And so we hear it again for the umpteenth time from our well-meaning but increasingly weary PC Plods "... we [police] are disappointed in drivers' behaviour ..." "... we [police] can't understand why the message isn't getting through ..." " ... we [police] wish drivers would drive to the conditions ..." etc. to illustrate just three exasperations that have been repeated since the '60s and possibly prior.

Guess what?

People don't know how to drive to the conditions, they don't know what the correct behaviour is.

And do you know why? Because they have not been taught.

Who would have thought?

Imagine expecting a child to know the answer to two-times-two without having first taught them how to do it?

Until policymakers accept the reality of the need to adequately teach drivers to drive, poor ol' PC Plod will predictably utter next Easter "police are disappointed at the behaviour over the holiday period" as night follows day.

Just as we get mathematics teachers to teach our children their timetables (or once upon a time we did) some of us know how proper driver training is done.

And no, parental instruction is not the answer, ask any parent.

Decision makers, it's time to ask those who know and to finally give PC Plods a break next Christmas.

MICHAEL Ferguson is correct in saying that the threat of higher penalties will do nothing.

Many states have higher penalties than Tasmania already but they have seen an increase in their death tolls also.

In Perth, they are completely obsessed with traffic enforcement and it is obvious that it is largely just revenue raising.

Driver frustration due to too much traffic and speed limits set too low also.

A WORLD-FIRST study of stalkers done by Otago University, Dunedin, showed that the highest indicator of an abuser becoming a killer is the use of choking - or non-fatal strangulation to use the legal term - in his previous assaults. As former Tasmanian detective David Plumpton stated (The Examiner, December 20), he knew when he investigated an assault that if there was an element of choking "that this was an extremely serious matter and there should be a separate charge".

For the sake of women's safety, I support non-fatal strangulation being a separate charge with significant penalties similar to those in WA and other states. With research and frontline experience highlighting the same danger, it is time to take action.

"OWNERS should have the right to do what they want with their own properties" like most populist slogans is complete nonsense. I can no more turn my home into a pub, an ashram or a bordello than fly to the moon. The council and government have always had a say in what we do with our properties and always will ostensibly for the betterment of the whole community.

Airbnb's impact is great on our small island with just over 5200 properties of which nearly 80 per cent are entire homes or apartments and affects our way of life. Schools, places of worship, sporting clubs, bingo and just neighbourliness rely on long-term residents to survive. Naturally, we welcome tourists and but not at any cost and as intended Airbnb should remain within private dwellings. Support for this view is evident in letters to the editor but lamentably the government appears contemptuous and indifferent to the idea. Perhaps we all should subscribe to the Liberal Party's fee-for-service club to have our ideas heard along with the other enigmatic donors.

I'M yet to look at the new Gasworks plans but can't help making a comment about the name DADA emblazoned on the building design. What is intended? It's a big call. The DADA art movement was highly influential and provocative, was anti-bourgeois and of the radical left. Interesting times ahead for Launceston perhaps. But please, not the car park shoved up against it.

BOW hunting fallow deer makes sense and despite the protests from the naysayers, it is entirely humane. A properly constructed hunting arrowhead creates a wide wound path which results in blood draining from their vital organs and creates unconsciousness from the target animal.

Hunters overseas regularly take game far larger than our fallow deer, so bow hunting has a successful track record already. Meanwhile, death from 1080 is drawn out and cruel as well as indiscriminate.

THANKS to the Launceston Fire Brigade for the speedy and efficient job they did on saving my house in Invermay on New Year's Eve. Their speedy response and skill prevented my house burning to the ground.

Well done and a happy New Year.