We are not going to be able to grow many vegetables without bees pollinating the flower for the plant to produce vegetables.

We already lost lots of our livestock and there may be a very large risk to food produced in Australia.

I think Australia should limit the export of food to our food supply recovers.

Food for the home first before overseas I do not want overseas dictating the quality and price of food within Australia.

THE scientists I am listening to, Industries Association of Tasmania acting chief executive Terry Edwards, are the ones who have been warning the world about the effects of climate change.

Mainland Australia has wildlife and its habitats experiencing an Apocalypse.

So many forests and animals lives lost horribly by fire.

Now you want government permission to destroy some more in Tasmania to the tune of 356,000 hectares of precious, carbon-storing native life habitat.

If that is not enough, tourists expect the clean green tourist brochure.

I am sure the tourism industry wins over your short-sighted, out of touch economic gain.

In the digital age, we can backtrack and read what was said a year ago and do a credibility test on the promises that were made.

In January 2019, the City of Launceston council was promising big things.

It was to be an exciting year ahead but I must be a Rumpelstiltskin who has just awoken. As they say, "there's nothing to see here".

But we were getting a "cultural strategy" were we not?

The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery was going to be "the centre of the North's culture and art scene".

Well, hello? Where has that promise gone?

It seems that the converse has been delivered with three galleries on Wellington Street closed down and another at Inveresk along with it.

By August, Michael Stretton had shifted ground substantially.

On Boxing Day, the only thing he had to report culturally was that the QVMAG's audit was in process.

So, if you are up for watching paint dry, then take yourself off to the QVMAG.

THERE is no need for the ICC to hold a trial with the TV umpire calling no balls.

All that needs to happen is for the on-field umpires to be instructed to concentrate on the task at hand, that is watching the bowlers front foot every ball, it's a very simple job.

If this simple task is beyond them then they should not be involved in cricket.

Iran was just informed that Barack Obama is no longer the president of the United States.

I STRONGLY support the editorial comments (The Examiner, January 3) dealing with the evidence and the role of governments regarding pill testing interventions.

Governments are elected to represent the view of the electorate and to make decisions based on evidence and in the best interests of the people they serve.

I do not suggest for a moment that the Tasmanian Government is not as critically concerned as I am about saving the lives of young Australians who, for whatever reason, decide to use illicit drugs.

But I do suggest the government could do more.

Indeed, I suggest, it has an obligation to do so.

To impartially assess the evidence and aggressively and openly consider every initiative and option that may improve the safety of drug use in the community.

In this regard, I invite the government to table the evidence they have against pill testing interventions at the same time as I table mine, in support.

I know we both want to see improvements made, let's work together to achieve them.

There can be no contest, surely:

That reducing drug-related deaths is more important than simply reducing drug use;

That the lives of young Australians are paramount, and that this is not simply a case of "you play the game you take the knocks," it is a remediable tragedy;

That our policy for drug use has to put protection ahead of punishment; engagement before isolation, trust before fear and evidence before ideology.

If the Tasmanian Government is determined to remain firmly opposed to pill testing it has a moral, and arguably a legal, obligation to demonstrate to the people of Tasmania, why this is a sensible and justifiable position to take.

To engage in debate, not denial.

To table the facts. There are none so blind as those that will not see.

I have worked with the Tasmanian Government before and I do not believe for a moment that they are willfully blind.

However, people have a right to ask them to demonstrate that their eyes are open.