Letters to the editor | March 12, 2021

I have no doubt many bites have occurred as a result of the false sense of security snake-friendly articles create.

I have personal knowledge of such an incident where a young boy who's favourite TV show was Harry Butler's In the Wild.

The lad picked up a whip snake (weirdly called a white-lipped snake nowadays) and was bitten on the hand. Raised by his grandparents they were told at the hospital another half hour and he would've died. That was in Southern Tasmania 40-plus years ago. Well done Dana Anderson for including statistics on hospitalisations and deaths from snakebite. It's a reminder of how dangerous snakes are.

RENTALS in every suburb in Tasmania have become very high and people are paying more than 50 per cent of their weekly wage or pension on rent, and there are not enough houses to rent anymore. Politicians need to get back in touch with low and middle-income families as they have lost touch with what's happening here.

THE state's nurses union has accused Calvary Healthcare of ignoring staff concerns and threatening to reduce conditions and entitlements (The Examiner, March 5).

And to think that some fools want to share a co-located hospital with them.

ANMF Tasmanian secretary Emily Shepherd said "nurses across the state, including those based at St Vincent's and St Lukes in Launceston, were not able to meet the care needs of their patients". We're talking about paying patients here. Imagine how Calvary would treat non-paying patients if a co-located hospital were to proceed?

I AM well into my 70s and a keen follower of Australian politics.

I have never known a crueller, nastier and more dysfunctional government than this Scott Morrison chaos. Adding to that the past 18 months have been hell for many with bushfires and COVID-19.

Thanks to fireys, ambos, health and medical workers, teachers, aged and child workers etc, we are coming through it.

You'll notice it wasn't chief executives, big business, chamber of commerce, business council or banks that guided us through this.

Now which lot got the rewards?

Then that's right, the latter with draconian new IR laws and easing of bank restrictions imposed after the royal commission. Why?

You ask well the latter are large donors to the coalition parties and want their pound of flesh. The heroes are mainly unionists and that is a no-no to this mob. Shame on you Mr Morrison with Gavin Pearce and Bridget Archer aided and abetted by Jacqui Lambie.

HAS someone in the government missed something with our very important COVID capacity restrictions? While at Service Tasmania in Launceston signs are saying the maximum capacity of the waiting room, which is quite spacious, is 30 people. Yet as there were so many people requiring services, there were 22 lined up in the foyer.

I AM appalled and disgusted that even in 2021, Australia's backward government continues to censor, discredit and ignore scientists and scientific research.

As a scientist, I feel attacked and defamed, and I feel the government is slandering my university and many other universities by not taking scientific research seriously.

Ignoring scientists and scientific research will backfire on the government in a big way.

Think about climate change and deforestation, the extinction crisis and carbon emissions.

These issues are not going away and ignoring them is short-sighted and reckless.

Think before the next election you incompetent fools.