The Geelong move is a madness that only public servants bereft of customer focus could make.

I note a "consultant" refers to lack of traffic.

When? 4am on Christmas Day?

The reality is that Geelong is four times the size of Launceston.

Most of those people commute to Melbourne.

Most of the farmland along the road is now housing and towns.

Most of those commute to Melbourne, so this is the most congested highway in a very congested Melbourne, frequently stationary.

The Spirit's evening departure is when thousands of people are trying to get home. The congestion starts at 3pm.

It will arrive as everyone is driving to Melbourne.

After disembarking, allow two hours for stressful driving just to get to where the Spirit currently arrives/departs .

Avalon Airport is also on the road.

It is likely some future Virgin flights will come in here, adding more traffic.

Locals fed up with traffic are now relocating their holiday houses across the bay to the Mornington Peninsula.

Michael Grainger should urgently commission a realistic survey.

There was no survey of frequent users. Tasmanians deserve that. The rest of us will go somewhere more convenient.

Tasmanians should ensure a full tank of petrol, aircon and a fire extinguisher as friends of mine have been trapped on the road by bushfires.

Roger Imrie, Bridport.

THE Spirit of Tasmania and Devonport need to improve the East Devonport facilities for arriving tourists.

The following suggestions would be inexpensive, achievable and benefit Devonport:

The underutilised land between the river and Tarleton Street should be leased for caravan and motorhome parking.

A marketplace with fresh Tasmanian produce needs to be in place.

This could be vendors selling from the back of utilities which would not require infrastructure, and tourists arriving can replace what they cannot bring into Tasmania.

The cross-river ferry needs a landing close to the car park, enabling a visit to Devonport without worrying about their vehicles or parking.

Horst Schroeder, Devonport.

NO matter where one is located, there are local businesses that have dedicated staff providing service to those who need to visit for essential supplies.

What wonderful people.

Here in Riverside we are lucky to have great people in supermarkets, butchers, hairdressers, and the delightful people at the newsagency/post office, and other businesses.

They all add to the great experience of "shop local".

Bill Carney, Riverside.

WITH every beach along the East Coast closed, and police patrolling regularly, one has to ask if this is achieving anything, other than frustrating everyone who regularly used the beaches for exercise.

I am fully supportive of social distancing, and not travelling away from home unnecessarily, but this has never been an issue on the kilometers of virtually empty beaches along the East Coast, which incidentally has not had one case of coronavirus.

Technically, you are still allowed to surf and fish, but cannot cross the beach to do so, go figure?

In all other states, even on some Sydney beaches, there are far fewer restrictions than on our sparsely populated stretches of sand.

Exercise is really important to many of us, particularly with so many hospitality workers out of work in our area.

So please reconsider these unnecessary beach closures Mr Gutwein, let us walk the dog, have a fish, swim or surf, as long as we obey the distancing rules.

John Hoult, St Helens.

SENATOR Peter Whish-Wilson's (The Examiner, April 23) contemplation does not move us towards a "community pact" but strengthens the divide in Australia by maintaining the outdated rhetoric of social divisions such as baby boomers and millennial.

Apportioning blame for the "crisis of our times" to baby boomers as well as suggesting that these boomers are suffering less than millennials and are the ones threatening our future, merely intensifies division.

It's worth contemplating this: it is the youth that are always called on to make sacrifices for the greater good, not because of older people's complacency, but because the youth has the strength that older people do not.

That is common sense.

In turn, huge numbers of older Australians become volunteers to contribute to the wellbeing of our society and environment to compensate.

Whish-Wilson should not forget the sacrifices many boomers made to ensure that millennials live a life that is more comfortable and affluent than any other time in history and that many of the environmental and social crises of our times are the result of abuses of that affluence by millennials.

It's time progressive Greens realise that older Australians are moving away from the party in droves, not because of self-interest or a lack of understanding and concern about the "crises of our time", but because they are sick and tired of the ageist rhetoric. Progressive Greens' new focus on inner-suburban millennials is what is forcing many people, including millennials, away from them.

Dr Anna Brunken, Legana.