Before you head off desecrating the graves of our loved ones, can you please take into consideration that the resting places that have a few extra meaningful nicknacks in place are the ones that are visited regularly by those that have loved their lost ones?

We do not add these things to endanger others or to clutter up such a well-kept cemetery.

We leave them because they meant something to those we have lost.

As a regular dog walker through Carr Villa, my dog and I have never felt in danger.

I am also positive that the wooden Geelong spoon, (my dear old dad's prized possession) does not pose a threat to those who maintain the cemetery. We paid a fair price to have this as their final resting place.

Please do not take this nonsensical all-in approach. It means more to us than it will ever mean to you.

PEOPLE with mental issues should not be allowed to play poker machines.

They don't realise what they are doing with their lunch money as they do not grasp the full complexities of gambling.

THERE'S absolutely no doubt the pandemic has highlighted a major flaw in our economy, and that is, the heavy reliance on overseas manufactured products.

Now more than ever with the uncertainty of overseas import arrivals and the threat of a wharfies strike disrupting vital medicines being unloaded, one can never overstate the call for our country to "Make it here".

I say, "Who killed manufacturing in Australia?"

That is the billion upon billion-dollar question.

MAYBE we should change the name of the voluntary assisted dying bill before parliament.

I think the word dying is what worries people, why not call it the EOLC bill, that is end of life choice.

That is the end of life choice, a much better description anyway, as even those in favour may not make the choice at present.

The religious fraternity shouldn't be frightened of death as they think they are destined for a better place and will meet their maker.

No dumbo, not mum and dad.

AS you get older and your children leave home, you can choose margarine or butter.

Ashgrove milk from real cows or cheap milk that goes orange if you freeze it.

Real Tasmanian potatoes are grown on our farms from our farmers, using local employment, or interstate produce. At the end of the day, the choice belongs to us.

We are talking about Tasmanian people trying to make a living.

Please choose wisely.

THERE is a tragic irony in the criticisms made by Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton of state border restrictions.

The Prime Minister declared Australia was in danger of "losing its humanity" while Mr Dutton was outraged the restrictions were "harming mental health and devastating families". Such supposedly compassionate statements reek of hypocrisy when they come from the two primarily responsible for the federal government's cruel inhumanity to asylum seekers and refugees.

If they are so concerned by the effects of lockdowns and closed borders on mental health, what about the mental torture they are imposing on the Tamil couple and their two little Australian-born girls, the sole inmates of their Christmas Island prison for over a year? Or what about the few hundred asylum seekers and refugees who have been held in crowded hotels in Melbourne and Brisbane since the start of the year?

Most have been imprisoned for over seven years, the entire length of the government. They are treated as criminals but have committed no crime. And now Mr Dutton wants to remove their mobile phones, their precious contact with families.

This inhumanity towards innocent, desperate people who have suffered for so long, shames all Australians. Silence is complicity.

THE New York Times reports that Trump paid as little as $750 federal income tax on the income from his businesses.

That's $750 more than was paid by Google, Facebook or Youtube combined.

YOU will need to wait an average of 505 days to get into the Launceston General Hospital for an outpatient visit (The Examiner, September 26).

Patients at the LGH have a considerably longer wait than other hospitals around the state with the next longest wait of 335 days at the Royal Hobart Hospital. Should you be classified as urgent, you will still be waiting an average of 153 days to get into the LGH. What a disgrace. How can you be classified as urgent, if you have to wait five months?

Come on Health Minister Sarah Courtney, "lift your game while you're still in office".

THE explainer article "Is it time to drive electric"? (The Examiner, September 24) omitted to mention that electric vehicle users do not contribute to road maintenance.

The price of petrol includes about $0.423 for excise per litre which is supposed to contribute to road maintenance. What is the government doing about an equivalent contribution from electric vehicle owners?