Due to the current coronavirus situation, Anzac Day 2020 was like no other. Our treasured dawn services, marches and other services were cancelled to protect the health and wellbeing of the community. But Tasmanians rose to the occasion. Up and down our state, we shared in the national Light Up the Dawn event, taking a moment's silence on our driveways, balconies or at our front doors. Many others placed flags, poppies and wreaths on the front fences, making their own memorials. It was a shared experience that we will not soon forget. I also thank RSL Tasmania and ABC Tasmania for their support in arranging and broadcasting a special shortened Anzac Day service from Anglesea Barracks. Tasmania has a long and distinguished military history with more than 10,500 veterans ex-serving personnel currently in Tasmania. May we never forget their service and sacrifice.

Guy Barnett, Minister for Veterans' Affairs.

PER person, per week we received butter, cheese, cooking fat, tea - 60grams of each.

Margarine, bacon, ham - 115grams each, sugar 225grams, milk 12 cents worth. Eggs, one every two weeks, sweets 340 grams every four weeks.

These were hard times. No TV, only radio, listened every evening to Dick Barton, Special Agent during which newspapers were cut into six-inch squares for toilet paper, skewer punched a hole in the corner for the string to hang on the toilet door.

No air raid shelters slept under the stairs on a mattress, or in the dining room under a steel table which had a spring mattress covered with blankets.

This was fun when staying with an aunt as we were able to sleep with the dog.

No garden, so small plots of nearby railway land were made available to the locals, each planting different vegetables so they could be shared.

Rabbits were a welcome meal if the ferret did its job, had to be kept warm down the trousers, yes it's true.

Hazel Jones, Scamander.

YESTERDAY we were advised the costs of the COVID-19 crisis to our country are $4 billion per week.

The budget for the RAN submarine project has doubled since its inception and is now reported to be $90 billion, with delivery due in the early 2030s.

The submarine blowout is equivalent to 11 weeks of COVID-19 costs, and will undoubtedly continue to rise, whilst the former costs will level off, and eventually diminish.

I always disliked mathematics at school but felt this was an interesting comparison.

Scott Bell, East Launceston.

THE man who went out of his way to inform us that the flashing light we use on our bicycle was not legal, needs to check his facts.

Both flashing and steady lights, front and rear, are legal. Indeed, lights are recommended by all bike user groups, day and night.

David Nyman, Longford.

I'M ALRIGHT Jack clearly thinks we have overreacted to the current pandemic (The Examiner, May 6). Comparing it to the flu and insinuating that even with a vaccine people will still die.

Current knowledge (The WHO) estimates much less than 1 per cent who contract the flu die compared to three to four per cent of those who contract COVID-19.

This is just plain cynical commentary from Sonneman (who has consistently made justifications on these pages for the policies of Donald Trump) and underpins the conviction that the economy should be opened up regardless of the cost. This is a dangerous argument. Once you accept that more people will die how much easier does it become to tolerate ever-increasing numbers of deaths?

How much different is this to the rationale of the politicians and generals who sacrificed all of those soldiers to the carnage of trench warfare in the Great War?

Tony Newport, Hillwood.

WELL, what have I learned from the COVID-19 virus outbreak?

Compare the reactions of governments in New Zealand and the US. In one country stern measures to protect everyone from the spread of this disease. In the other, moves that will see more than 100,000 people die from the virus and an emphasis on saving the economy at all costs and individuals insisting they have the right to do what they want. Capitalism is a lesson in selfishness, in a recent TV documentary, the interviewer asked three leading Icelandic, female leaders what advice they would give to Americans, their answer, stop thinking about yourself and more about your community.

Compare China's reaction to the virus, with that of the US. In China, strict control of people and a reduction in the spread of the virus but at the cost of individual freedom.

There has to be a middle ground, communism/socialism are not the answer, nor is capitalism. We need a political system that balances the communal good against individual selfishness. Don't hold your breath.

Jeff Jennings, Bridport.

IN AN attempt to coerce the Australian public to uptake the COVID-19 Safe app with the threat of restrictions to remain if the arbitrary figure of 40 per cent is not attained, places the goodwill of a co-operative citizenry at risk, with a feudal style of master/servant governance?

Kenneth Gregson, Swansea.