Letters to the editor | June 3, 2022

Since the pandemic began, more than 70 Tasmanians have died of COVID.

Meanwhile, the past two years have seen a disproportionate single-minded focus on COVID while all-cause mortality has increased significantly, including deaths from cancer, heart disease, dementia and diabetes (Australian Bureau of Statistics).

The Tasmanian Public Health Act 1997 gives the Director of Public Health extraordinary, over-reaching power stating: "The director may declare that a public health emergency exists if satisfied that the situation requires it" and that "any other action be taken the director considers appropriate while an emergency declaration is in place".

The extent of these powers and the lack of government and bureaucratic accountability concerns me greatly. There is little transparency and none of the usual checks and balances in place to prevent their indefinite extension.

The emergency powers must stop. The Tasmanian Public Health Act must be rewritten to protect our democracy in the event of any future ''health emergency''.

THANK you Danielle Blewett (The Sunday Examiner, May 29) for your honest reflection on media behaviour. Doesn't media behaviour reflect that seen, heard, modelled or requested from the "top"? Newspaper and television reporters are encouraged to add vitriolic opinions to their pieces. Media conference questions and television news items are said in a specific tone of voice.

Journalism will regain its respect when the facts are reported and readers, listeners and watchers are permitted to make up their own minds from those facts. The media needs to show respect for the intellect of its audience.

IF Parliament is to discuss increasing members in the lower house, can the relevance of maintaining the upper house please be discussed as well, maybe even the long-overdue changes to local government?

THE proposal to expand the number of seats in the Tasmanian Parliament should include designated seats for Aboriginal candidates.

This would give Aboriginal people the opportunity to be heard inside the Parliament, the first time in 234 years, rather than always having to protest outside of it to be heard.