Since faith-based schools want to choose to employ only staff whose beliefs coincide with their own, I presume that means all students and their parents will also have to be adherents, to be consistent.

If non-believing students were refused entry, I suspect it would have a significant impact on numbers. Will this lead to families lying or fudging the truth about their religious inclinations to gain the type of education they desire?

In my experience, there are Christians and those who pay lip-service to Christianity.

It's well-known that going to church doesn't make you a Christian, any more than standing in the garage makes you a car.

Let's take this to the extreme: in my part-time work at a vet clinic, I once met a woman who told me that God made all the animals; she wasn't happy when I disagreed.

Under the proposed bill, could I refuse to serve her because her ethos didn't align with mine?

EARLY in January Prime Minister Scott Morrison was under pressure to do something, anything and five million P2 face masks were made available for bushfire smoke.

The five million masks came from the government's national medical stockpile where they were being held in case of a pandemic, for influenza.

These 3M 8210 or 3M8110s masks do not contain an activated carbon filter so should not have been used on the fire ground or to remove the harmful gases, chemicals or volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from bushfire smoke.

We now hear of a new coronavirus spreading rapidly from China.

As yet we do not know how the virus is spread but these masks could very well be needed urgently here in Australia and our stockpile has been run down.

It is not only our susceptible groups, for example, the young, the elderly and those with respiratory or cardiac problems that are now potentially put at risk.

RECENT letters following my comments in support of a Northern Regional Prison warrant a brief response.

The anti-everything brigade in typical fashion make a variety of spurious claims including, among other things, that a prison next to the Westbury industrial estate would be:

In response, I say yes it will be a huge project and therefore as a matter of logic it will deliver economic benefits and local jobs. This will boost demand locally and almost certainly secure the long term future of the local school. The same thinking of these critics would have argued that the industrial estate or Tas Alkaloids or the upgraded highway would have seen the demise of Westbury as a historic village - this was wrong then and wrong now.

A new prison is not going to destroy tourism and agriculture, or create any more dependency on the taxpayer any more than a new school or new hospital. It will simply be another jobs-rich string to our bow in regional Tasmania that deserves its fair share of government funding, rather than everything being centralised in Hobart.

My message to all voters - the vast majority of the electorate is don't let a group of noisy naysayers hoodwink you into delivering another victory to the inner city Hobart elite by stopping the Northern Prison.

THE Labor party brains trust is at it again.

The main comment coming from leader Rebecca White on the new premier was to advise him to watch his back with Michael Ferguson ready to pounce on him.

Then on Thursday, we have Shane Broad coming out with the same rubbish because Mr Ferguson wasn't at a media conference.

If I was Rebecca White, I would be watching my back with David O'Byrne just waiting in the wings to become Labor's new leader.

SHAME charities shame.

Fire relief funds have not been donated to you, you are merely entrusted with the distribution of those funds. To hear the money I and many others have given may not reach those we donated it to for years is disgusting. You have the money now so distribute it to the rightful owners now.

DURING a recent stay at the Launceston General Hospital with pneumonia I would like to personally thank all the staff for their support and care.

From the ambulance to AE and then to Ward 6D, I was cared for and checked on throughout my 16-day stay.

The meals and range were of very high quality.

I felt like I was on a cruise with the range, quality and service.

Nothing was too much trouble for the staff and I found all staff and the doctors and nurses very friendly, caring and supportive.

Thank you for the care and attention.