OPEN THE FLOOD GATES
THE article about Launceston, "A City Stuck in the Mud" (The Examiner, March 5), was truly disturbing.
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Firstly, it's the confluence of the Meander river and the South Esk river, that flows into Trevallyn Dam, then down the Gorge that stymies the natural flow into the Tamar basin - not the North and South Esk rivers as claimed by expert natural science curator, David Maynard.
Maynard used a map, not photographic evidence of mud banks, and I can be sure that before European settlement, beautiful grasses and riparian verges would have been the mainstay of those compacted mud banks. Block off the dam, open the floodgates, and free the river.
Deborah Carey, Newstead.
ABUSE AND VIOLENCE
IN RECENT weeks there have been many instances of gendered violence in our national community, including family abuse/violence, child abuse and rape.
Particularly disturbing are the increasingly frequent reports of sexual harassment and bullying in workplaces, including our parliaments.
IN OTHER NEWS:
While we should not always accept all that we read or see in the media, it is clear that there needs to be a focus on the way in which society treats the victims and also how it deals with the offenders.
The current system of reporting abuse, pursuing police investigation and legal prosecution appears to subject the victim to further trauma, first for speaking out then when having to repeatedly relive the trauma in court and in the media. Putting offenders in jail without adequate programs to re-educate and rehabilitate is simply making a bad situation worse. There is no better time to start than now with our young people. The awarding of "The Australian of the Year" to Grace Tame, a survivor of sexual abuse and an eloquent speaker on the issue, provides an opportunity as a nation and a society to look at the problem and to take some positive action on all aspects of this critical and complex issue.
Phil Crowden, Launceston White Ribbon.
LAND HAND BACKS
COULD someone please explain how handing back portions of public land to TALC control where we are excluded is an act of reconciliation? To reconcile is "make friendly" and "harmonise" but it is hard to see how excluding people from land use and not sharing its heritage achieves this.
Sadly the actions of past governments in allowing the TALC to control nearly 1 per cent of Tasmania has deepened divisions in our community, not assisted in healing them. It merely emphasizes that anyone with Aboriginal Heritage is to be given special consideration. The reasons for this are clouded in a haze of corrupted history making outlandish claims of genocide perpetrated by the Colonial Administration.
These claims do not stand up to careful research. Yes there were conflicts where settlers were murdered by first Tasmanians and they in turn suffered from the conflicts with their numbers also sadly decimated by disease. But it makes no sense that land hand-backs assists to compensate for what happened 200 years ago.
We should be working together as a cohesive community, not taking actions which further emphasise division.