Surely, it's time to find a minister capable of bringing corrections and justice into the 21st century.

HOORAY for the plain common sense of Professor Jenny Davis and Dr Ian Kidd with their expertise in estuarine matters, especially in regard to their opinions on environmentally beneficial South Esk River flows through the Cataract Gorge (The Examiner, July 12).

Trevallyn Dam was commissioned in 1955 when South Esk River flows were reduced from, according to former Hydro Tasmania Executive Andrew Livingstone, the average low summer flow of 20 cubic metres per second to just a trickle of 0.43 cubic metres per second. And so they remained for 48 years until 2003 when they were increased to slightly more than a trickle of 1.5 cubic metres per second and again 10 years ago (2011) to a paltry 2.5 cubic metres per second to remain at that level ever since.

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So is it any wonder the estuarine environment immediately downstream of the dam is crook and nothing more than an environmental disaster? (The Examiner, February 6, 2004). Dr Kidd and Professor Davis estimate a minimum flow of 13.9 cubic metres per second is required to keep turbid waters at bay and there is no doubt all rivers and estuaries need good water flows to remain healthy.

We need our blood to flow unhindered through our veins and if that doesn't happen we get crook, sometimes seriously so and that is exactly what is happening with the Kanamaluka/Tamar Estuary deprived of its natural river flows.

At the time of the dam's commissioning Hydro Tasmania's predecessor, the Hydro Electric Commission, guaranteed that, except in an emergency, it will allow sufficient water through the dam to retain the beauty of the Gorge's tumbling waters, so where are those tumbling waters Hydro? (The Examiner, May 14, 1955). In light of the above scientific conclusions it is now beholden on Hydro Tasmania to significantly increase South Esk River flows to a minimum level of 14 cubic metres per second and preferable 15 cubic metres per second.

As a resident of Westbury, I am pleased that the Meander Valley Council have agreed to hold a public meeting about the proposed northern prison, however it is not a place for Minister Archer or indeed the state government to attend. Minister Archer held her own meeting and had her own people conduct it and in that meeting the only answers she provided were that it was too early to say, that it was an operational issue she could not comment. Minister Archer hasn't shown any interest in the community so far so why now? It is also not a platform for the welfare and rehabilitation of prisoners to be discussed.

This meeting should be for the whole community.

It is about a community and the council that are there to represent it and should not be made political.

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