Pretty soon this country's leaders will see a political advantage in supporting it too. Similar to what is happening with climate change. Those who show leadership now will look back with pride at being at the forefront of change and creating a better, more inclusive Australia.

Those who are resistant will look back in shame. Which side do you want to be on?

CLAIMS last week by Forestry Watch that giant trees were found in logging coupes in the Huon Valley that were not included on Forest Practice Plans are false, and not based on any measure of science.

Giant trees are clearly defined on STT's website as exceeding 85 metres in height or 280 cubic metres in stem volume.

The only measurements taken by Forestry Watch was the diameter of the trees.

Those of us who passed grade 6 maths realise that the height is needed to calculate either of the defining criteria. Forestry Watch describes itself as an "independent organisation of scientists and concerned citizens". UTAS Scientist Dr Jenifer Sanger appeared in media interviews promoting this mock-science and claimed traditional scientific naming rites of these "new discoveries". What a telling tale is told, when members of the scientific fraternity expose their willingness to let a political agenda guide so-called scientific discoveries.

IF Boris Johnson can shift the House of Lords to York, Peter Gutwein should have no trouble shifting the Legislative Council to Burnie or Launceston to support the Northern economy and voters.

IT'S no secret, our medical system is broken. But where does that leave those of us suffering from chronic pain on a daily basis? I waited for a year to see a specialist at Launceston General Hospital. My first appointment was served with a specialist who couldn't find my blood results, nor x-ray. One month later, I was dismissed with no answers and no help whatsoever. A nuisance is what I felt like.

Not a person, not a human being deserving of help, support or care.

Where do we go for help if our hospital won't provide it? Has everything become about money and power? Empathy, compassion and care have become extinct.

I left the hospital that day, feeling like it was hoped, the waiting would deliver me to the grave before my turn to see a specialist arrived. Is this what life and living have become for our vulnerable, sick and poor?

Where did equality, kindness, care and honesty go? We can't go on ignoring the needs of humanity for greed, money and power. Or can we?

IN 1999 I chaired a Legislative Council Select Committee which enquired into correctional services and sentencing in Tasmania. The committee concluded "that two new prisons should be constructed. One should be in Southern Tasmania and the other in the North at a location which makes it reasonably accessible to relatives of prisoners from the North and North-West Coast". Prisons need to be reasonably accessible in the interests of the innocent families and in the rehabilitation of prisoners.

Our committee found that in Victoria there was keen competition among local government areas to have new prisons located in their areas, due to the considerable economic benefits they generate.

Recently there were media reports of the citizens of Ivanhoe, NSW, protesting about a proposal to close the prison in their town.

Ironically, on the same day, there were also reports of Westbury citizens objecting to having a prison in their area.

It would be a social and economic calamity for Northern Tasmania if the site controversy were to cause the proposed prison to be relocated to Southern Tasmania.

WHAT is happening in the Meander Valley? Meander has had an addict rehabilitation centre forced on the town against the wishes of the residents. The centre locks the residents up into the closed facility.

It's a centre that is rented for $1 per year by the Meander Valley Council following an Expressions of Interest process to a religious organisation who practice a "faith-based program" run by volunteers.

Westbury is fighting against a proposed maximum security prison two kilometres from the village, both cases have suffered a questionable consultation stage along with the "Expressions of Interest" processes.

Deloraine is to benefit from a multi-million upgrade to the Ashley Detention Centre.

Is the Meander Valley attempting to monopolise the locking up, and warehousing of people who have transgressed? Are we to become "Detention Valley"? How about allowing the residents a say?

And why can't the government perform their duties within the rules that they have set? If the rules are there, we, the public have to comply, how come they don't?

IT'S interesting in all this activity with the Northern prison proposal that everyone has forgotten to think about future generations.

Corrections Minister Elise Archer and the government aren't just deciding for Westbury and Meander Valley residents, they're making a decision that will impact not only my generation (Gen Z) but also the generations to come; my children, their children and so on. My family has lived in Westbury all their life and so I'm the fifth generation to be brought up in this wonderful village.

To think that I would want to bring my children up in Westbury with a prison dumped on the doorstep, you would have to be joking. So, I put it to Ms Archer and the Meander Valley, if the survey comes out, think about the next generations.

You're making this decision for the future of Westbury which will change it forever and how the village is looked at. This will not be able to be undone once it's built and regrets will be just too bad. So think long and hard.

I READ with interest Kerrie Butler's reasoned letter (The Examiner, January 8).

Many country towns that are dying would jump at the chance to have a facility such as the proposed prison. Towns die because doctors, banks, post offices, chemist shops, schools and retail outlets close down.

The extra population and workers in the town would help alleviate this problem.

Westbury would be separated from the prison by two kilometres, a multi-lane highway and a railway line. There will always be objections to any development like the cable car up Mt Wellington, the Gorge Hotel, the gondola in the Gorge and Errol Stewart's proposed apartments, that has now been abandoned thanks to a noisy minority.

The silent majority in agreement are happy and therefore don't complain.

If it was going to help employment and alleviate the overcrowding at Risdon Prison I would be happy for it to be built 2km from our suburb.

THE Department of Justice thinks it's appropriate to set the lowest of standards on the East Coast of Australia when it comes to selecting a greenfield site for a prison.

Westbury will have the lowest population of any town/suburb (2006) to have a maximum security prison, it will be the newest prison constructed on a greenfield site that has been built the closest to an existing residential area and in 20 years it will be the newest prison constructed that will be viewable from a major road/highway.

The last maximum security prison to be built on the East Coast of Australia was the Southern Queensland Correction Centre in 2012, it is 16 kilometres from Gatton's residential area, set within agricultural land, is not viewable from any major road/highway and has a population of 7101 - this should be the benchmark when building a new maximum security prison. It is now time for the Liberal government to put forward a site that meets this benchmark.