The facts are clear. The Morrison government has not cut anything.

We are taking a responsible and measured approach by extending the temporary Coronavirus Supplement for an additional three months at a rate of $250 per fortnight between 25 September 25 and December 31.

We are also increasing the income free area for JobSeeker Payment to $300 a fortnight to encourage and support recipients to take up job opportunities as businesses reopen.

Individuals will be able to earn up to $300 per fortnight without foregoing any JobSeeker payment or affecting their eligibility for the Coronavirus Supplement. One-third of the Commonwealth budget is spent on welfare.

It is important the social security system targets the people most in need and is sustainable into the future.

While we will continue to provide the temporary, targeted support needed to assist Australians through this pandemic, our values remain the same.

We will always strive to create an environment where we can get Australians off welfare and back into work.

THE government has closed itself like a clam in a sandstorm.

People wanting transparency can be a terrible irritant to your soft spots.

EVERYONE is concerned about the COVID-19 deaths in Melbourne and other parts of the country, however, what I would like to know is the social cost of COVID and the present course of action.

Consider the bankrupt businesses, the lost livelihoods, the foreclosures and forced asset sales, the mental distress, the divorces and deaths by suicide.

This is a devastating number of casualties, which will no doubt eclipse the actual total deaths by COVID.

BOTH ferries for the retiring Spirit of Tasmania vessels. In view of their history, they could effortlessly be renamed Southern Crown 1 and 2.

JOSH Frydenberg predicts "eye-watering" deficits that will take decades to abolish but proposes to bring forward the tax cuts due in 2021 to 2022 at a time when government expenditure to keep Australians out of dire poverty during the COVID epidemic is increasingly urgent.

More money going out because of the crisis, less coming in because of the tax cuts.

In some sort of rationalisation of this weird thinking, he refers to his idols, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, both die-hard neoliberals.

Unemployment went up under Thatcher from around 1.4 million in 1979 when she came to power to plateauing around three million for the next eight years, while under Reagan unemployment peaked at 10.8 per cent from 7.4 per cent when he took office.

Under both inequality drastically increased. However, Thatcher did think that homeownership was a "right" and so she authorised greatly increased expenditure on public (council) housing.

Frydenberg's housing policy sacrifices public housing for loans for the rich to renovate their existing properties.

Josh has got it completely wrong on all counts. He has taken on board the worst of Thatcher's policies and ignored the best. How good is that?

IT'S a fair call to have, even after all this time, Coon Cheese renamed though the name was never meant to be in any way a derogatory term.

One can understand those who would like the name deleted. The Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory (the makers of Coon Cheese) is an Australian based company yet is majority-owned by the Canadian company Saputo Inc. So before some of us, Aussies get upset that political correctness has gone mad, think again.

The cheese is no longer true blue, therefore who cares what the Canadian owners do with their cheese.

WE can swim in Trevallyn Dam, St Leonards and the Tailrace but we can not swim in the Tamar near Launceston.

So could you tell me again where the pollution occurs?

Could it be Launceston and Riverside?

Raking wasted millions, what will be the next political promise to waste of my taxes?

IN my view to accept $10 million funding initially set aside for drought funding is wrong. To then allocate this money for major infrastructure works in the city does not meet the pub test. When this money was originally announced there was no mention of it being given for drought funding.

To even remotely suggest that it fitted the criteria for drought was a longbow. To vaguely deflect the matter as operational is quite, the councillors were quite correct in moving away from this council item.

Every decision by the council must be made openly and transparently, otherwise, a cloud of suspicion and doubt will descend which impacts on everyone.

I sincerely hope that the council cancel the agreement and seek funding for the project by pursuing other grant avenues.