I have never been much of a swinging voter. Born in a mining town. Working underground and being a union secretary in my early 20s, my die has been pretty much cast.

Reading (The Examiner, March 7) of support for Scott Morrison, the tough times he has endured, reinforces my view that tribalism runs deep. These days I am far more liberal than a hard-nosed lefty.

I have been an employer and a manager.

As a baby boomer, I have done very well out of Australia. I will say just this.

Malcolm Fraser had a soul, he championed the Vietnamese boat refugees. John Howard had the courage to introduce gun control. Josh Frydenberg's thwarted National Energy Guarantee was a step in the right direction.

Malcolm Turnbull got same sex-marriage across the line. There is grist here for a kind of Liberalism that will make us a better country. One cannot say that about the PM. We have no idea what he stands for.

His shallow "How good is Australia"? is an echo of Trump's MAGA. Steady as she goes is not what we need right now. We need a change of heart. We need a change, full stop.

I AM a user of the Tamar River.

I have undertaken tows of boats either breakdowns, people stuck on mud or retrieving injured people. I am a user of the Tamar as a ski paddler, towing disabled craft or retrieving injured people on call out with the Launceston Life Saving Club.

I am concerned much of the advice used to make decisions is provided by people who know little about the Tamar. I was criticised by The Examiner when I refused to lobby for money to rake the Tamar when Andrew Nikolic and the Liberal government provided millions for that purpose.

As we know raking exacerbated the mud build-up in the Tamar River.

My request is if yet another governance model is being considered to get some users involved. It is difficult as an individual to lobby for sufficient money to tertiary treat sewage in the whole Tamar Basin, when others claim to have a quick fix with no understanding or real solution.

THE proposal of new controversial anti-protest law will be a massive overreach as it will treat peaceful protestors the same as people convicted of aggravated assault with fines up to $8650 or 12 months' imprisonment. There is already an adequate broad array of offences for peaceful protestors that impose a financial penalty.

People like myself are at a loss as to how to influence government policies that encourage pollution and climate change.

I protest to draw the public's attention to the clear-felling of native forests because the science tells us the loss of carbon by this harvesting method is one of Tasmania's major contributors to climate change.

Also the unnecessary proposal by MMG to build a tailings dam on 285ha lease site within The Tarkine/takayna. Letters, conversations and submissions have not created the changes required; therefore, direct peaceful protesting is a practical option I will continue to be involved in. It would be irresponsible of me not to consider the effect climate change will have on future generations. Please consider talking to our state politicians about the inappropriateness of this draconian piece of legislation.

I WAS rather surprised to read in (The Examiner, May 6) a report concerning a national forestry hub at UTAS that suggested the success of Tasmania being carbon neutral was due to timber industries' practices.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Tasmania is carbon neutral for a range of reasons, not least of which was the establishment of the HEC in the early 20th century and then more recently, the conservation of a large proportion of the state in the world heritage area, a development in which I was directly involved. Since I was Minister for Forests in 1980 the goal of a carbon-neutral state has been a blank in the minds and practices of the forest industries who have been more concerned with their financial bottom line than with the planet's future.

THE City of Launceston council should and must see to it that all businesses and private houses have proper house and business numbers indicated. It would help police and ambulances to come quickly to the right address, including people looking for shops etc.