man, there’s a good woman. Upon their return these wives and partners cared and supported their men through health and mental health issues which stayed with them for life.

We have a strong military history in Tasmania and are incredibly proud of the 2/40th. Thank you Rod Stone for keeping the memory alive and being a driving force behind the establishment of the 2/40th Battalion Memorial Garden at Kings Park. This battalion of brave, strong and true blue Aussies, and their families and relatives are not forgotten.

Right-wing conservatives oppose allowing health providers to test pills at music festivals because they say it “sends the wrong message” about illegal drugs.  

The corollary of this is that when people die unnecessarily from drug overdoses, that must be a good thing because it has sent the right message. 

The problem with this conservative attitude is that not only is it heartless and does not work in deterring illegal drug use, but it’s also hypocritical.  

Most people take mind-altering drugs in the form of caffeine, alcohol and nicotine. There is no logical reason why these drugs should be legal while MDMA (ecstasy) is not. MDMA, when taken in a pure and controlled dose is actually safer than alcohol or tobacco. 

British neuropsychopharmacologist David John Nutt calculated that the risk of death from horse-riding is greater than taking ecstasy. We need to adopt a more rational approach if we want to minimise the harm drugs cause.

Glennis Sleurink in her letter (The Examiner, February 5) asked the question as to who actually voted for Clive Palmer as a living National Treasure. 

If you do an internet search on the subject you will find that Clive is number 62 on the list of 100 with a notation stating he was “placed on the list after his staff were instructed to vote for him”. 

He is the only one on the list with a clarifying statement. Enough said I think.

Labor and the Greens leaders Rebecca White and Cassy O’Connor are both bagging the Liberal Party for such large undeclared amount of monetary donations before the last election. 

But when the figures came out both Labor and the Greens had huge sums of undeclared monetary sums themselves.

So Rebecca and Cassy, where is your so called transparency?

With President Donald Trump announcing he will run for a second presidential term, the people of the United States becoming disunited under the aforementioned President, may keep in mind a quote.

“Electoral insanity – electing the same people, but expecting a different result”.