When speaking to a relevant person within the department regarding an inquiry, I voiced my confusion in trying to keep abreast with the current act (s).

The voice on the other end acknowledged the universal confusion within our state and then acknowledged that the acts are drafted by lawyers that lack knowledge on the subject at hand. Very annoying, confusing and none the wiser.

CLOSING the Cataract Gorge pool for two weeks of school holidays for the Mona Foma arty-farty production is quite ridiculous.

There are many other places this could have been staged at less cost and inconvenience. Yes, it is a superb venue; maybe for something in winter?

"TASMANIAN parents fear children will be discriminated against by new religious freedom laws" (The Examiner, January 8).

Congratulations to parents for speaking out against the federal government's Religious Discrimination Bill ("Tasmanian parents fear children will be discriminated against by new religious freedom laws", January 8). The government said its Bill would prevent discrimination based on religion, which is something we can all support.

But the Bill actually encourages discrimination in the name of religion.

Those who will suffer most are LGBTIQ people, people with disability, single parents, unmarried partners, and anyone else who falls foul of traditional religious dogma.

When Australians voted yes, we voted for less discrimination, not more.

IN response to Kerrie Butler, of Deloraine, (The Examiner, January 8).

To denigrate one side of an argument by starting your argument saying you fine it "concerning that those fearing change propose to continue to spread their opinions in a hope to gain supporters" is emotionally charged disingenuous rhetoric.

Both sides of an argument put their opinions out there (some based on facts but not all) in a hope to gain supporters.

Your letter is a case in point.

Your "informed opinion" shows your ambivalence to Westbury and its community and more for your desire to push your agenda. Saying "It holds nothing other than an old church and a show" shows how little you care for the people in the town. Disparaging eateries as "take-out, greasy options" is another kick in the guts for those employed at the Green Door Café, Café Verde, Westbury Maze and Tea room, Hub Café, Westbury Pizza House, McCulloch's and R.J'S pub. Why does someone that does not live in Westbury feel the need for it to grow? People move and live in Westbury for what it is, whether it is close to their work, the availability of housing that they can afford or simply because they grew up here. If there are things that Westbury cannot provide, help is at hand less than 30 minutes away, think Deloraine and Launceston.

RESIDENTS may not be aware that on January 20 Metro general public bus services to Trevallyn Dandenong/Delungra Road and Reatta Road hilly areas will cease.

Presently, Trevallyn bus services which traverse these routes travel to Riverside North Terminal and then via the West Tamar highway to the St John Street terminal.

The West Tamar Highway route will then be privatised and no Metro public services will travel on it to and from the CBD.

Metro and State Growth have thus eliminated the hilly Dandenong/Delungra and Reatta Road routes mainly on the fact that as loops they can be cut off and thus satisfy their brief to modernise Launceston routes.

They have eliminated these two five-minute routes from residents who wish to travel to the Windsor Park Medical Centre, which incorporates the closed Trevallyn Medical Centre and the major Riverside Shopping Centre. In effect, this modernisation has resulted in closing the five-minute loops and has created 30-minute loops from York to St John streets traversing the remaining parts of Trevallyn twice on each trip.

One will be able to catch the bus either on the Western side of the street or the Eastern side as it will be the same bus going to St John Street terminal. Thus the busses will cover the same catchment area twice on each 30-minute trip but to service, the five-minute hilly loops are deemed by State Growth not warranted. My discussions with State Growth seemed that very little was actually known of the actual nature of the route by the decision-makers.

My discussions resulted in no understanding of the hilly nature of the five-minute routes and as 87 per cent of the patrons are on concession fares it is probable that most of these would not be able to climb the steep hills from Bald Hill road to home, thus completely isolating them from bus travel.

I have taken City of Launceston council elected members for a tour and they appreciated the extent of difficulty in walking these routes, but my meeting with the COL indicated the decision to not to stand up for retention of the routes was done by the council's professional officers? When the Ravenswood bus was to be rerouted via Henry Street public protest had a service altered to service Vermont Road and again altered to service the Mowbray Medical Centre.

West Tamar Council had some success in their discussion and had limited services retained to the Cormiston Loop, the Medical Centre and Riverside Shopping Centre. Why is the COL area being denied services, especially as they are encouraging residents to travel to the CBD, preferably by bus?