The emergency staff were just as caring, I was seen straight away, their service outstanding and always letting me know what was going on. Despite it being busy, I never felt alone or ignored. I can't thank them all enough for seeing me through a horrible situation. We don't appreciate our medical staff enough and I think it's time we do so. Thank you to all.

AN academic paper by UTAS researchers was recently reported "Logging linked to heightened bushfires" (The Examiner, May 19). Yet the paper actually found: "in a comparison of paired sites, plantation forest was less likely to burn than combined mature and old growth forests".

The paper also stated that "publication fees were paid for by the Bob Brown Foundation and the Wilderness Society". Knowledge of this arrangement would allow the reader to make a judgement on motivation of the researchers. The same report claims this UTAS article was the second peer review study linking logging and bushfire severity. Yet, the first article by ANU Professor Lindenmayer, and former Wilderness Society activist James Watson was a two page comment in "Nature Ecology and Evolution" a publication that does not require "comment" to be peer reviewed.

Both papers would also benefit from enhancing their mapping to show the land tenure of the burnt forest, for example if it is in reservation where timber harvesting is banned. Perhaps The Examiner should invite the Chief Forest Practices officer to respond to this independent research.

SO the Prime Minister as a sign of good faith has withdrawn the union busting bill rejected by the Senate in order to reset industrial relations which, of course he needs in order to get the economy moving post the pandemic. While it is refreshing that he believes he can work with the unions and others who do not agree with his views, it's a shame that it took such a terrible event to bring about this conversion.

I HAVE just received my quarterly bill from TasWater. I was amazed to read that my usage had been estimated due to the virus

Didn't TasWater in March, 2012 I think, spend millions of dollars fitting new water meters to all homes in Launceston so that they could be read from a vehicle as it was driving past? Does this system no longer work? If not, why not?

TASMANIA has a long history of unemployment rates that are substantially higher than the National average.

This has been particularly evident for our youth, who endure consistently higher averages of unemployment than the rest of society - particularly those living in socio-economically disadvantaged areas, for whom opportunity is often a pipe-dream.

A large aspect of our state's economic recovery is to involve much construction and infrastructure, so I'm wondering if any consideration has been given by our government/parliament to a proposal, which I think became policy around two decades ago.

It advocated a requirement of apprenticeships for at least one in four or five workers on work sites, immediately and sustainably providing employment for our youth; a step also towards a thriving economy.

And yet, since this idea was first tabled 20 plus years ago (and, as previously stated, I think made policy) no successive government, State or Federal, really appears to have actioned much of real consequence to actually address the matter of youth unemployment in a practical way.

Real action on this idea would surely go a long way towards both solving a large part of our youth unemployment problem, and towards securing a strong economy well beyond this immediate need.

Given the high numbers of workers that will be needed to act on the government's current plan, now is surely the ideal time to finally implement this policy.