THE majority of people are over this saga of the Northern prison site.

It has to go somewhere and where it is going is as good as anywhere.

Do people think that a tourist is going to say, "oh we can't go to Westbury because it has a prison?" If the business people are promoting their business properly then people will still come.

Remember, it is not on their doorstep.

The original site was the better of the two as it was good growing ground and could have been used as a market garden.That way low-security prisoners could have done the work and helped in their rehabilitation. Hayes Prison Farm at New Norfolk worked well until the Labor government closed it.

Isn't it ironic that they oppose this one?

Now, this new site has all these other issues that miraculously come out of the woodwork. We have bush fires to worry about, the wombats have nowhere to go and the list goes on.

On the other hand, we have people saying we don't need a prison, we need to educate the people not to commit crimes.

Unfortunately, that is pie in the sky stuff.

This government was elected by the majority of the people in Tasmania to run our state.

They have decided on behalf of the majority of people who voted for them.

People are sick of these protests. To the government I say, get on and build it.

RELATIVE to recent press reports about the unsustainable number of councils in Tasmania, will the City of Launceston council move to reduce the size of the Launceston council's area and reposition its boundaries to allow large parts of the municipality to be transferred to West Tamar, Meander Valley, Northern Midlands and George Town councils?

This, in turn, to enable the new conglomerate of local authorities in the region to function as resource sharing local government body where needed and to function with a flat rate structure to achieve more sustainable and viable communities that have closer contacts to their grassroots, and lead the way for other regions to follow the northern Tasmanian region's leadership.

GRAEME Samuels' scathing report on the state of the EBPC in Australia, along with the recent Australian National Audit Office's equally damning review of the federal environment department debunks Guy Barnett's claim that Tasmania's environmental laws are robust, contemporary and strong (The Examiner, July 19).

Evidence of this are: a proposed helicopter fly-in/out private development within the World Heritage Wilderness at Lake Malbena (weakened management plan), continued logging of protected species habitat in native forests ("Nothing but a wood bank", Guy Barnett, parliament, November 2019) and Mr Barnett allowing the shooting of 49,000 migratory ducks this year against all advice, after bushfires decimated wildlife on the mainland.

The federal and state governments have acted on the scientific advice on COVID-19 because they must, or be voted out.

They must also act using scientific advice to protect our environment, not act by ministerial whim, ideology or for vested interests, or we face ecological ruin. There are permanent jobs and growth in transitioning to an economy that preserves our remaining beautiful native forests and wildlife.

WITH respect, Margaret Sing (The Examiner, July 22) I do not accept the surveys that you mentioned which appear to show that a high proportion of Christians support assisted dying.

God's words "Thou shalt not kill" are for all people, for all time, and will never change.

No amount of learned or other debate will alter His command to every human.

If Christians are unable to accept and live by God's word how can they call themselves Christians? God gave us the choice to keep his word or walk away.