A big thank you
The board and chief executive wish to pass on their appreciation to the community of Launceston and Northern Tasmania for the wonderful generosity that was provided to the 2018 Empty Stocking appeal.
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To raise about $88,000, of which our society receives a quarter of the funds is truly sensational. A special thank you to The Examiner staff for their continued involvement is to be acknowledged.
The funds received make a huge difference to our organisation and allows us to continue to provide ongoing support to the less fortunate in our community.
Once again thank you to everyone who supported the appeal.
Benevolent Society chief executive John Stuart.
Mass Fish Deaths
The mismanagement of Australia’s iconic river systems is horrific.
What on earth is happening within the minds of those who made decisions to drain our rivers in order to feed the dams of agricultural growers of inappropriate crops that should not be grown in that area in the first place?
It is my firm belief that people in government office should be held financially responsible for their bad decisions.
And if that debt is substantial enough, then upon their death, that debt should be passed on to their families via their estate.
This might go some little way to ensure that only honest people enter our parliament.
David Broughton, Legana.
Court pressure
The story “Backlog Pressure” in the Supreme Court (The Examiner on February 2) got me thinking.
I have served on three juries since I have been a resident of Launceston and have loved every minute of it.
I felt like it was my duty to do it or try to get out of it but I was thoroughly excited to participate, but reading the problem that the court has with time is the issue.
Maybe, just maybe, could they at least start court proceedings at 9am instead of 10am or after, have 45 minutes for lunch instead of 90 minutes, not have so many breaks of 10 to 20 minutes to confer with lawyers, be a little more organised with that and maybe finish at 5pm instead of 4pm.
That doesn’t seem much really, a few minutes here and there but it adds up in the end. Why don’t we have court sessions on the weekends?
If we are so far behind then that would help surely.
Jean Mills, Kings Meadows.
Wage fight
The recent article regarding negotiations between the government and public sector unions was interesting, in that the budget update shows a surplus of $7.3 million. From reading this article it is assumed this surplus is much less than previous budget updates.
It seems to be a coincidence that this surplus figure comes about after negotiations have been stalled by the government until this time when public sector workers are considering where to next.
The government has had a long time to produce this budget update while knowing what was asked for by the unions.
The question arises, how do we know this figure to be true?
Jamie Welsford, Newstead.
Lake Health v Mining
This is a real worry for all of us living on the West Coast. What is the health risk to all of us from MMG, the mine at Rension Bell and other mines on the West Coast regarding these heavy metal contaminants let alone the fact they are found in our lakes? How will this affect tourism? Can we all seek compensation from them if we get ill? Also what about the water continuing to come across under the Murchison highway from the Tailing Dam MMG created in Rosebery?
They say all that water flow is from a natural rising of the water table. If that was the case, then why was it not flowing constantly before the new tailings dam was built?
Why is the state government not doing its own independent investigation of the bung wall along the Murchison Highway to check for themselves that what MMG say is correct? Finally, if the MMG tailings dam is not leaking and this was all because the water table is naturally rising itself – why did they build it in an area they knew the water table would be affected by their construction?
Matthew Ryan-Sykes, Rosebery.
Animal cruelty
I wonder how many Tasmanians realise that 480,000 animals are shipped interstate a year, a majority just to be slaughtered, because of the shutdown of abattoirs here.
These animals, some being four-month-old lambs, face a journey of up to 60 hours, with no feed and water. After being taken off the ship, they face on onward journey to such destinations as Murray Bridge, Colac or Ararat. On arrival, they are unlikely to be given water and certainly not food because they are slaughtered the following day.
It is the meat from these animals that Tasmanians are buying. I don’t eat meat, but I’m told that meat from such stressed animals would be of very poor quality.
It just requires a will from producers in Tasmania, the government, and the peak bodies to stop this absolute cruelty.
Why are they not doing so?
Suzanne Cass, Old Beach.
AMP and the big four
The final report into the Banking Royal Commission is done, but should not be dusted. AMP and the big four banks with their fees for no service are no better than thieves and have let their customers and the public down, on a massive scale. How many times in the past with other investigations and reports into companies there have been so-called recommendations that have not been carried out? In this case, the final report looked quite large. Let’s hope it’s thrown at them and shakes them to the core.