We should have more elections.

Imagine if we had an election every year, children would be swimming in the kanamaluka/Tamar River and healthy fish would be hooked off one of the two new bridges across that estuary. We may have to build an extra wing on the library to house all the reports, but all in good faith.

The Launceston highway bypass and a roundabout on every corner will resolve all traffic issues. Emergency patients at the hospitals would all be seen inside recommended times and there would be no waiting lists for elective surgery. Every Tasmanian would live in a real house and poverty would be eliminated. Every sporting club in the state would have new toilets.

The reality is that our democratic system has been usurped by dishonest people offering bribes to citizens to vote for them.

This is illegal but will not be prosecuted.

My message to political aspirants is that if anything needs to be done to further the interests of us citizens, then get on and do it.

And if I hear anybody say to me "if you vote for me, I will give you this, then you will be last on my list (yes, I know the irony).

THE proposal by the state Liberal Party, should they win the upcoming election, to put a bridge over the Tamar River north of UTAS's Newnham Campus and Cormiston Road on the western side will not solve the problem of through traffic in Launceston. The solution needs a practical, forward-thinking and realistic approach to the problem otherwise Launceston will end up like Hobart with nowhere to go.

A western bypass coming from the Bass Highway east of Hadspen, crossing the South Esk River and joining the roundabout at Acropolis Drive, Legana, then crossing the Tamar River to join the East Tamar Highway is a solution.

Combining this with an eastern bypass that joins St Leonards Road, through the lower areas of or behind Ravenswood and joins the East Tamar Highway will take away a lot of heavy and commercial traffic that only passes through the city.

Already subdivisions are planned for Hadspen, St Leonards, Waverley, Ravenswood, Riverside, Perth and Evandale, so land needs to be acquired now before development takes place. Yes, it is an expensive proposition but to do short term ineffective fixes to gain votes does not solve the future problems that will occur.

HOW can the AFL have a capacity of 80,000 sitting next door to each other but the daily Agfest limit is 10,000? How is that fair?

At least with Agfest social distancing could be adhered to more than the MCG.

Politicians are dictating to us.

Enough is enough.

Double standards in my books and the government should be ashamed of themselves acting like this.

TWENTY years ago I had the privilege of having dinner with the Norwegian son of the inventor of fish farms in Norway.

This meeting took place in Chile, South America where he ran a factory that made fish farm equipment.

He showed us around his factory and we had an in-depth discussion about the dangers of pollution of all waterways.

The rivers in Chile at that time had been ruined by fish farms and he said that having them close to coastlines would also cause degradation of pristine beaches.

He told us that the only safe place for high polluting fish farms was in deep ocean waters, ideally attached to oil rigs.

I came home to Tasmania and phoned the government dept responsible for fish farms and was reassured that they sent divers down at regular intervals to examine the river beds etc. So why did the Macquarie Harbour become so degraded?

Do we here in Tasmania want all our incredibly beautiful beaches, bays and rivers turned into grey sludge just so a few people can become very rich.

If the inventor of fish farms eventually believed that these farms should not be near coastlines or rivers then please I beg the peoples' representatives in government to immediately

VOTERS beware of any party that has offered short-term cash for clubs, sporting bodies or pensioners in the last few days.

This is politicians trying to buy your votes, but ignoring promises that will make our state a more open and equitable place to live.

We want immediate disclosure of donations before any elections.

We want true freedom of information legislation that allows public scrutiny of decision making.

We want to keep ownership of our land and public ownership of essential services like electricity, water and health services.

We want a better regulated gambling industry that is not monopolized.

Don't believe any party that says majority government is a must, politicians of all persuasions should be forced to work together for the common good, not for the faceless party moguls.

We want realistic improvements to our struggling health system that can only be accomplished by building larger hospitals on greenfield sites in each region.