Letters to the editor | April 1, 2021

If all politicians follow the lead of Rosemary Armitage (The Examiner, March 18) we may convince the AFL that we need to belong to our national game right now.

It's an injustice that Tasmania has been neglected when you consider we have delivered greats of the game such as Peter Hudson and Daryl Baldock.

If having an AFL side delivers economic benefits of $110 million and will employ 300 people the argument that we cannot afford a team does not apply.

Our local competitions are floundering with a lack of numbers and we are having clubs fold due to a lack of players.

An AFL side will give any young player a huge incentive to take up the game as the end goal will be to play for our state and not go to the mainland.

This may be the reason we are not getting as many draft picks as we used to. Just think of how many more players like Hudson and Baldock we could have produced if any young player could train and play AFL and go home to their family each week.

Would we have Tim Paine as Australian Test captain or the great Ricky Ponting if we did not have teams in national cricket sides?

These greats defy the doubters who say a Tasmanian AFL team will not be competitive.

IT'S hard to believe that the Tasmanian government has chosen to fund a voluntary assisted dying program at a yearly cost of $2.4 million.

As only 10 people are expected to use it each year the cost per patient is huge.

Supporting politicians need to justify this cost.

Given funding shortages in health care services, such largesse is hard to fathom.

Maybe there is modelling that long term VAD is cheaper than providing care for ill Tasmanians.

TO HAVE a good strong government, electors must elect good qualified people, not popular people, people that one would employ to manage a big business.

If the candidate hasn't got a great education behind them, don't vote for them.

Tasmania is in great shape, managed by a great team, let's keep it that way.

THE Australian Energy Market Commission has stated that it wants to allow energy networks to charge solar panel owners for exporting the power they produce.

We have already had our feed-in tariff here in Tasmania reduced from the original amount of 28.283 cents per kWh to 13.541 cents on January 1 last year.

Then on January 1 this year it dropped to 9.347 cents per kWh, with a further drop to 8.471 cents on July 1. If the AEMC has its way we could end up with just a pittance for exporting our power to the grid.

When you consider the whole world is trying to change from fossil fuels to renewable energy you truly have to wonder at the sanity of anyone who thought up this idea.

Just imagine the loss of jobs in the solar power industry; no one would bother to have panels installed if they were getting virtually nothing for doing so.

Queensland and Victoria governments have expressed opposition to this proposition so I urge our energy minister, Guy Barnett to do so as well.

CONGRATULATIONS to the Greens on tabling legislation to prevent these outrageous rental increases.

Landlords are not suffering at all in these times but workers are. These greedy landlords are exploiting the suffering of the poor and working-class who can't afford to raise deposits for their own house. They are paying fewer costs with lower interest rates than ever before and performing little if no maintenance on the houses they own.

It's time for a political revolution here to make it clear to the current government that this needs to stop, prevent these outrageous exploitative capitalists from gaining the upper hand. We need fairness in our system.

More affordable housing, a CPI cap.

Most wages in Tasmania only increase by 2 per cent as capped by the government so why should a landlord be able to get an increase of 20 per cent plus?

I DON'T know why political commentators were surprised the premier called an early election. The day Sue Hickey decided to take the speakership without consulting her party, was the day the election was locked in. Simply a matter of when. Ms Hickey's confidence in her own ability will be tested at this election.

THE pandemic has been a strain on so many lives that I continue to be astounded that we diligent Aussies seem to be continually punished by this federal government.

We have done all that has been asked of us and yet the powers to be still put everyone at risk by allowing infected people to fly in from overseas.

A lot of us would love to travel and visit loved ones in other states without restriction. When will we ever feel safe again?

SO now the trawling of social media had started, looking for any dirt to be thrown at candidates. Both major parties have already disgraced themselves in the past week.

Just stop.