Letters to the editor | April 6, 2021

The tower itself is a beautiful structure, seeming to reach toward the sky, and it could be symbolic of mankind's highest aspirations like the spine of a cathedral.

READ MORE: Fed up with council, two women decide to run for mayor

I can't think of an English name that doesn't sound cliched or corny. Perhaps there is a word in the native tongue that suggests some of these meanings, preferably one that rolls off the tongue easily and isn't too hard to pronounce?

IF YOU'RE unlucky enough to need the support of the state mental health services you'll find that unless your family member is on a community order to take medication for mandatory compliance then that is where material support ends.

The one government sector that can most easily misuse its power is nowhere to be seen when you need them, and it hides behind the mental health act which in the name of human rights will not support the mentally ill unless they are at risk of harm to themselves or others.

IN OTHER NEWS:

In other words, one can be going stark raving mad for years without intervention if there is no departure from the above guidelines.

Like the new policy on emergency calls to ambulances, you will be diverted to helplines which invariably fail families but pay lip service to governments who play follow the leader when failing Tasmanians.

THE Myanmar military junta's killing of dozens of children in the past two months is deplorable. Daily reports are showing an increasingly violent level of aggression against citizens who are peacefully protesting the coup that has ousted a democratically-elected leader. Australia, through the United Nations, must lend its weight behind the UN Security Council's efforts to actively intervene in what is becoming a bloodbath in the former British colony of Burma.

As leader of the coup, the military commander-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing, must be held to account for the violence against civilian protesters which include teachers, lawyers, students and government officials.

Unfortunately, the current hostilities in Myanmar were preceded by the country's terrible treatment of its Rohingya minority that resulted in the death of thousands and the escape of some 700,000 to Bangladesh.

The only way to rectify this injustice is to address the current one first in a country that has had decades of military rule after gaining its independence from Britain in 1948.

Australia shares a World War II history with Myanmar - where 4800 Australians were sent to work on the Burma-Thailand railway - and must provide asylum to any international students in Australia who are at risk of arrest on their return.

I HAVE a solution for the Tasmanian health care crisis. If we simply need funding to provide adequate hospital staffing and care for tens of thousands of suffering Tasmanians, then I know where to get that money. If we stop paying mainland PR consultancy companies, who are trying to sell us on the Marinus Project, we'll save millions. If we ditch TasNetworks' plan to gold plate its assets with a new grid that no one wants or needs, we'll save millions. If we abandon the Marinus Link, which is just a plan to help foreign investors sell our wind power, we'll save a billion. Problem solved!

SO YET again we are obligated to go to the polls because Premier Peter Gutwein feels insecure due to the departure of a certain lady from his party.

I am so very fed up and disgusted at their continuous irksome behaviour that at times I ask myself what have we here; grown adults or a pack of bully boys and women.

Is it any wonder that so many voters are disenchanted and bored senseless.

So now we are going to be inundated with the many hopefuls sprouting their promises like pie crust, very easily broken and if successful will most likely suffer from a temporary lapse of dementia, then we will just carry on regardless.

I will be very busy in the next few weeks hoarding as many books as possible because no way am I going to subject myself to the utter nonsense that will be on show.

HOW fortunate are we all to live in a society where we can vote. Yet it is something that a great number of Australians take for granted, whether it be in local, state or federal elections.

Never before has Tasmania and Australia needed your vote to count.

I implore you to do your due diligence. Google your candidates carefully, look at their record and you may be surprised what you find.

Then let your conscience be your guide and let the best person represent us.

THE Liberals believe that forest protests should stop because they cost jobs. I believe that native forests and habitats bring jobs.

The tourists do not come to Tasmania to admire the Burnie woodchip mountain.

Our natural wonders bring tourists which is a profitable industry, unlike the unprofitable forest industry.