How else do you punish people knowingly breaking the law?

A pat on the back?

It is so easy for vulnerable people to avoid paying fines - don't break the law.

Deterrent laws are a joke, light or suspended sentences for the most serious crimes are normal.

The crime rate will always remain high if antisocial offenders are not frightened of being caught due to inadequate sentences or deterrents.

Greg Barns spokesperson of the Allied Lawyers Alliance defends the indefensible believing all antisocial offenders should be given backpackers accommodation and countless liberties.

Four thousand, six hundred drivers licenses suspended for unpaid fines, so what?

An investment in a new correction facility like the proposed jail is extremely necessary to address crime and avoid overcrowding.

Only a small percentage of people knowingly break the law but when it is broken the appropriate punishment should always be applied, vulnerable or not, to avoid anarchy.

WHAT a great opinion piece by Steve Evans (The Examiner, September 28).

He presents a compelling case for the essential part government activity plays in our lives and he is unapologetic in laying the credit for funding these essential activities with us - the taxpayers.

For too long small government and privatisation have been presented as a panacea for all problems. This assumption has been made without any empirical or even rational anecdotal evidence.

On the micro level, if you had a mental health issue - get your act together and don't bother anyone else.

On a more macro level, if you want to build a hospital - put out tenders and select the one that budgets for the least exploitive profit margin.

Imagine if the response to the pandemic had been put out for tender.

Imagine if parliamentary salaries were privatised.

No, as an unreconstructed socialist it was with relief that I read Steve's article with the hope that the prevailing neoliberal trope may have finally been viewed rationally for what it is - a nasty, selfish and inherently destructive aberration.

I AM a woman who knows about nesting.

I've birthed babies and raised them and watched other women do the same.

We follow instincts to find safe places, with food, shelter, comfort, calm.

Cutting down the trees that provide nesting hollows for the swift parrots is madness.

Blocking off nesting hollows is cruelty.

ON Friday, my wife and I, in a moment of madness decided to honour a previously arranged lunch date with friends in Latrobe.

The weather was atrocious.

But far worse than the weather was the appalling condition of the Bass Highway.

It is suffering under the load that modern trucks impose on it, with washouts and potholes all over the place.

It would be nice if the state government could lavish some of the funds spent on the new road to Hobart on the Bass Highway and make it safer and better suited than it is to modern conditions.

WHEN a minister of a party clearly lies we have a problem - with a minister.

When the leader of that party then defends his ministers' dishonest behaviour, we have a big problem - with the whole party.

That's what happened when Roger Jaensch lied about not knowing if a decision was made to change the law - the Residential Tenancy Act - to make it easier to evict tenants without genuine or just reason.

He said he wasn't aware of any decisions proposed or undertaken - which was clearly a lie.

Yet, Peter Gutwein is happy to defend his dishonest minister, as though nothing happened.

So, how can we have confidence with a party leader and a party that defends such unacceptable behaviour?

WE keep hearing the now standard reply from the Health Minister that she is committed to reopening Mersey Emergency 24/7.

If this is the truth, why are we still waiting?

Why are ambulances still told to bypass?

Why does the third most densely populated area of Tasmania and the fastest growing area not have 24/7 emergency services within 50-100 kilometres?

Is Devonport the only city in Australia?

THE Premier has done an admirable job with his handling of the virus situation.

I do not expect him to predict the future but we, like so many, are hoping and praying that our loved ones in Melbourne will be able to come home for Christmas.

In all the confusion of an ever-changing scenario, it would help to know the criteria by which the border closure can be lifted to allow entry to Tassie.