Letters to the editor | June 21, 2022

And governments are agreeing.

Under control? At 850 new cases a day in Tasmania alone? And now we are told up to 20 per cent of those will develop the quite debilitating long COVID.

Governments must listen instead to science and common sense. Pretending COVID is not happening any more is both dishonest and irresponsible.

LET'S not lose sight of the fact former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and his defence minister Christopher Pyne, of South Australia, have their signatures on the torn-up contract to buy French nuclear-powered submarines, re-engined to diesel and hull-lengthened to take fuel tanks with the construction proposed for Adelaide.

Conveniently the deal was done within a breath or two of a federal election. Would they mind letting on how it feels to have wasted a total of $3.4 billion - $830 million to keep face with the French and the rest for outgoings - of my money?

JOHN Snooks (The Examiner, June 15) makes an interesting point in regard to Australia's carbon emissions.

While it is important for Australia to reduce the reliance on fossil fuel and increase the renewable energy sources, it is prudent to note China, the United States and India are the three largest polluters globally who account for more than 50 per cent of global CO2 emissions, China being the largest with nearly 30 per cent.

The reason for this is due to its reliance predominately on coal for energy. There are more than 1100 coal-fired power stations in China compared to Australia's 19.

To be fair though, the reason China's economy has grown so rapidly is because most of the world's largest corporations use China to manufacture their products or components because of the cheaper production costs. China manufactures just about everything we buy including clothes, phones, computer components, laptops, TVs, building products, cars and car components, lithium batteries, solar panels and so on.

Australia can do its bit for the planet but in reality we must wait for China and other countries with high CO2 emissions that rely predominantly on fossil fuels for energy to move to renewable energy sources.

UNIONS successfully fought for an increase to the minimum wage at the Fair Work Commission, and deserve credit for this.

The extra $1.05 an hour will help these lower-paid workers pay for basics like rent and food. It is disappointing there have been comments that this increase is wrong. These complainers might care to remember there has been a tradition that Australia is an egalitarian country, and the minimum wage was based on a "living wage".

Everyone might care to remember these matters now, and in the future.

TASMANIA is being told to expect load shedding, which means our power will be switched off for a time when the national grid supposedly cannot supply the power we need.

How is this so? Tasmania generates all of our power needs on the island from hydro, wind and solar power.

Having Basslink means we sell power to the mainland and in times of low water or generator failure we can buy some power back. If we add Marinus Link into the equation, we will be subject to more of the vagaries of the national energy market.

Tasmania would be in a far better position if we just disconnected from the national energy market. We can easily supply all the power we need.

Some lunatics decided energy supplies in Australia needed to be privatised. Once any monopoly is privatised the service goes downhill.

We have the experience here of our rail service, it was privatised and when that failed we had to spend $250 million plus just to get the train set working again. Include the Commonwealth Bank and Telstra and we have a debacle.

Free market economy is garbage, look at our gas in Australia. The gas and profits go overseas. Australians who own the gas get ripped off.