The government believes it is cheaper for two people to live together, so they cut our pension by more than $400 per fortnight.

We had been struggling ever since.

Now, we just bought our prescription medication today for $88.40.

I am dead within three days without them.

We live below the poverty line, have been looking for something cheaper, but can't find anything. Life is very hard.

I have been volunteering as a snake wrangler trying to get enough pocket money to pay for a car service, thousands overdue and so on.

ON March 14 I went to the fabulous Torana display at the National Automobile Museum of Tasmania. It seemed as if every last SL/R and XU1's in the country were there.

Funny though, they all had Tassie plates.

The event at Longford the prior weekend was also sensational. Well done.

WHAT an embarrassing decision, seven months to decide what was obvious to everyone. Infrastructure Minister Michael Ferguson should resign.

THE question that remains unasked by John Coulson (The Examiner, March 15) regarding handing back public land to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Land Council is what should we do?

Daily we read about the mud and mess of the Tamar River.

That happened under our stewardship.

The pollution of the King River, Mt Lyell, Risdon Zinc Works; the extinction of the Tasmanian Tiger and damming Lake Pedder.

I could go on. The impact of our presence on the environment since colonisation has been profound.

The impact on our First Nations people even more so. As for a "corrupted" history and outlandish claims of genocide not standing up to careful research, well that is frankly outlandish.

Our colonial history is one of violence and predation upon our First People. Fundamentally because we were possessing and occupying their land at the point of a gun.

So now we are giving some back.

One can't help but feel that the stewardship of those descendants of our first people, our contemporary proud and resilient first people, will be well placed.

BACK in the '60s, President John F. Kennedy established a direct telephone to the Kremlin so that world issues could be handled expeditiously, this was referred to as the "Hotline". Roll forward to today, and every government agency and any number of businesses have an 1800 number that they refer to as a hotline.

Can I suggest these are not hotlines, but the complete antithesis thereof? A typical case of a word being used to suggest that is something other than what it really is.

IN the not-too-distant future Australians will be awoken to the news that King Charles III is their Head of State.

Presenting a rather forlorn, hapless and quintessential British demeanour, it is hard to imagine a less likely figure to represent contemporary Australia and one who could well remain so for 15 years or more.

On the other hand, we are lucky enough to have one of the soundest and most workable Constitutions in the world.

Naturally, it needs to adapt to our changing society including recognition of First Nations but importantly it also allows us to break the umbilical cord with Britain their Queen and her somewhat sad and dysfunctional family.

It's not too hard to do: Retain the Constitution as it is but simply replace "Queen" with Governor-General, president, kanga or another suitable term as suggested here;

Chapter I - The Parliament Part I - General 1:

Legislative power - The legislative power of the Commonwealth shall be vested in a Federal Parliament, which shall consist of the Queen, (Governor-General, president or kanga) a Senate, and a House of Representatives, and which is hereinafter called The Parliament, or The Parliament of the Commonwealth.

The bipartisan selection process has generally worked well in the past and the functions would remain as they are although without sending dispatches to the King. It also avoids the unedifying prospect of a presidential election.

I WATCHED the first game of the NRL season the other night and was interested to hear pre-game that there were going to be several changes to the rules to make the game flow more.

I was in anticipation that one of the rule changes would be getting rid of the scrum.

This part of the game is a waste of time, there is no strength in the packs like in rugby union, no contest to see who can come away with the ball, in league whoever feeds in the ball always comes away with it. Get rid of the scrum and make it a play the ball to the team who would otherwise feed the scrum.