TASMANIAN ABORIGINAL TREATY
IN 2020 the Tasmanian government alleges that they were committed to truth telling and a path to reconciliation, and why the Tasmanian Aboriginal community contributed to the consultation process seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
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So far only the Tasmanian government have 'red taped' the process, by contradicting their commitment to a truth-telling path to reconciliation, and if anything, have given the Tasmanian Aboriginal community false hope that a treaty will ever happen.
As Nala Mansell once stated: "in 2016, Tasmanian laws were replaced with Commonwealth guidelines meaning many who identified as Aboriginal were officially recognised where previously they had not been". It seems that this is true and correct.
How does a 'white government' determine who is Aboriginal, and who is not?
If anything, the Tasmanian government has not engaged in any further treaty process since Premier Rockliff stepped into his new role and have only back peddled the process.
I call for the government to stop talking the talk and actually walk the walk and give the Tasmanian Aboriginal community what they truly deserve, and that people understand the ongoing effects of dispossession, and that will make it easier to accept terms of a treaty and the need for some remedy.
Come on Premier, let's pave the way for other states and territories to follow.
David Bester, Hobart.
HONKY TONK ROAD FINES
DEMONSTRATORS at the Kings Meadows aged care facility in (The Examiner, May 12) are holding signs urging passing horn owners to "honk".
Presumably directed at motorists as a passing sign of support, the signs are actually inviting the driver to break the law and expose themselves to a possible fine of $122.25.
Feel good they may as their protests are accompanied by the sound of passing car horns, but not everyone on the roads may be aware of the demonstration, irrespective of the cause, and mistake the sound of a car horn for what it was intended - and that is a warning of danger and, at this time, there is sufficient quantity of that on Tasmanian roads without adding confusion laid on indiscriminately.
For the signs to be effective and elicit a honk requires the driver to drop concentrating on the traffic environment, avert her/his gaze and attention elsewhere, then quickly read beyond the word "honk" on the top line of the placard in order to decide whether or not to comply.
Leave honking to geese who are experts, and generally found well clear of Tasmanian roads, for good reason.
Elsewhere, similar offences are penalised thus: SA $298; WA $50; ACT $3000 max.
Noel Christensen, Punchbowl.
TIME FOR A CHANGE
I AGREE with correspondent Tony Newport (The Examiner, ay 11) that the Liberal party has totally lost its way, and so it is now urgently time for change.
However, the case for the election of Labor is not just based on the Coalition's failings.
On a positive note, the last time the Labor party was in government they guided us through the (then), worst world financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1920s.
Under Prime Minister Rudd and Treasurer Swan, Australia was the only western country to avoid recession in that crisis of 2008-2011.
In 2011, Wayne Swan was elected "International Finance Minister of the Year" by his international peers for his "economic and financial achievements" in guiding us through that crisis. Swan used an economic stimulation method known as the Keynes model.
This was criticised by the then Liberal party opposition although they subsequently used the same model in 2019.
Swan produced a budget deficit of $36 billion, but the Liberal party effort produced a debt of nearly $1000 billion.
In the previous Labor administration of Hawke-Keating, the Australian economy was substantially restructured to modernise it after years of conservative neglect.
This restructure, including the floating of the dollar, and the removal of crippling international tariffs, is widely recognised as the improvement that set Australia on course for the following 30 years of prosperous growth.
Bob Cohen, Launceston.
INTEREST RATES AND INFLATION
IT'S a bit rich for Labor candidates to cry foul because of the present increase in interest rates and inflation.
For those who did not experience the late 1980s, inflation was running at about 12 per cent pa and interest on a housing loan was 17 per cent and on a business loan at 21 per cent.
This was while the Hawke/Keating government was in power.