Bad Service
FOR some years I've been buying CDs online from overseas and have become aware of the increasingly poor service provided by Australia Post.
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Actually I'd put it at below the level of any Third World postal service.
Most of my orders come from the UK and 15 or so years ago rarely took longer than two weeks airmail from the UK (Derby) to Sydney. Now I'm finding it to be anything up to almost six weeks.
Living now in Fingal I'm aware that the CDs arrive in either Melbourne or Sydney and then are sent on to Hobart before finally arriving at St Marys Post Office. We get no explanations or apologies for this appalling service.
Launceston is a major city and that it has no mail exchange of its own is no doubt the brainchild of some overpaid and under occupied whizz kid with nothing better to do with his or her time.
A flight from the UK to Sydney generally takes about 27 hours. Add around 18-24 hours to send it on to Hobart then another 24 from Hobart to Launceston - 72 hours (three days). These things are taking another 25 days to reach me. Why?
I'm charged for airmail. Feels like surface mail.
I've taken to writing to The Examiner this time as previous complaints to Australia Post elicit poor response. This happens too often.
Peter O'Malley, Fingal.
Centrelink
HEAR, hear Davis Seecamp I totally agree 100 per cent on your letter regarding Centrelink (The Examiner, August 26).
They now are becoming a sacred law unto themselves. Once upon a time they treated people like human beings, person to person and worked out their problem fairly.
Now it is computer to computer, the computer does their thinking for them. They do not have any compassion, they tell the robots what to do and say.
I think that the head of Centrelink need to go incognito among the people of the real world, instead of listening to his advisors, they risk their jobs too much by telling him the real hardship and heartaches of the real people.
R. Greeno, Riverside.
Clean up
IN RECENT times there have been three letters complaining about government crackdown on GetUp.
Under expert solicitor advice the health union (Labor party supporter) formed GetUp in a structured manner so to get around federal and state laws covering what cannot be done at elections.
In their own internal documents GetUp state they won Bass for the Labor party at the last federal elections.
The Medicare lie and the mass resignations at the Launceston General Hospital some 10 days before the election with all the organised publicity cost the sitting member his job.
By the Tuesday after the election all the resignations were withdrawn.
Again in their own internal documents they state they propose to use the same tactics in future state and federal elections.
Lies and deceit should not be even considered much less tolerated.
So full marks to anyone who is prepared to clean up the political environment.
Ian Peck, Riverside.
Cost of Living
I REFER to a letter from Felicity O'Neill (The Examiner, August 30).
Ms O'Neill says too much whingeing about rising costs of living and is opposed to Medicare bulk billing, the rising cost of private medical benefits is OK, as well as the rising costs of electricity, rates, rent, and the list goes on.
While I am sure there would be those out there that would agree with her, however, perhaps Ms O'Neill, as a well-meaning person as I'm sure she is, should reflect that not everyone is as fortunate as she is.
Many thousands of people are doing it tough and are not having an easy coaster ride as others.
Many unfortunate people, as well as those in poor health, are in a tenuous position whereby they have to regularly access medicals and the like and rely heavily on these rebates and discounts just to keep a roof over their heads (if they've got one), and therefore any changes to their circumstances can have serious financial consequences.
It is never a one-speed economy for everyone, Ms O'Neill, and in this day and age, for many, it is very easy to stumble, but really where necessary, we do have to show just a little compassion, wouldn't you agree?
Allan Carey, Riverside.
Cull Quotas
THE Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment's wildlife cull data release does not go far enough in detail.
Permits for the cull of black swans, sulphur-crested cockatoos, native hens, forester kangaroos, bennet's wallaby, brush-tailed possums, wombats (not to mention at least six platypus permits since 2014) on the basis of crop protection show no clear detail of how the departments monitoring system comes up with the quotas for the cull of these species.
Unless the DPIPWE is more transparent in this area, speculation will be rife that sustainable numbers of species will not be safeguarded and increased public sentiment is warranted.
Robert Lee, Summerhill.
Elective Surgery
MORE than 9000 people on the elective surgery waiting list. This is outrageous and a disgrace.
It is a reflection of the government's incompetence and inability to govern responsibility for the people it represents. On behalf of all those who are deteriorating and suffering while waiting to get help, I ask you to get your priorities right and do something. Without our health we have nothing.