ABORIGINAL HERITAGE
TMAG and QVMAG agreed that the petroglyphs they held for 60 years should be handed back to Aboriginal people so we could put them back from where they were taken.
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The Tasmanian government agreed.
In fact, everyone agreed.
Crazily, the Aboriginal Heritage Act required costly and useless consultation that held up the return for 12 months.
Aboriginal heritage is not owned by Aborigines, but by the government.
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European heritage is not owned by the government.
The government agrees that the act is out of date and public consultation for a new act finished in September 2019.
Two years later, there is still no new legislation.
The government needs a single amendment to the act: "This act is subject to Aboriginal ownership of Aboriginal heritage."
That would put an end to discriminatory legislation.
Michael Mansell, Aboriginal Land Council.
BUSINESS BY THE BOOKS
THE secret to a "good" bookshop is a diverse range of titles that cater for all ages and tastes and knowledgeable staff that know their stock and can make recommendations.
The business also needs to accept special orders for titles they don't hold. Launceston is extremely fortunate to have Petrarch's featured in (The Examiner, November 19).
It provides all these requirements.
The book section in large department stores may offer discounted prices on popular titles however they don't have the extensive range of Petrarch's, or staff with the necessary expertise. This local business deserves to be supported.
Erica Maxwell, Norwood.
ROAD SAFETY IS COMPLEX
MARK Westfield (The Examiner, November 14) seems to think that the road toll is entirely due to the speed limit.
In trials where the speed limit was lowered by 10km/h the road toll was unaffected.
That is because the road toll is made up of many causes.
Road accidents include medical events such as heart attack and seizure; suicide by motor vehicle; not driving to the conditions; alcohol and drug intoxication; interaction of vehicular traffic with bicycles and pedestrians; mechanical issues including poor maintenance of tyres and brakes and many other causes, none of which are affected by the speed limit.
Of those accidents where speed is a factor, most are caused by exceeding or ignoring the speed limit or driving too fast in inclement weather and poor road conditions.
Road safety is complex; suggesting simplistic solutions is unhelpful.
Robert Stonjek, Kings Meadows.
FEAR AND LOATHING
WELL I don't know, and maybe I'm just too damn old to understand the way people think nowadays, but fair dinkum I reckon our politicians and health experts just don't get it.
I'll try to explain. A percentage of people are afraid of certain things. The word terrified is not exaggerating, for example fear of snakes, spiders, heights - the list goes on.
Yet for two years now, 24/7, the thousands of Australians who are terrified of needles have it stuffed down their throats nightly on their TV.
Jab after jab they can't show it enough and the medical people (not all, some have common sense) continue to show needles jabbed into arms and wonder why some people won't get vaccinated.
Lord give me strength, cut out the nightly jabs for a while, they might get a better response for people who are no fault of their own are terrified of needles.
But I am 84 years old. What would I know?
