IT'S FAIRLY obvious to the average MTT user that the state's MTT buses are run poorly, especially down the southern part of the state. The blame has to be shared between the State Government and Metro. The latest fiasco concerning the mechanics or lack thereof with Metro admitting that they spent thousands on contract mechanics because they say there isn't enough of their own to do the job and to put it simply its due to the pay rate they are receiving and you can't blame the worker going to jobs with better pay. They say that it's better up here in the North & North West for bus routes and timetables. So it's pretty obvious what management has to do is offer higher pay to their workers and that might start things for the better
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Anthony Galvin, Launceston
Recognising wonderful carers
WITHOUT question I applaud the recognition of our wonderful carers. It is such a demanding essential service administered with gentle devotion, understanding, training and unusual hours. They attended to the patients every need with the application of an angel, the tasks are so varied which requires patience, gentle knowledge and love. I am blessed with a full time wonderful carer who is at my side 24/7, she is on the job at 6.30am and sometimes well after midnight with necessary procedures to be undertaken. She never complains and she brightens my day every day, she is my carer, housekeeper, cook, gardener, driver, shopper, and confidant. It is the purpose of the Federal Government to keep as many elderly in their own homes as long as possible and carers play a major part in that endeavour. Carers' positions are not easy with a variety of procedures requiring expertise in so many different areas. We never contemplate the end of life until it happens and then it is impossible to navigate without magnificent carers. May Carers Week be honoured, appreciated and remembered with love!
Peter Doddy, Trevallyn
Relatives reach out
MY 4th great uncle Joseph Atkinson born 1801 in Skipton on Swale Yorkshire sailed for Van Diemen's Land aboard the Brig "Caroline" in 1828. He worked on board the ship as a servant looking after the horses. His son William, born in Launceston in 1833, had a large family, Joseph's daughter Elizabeth married into the Law family with her daughter Elizabeth Law marrying Matthis Alexander. Their grandson Joseph Aloysius Alexander became an author and political journalist working for the Melbourne Herald as well as editing the Who's Who in Australia. He undertook diplomatic missions for Prime Minister Curtin, including a posting to Moscow in 1944. Another granddaughter, Louise Atkinson, married the son of a convict William Andrew Lay who's father and grandparents were both convicts. Grandson William C. Atkinson had a large family living at Emu Bay (Burnie). We intend to visit Tasmania in March 2025 and would love to hear from any existing distant family cousins.
Trevor Atkinson, Wakefield Yorkshire, England UK
Sydney Opera House
AS THE Sydney Opera House celebrates its 50th Birthday, opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973, the architectural design of Jorn Utzon remains unrivalled as the nation's premiere cultural institution.
Adjoining Circular Quay and Royal Botanic Garden, with magnificent harbour views framed by another Australian icon, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Prime Minister's Sydney residence, Kirribilli House.
From Paul Robeson, the first person to perform at the Sydney Opera House singing "Ol' Man River" to construction workers in 1960, to later concerts, both inside and outside on the steps, to PM Hawke's State Memorial Service, have all combined to enable this cultural institution and UNESCO World Heritage Site (2007) accessible to all Australians.
Happy 50th Birthday to the Sydney Opera House and staff for a journey and continuance of happy memories
Kenneth Gregson, Swansea
Bridget McKenzie is playing politics
I READ today that Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie has urged the Albanese government to hold a royal commission into Indigenous child abuse after Jacinta Price's urgency motion was voted down in the Senate on Tuesday.
But Bridget voted consistently against a Royal Commission into Violence against People with Disability, and also banking. Is it about the players, not the game?
James Newton, Newstead
Condemned by our own smallness of mind
ON 14 October 2023 this country slapped aside a hand offered in friendship, and spat in the face of Indigenous Australians. We are as a nation condemned by our own smallness of mind, and absence of vision, to the cave of cultural cringe, to peer out only fitfully and fearfully at a world that observes us with derision.
Justin Harding, Invermay
