![Political party resignations should spark by-elections Political party resignations should spark by-elections](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/PN5FxwRn32iFh8yVWdK38H/c04a440b-9366-4dbc-8ee8-cb8298587561.png/r0_0_1600_900_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Another politician has resigned from a political party that they were a member of and elected to federal parliament by that party's supporters.
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This time Tasmanian Senator Tammy Tyrell has resigned from the Jacquie Lambie Network and has become an independent.
Voters vote for the party and that party's election candidates and should rightly expect that the party members show allegiance to the party and the voters that voted them in with that party.
A by-election should be called in cases were politicians resign from the party that they were elected with and go independent.
The voters are not getting what they voted and should be given the chance to re-assess the candidates at a by-election rather than have the candidate they voted for jump ship and go it alone.
If the JLN was not happy with her performance, can those who voted for her at the last election have any confidence in her performance as an independent?
Alan Leitch, Austins Ferry
Freedom of speech comes with responsibility not to harm
Ben Seeder displays an unfortunate bias in his article about free speech (The Examiner, March 31).
He uses terms like "trans ideology" and "gender medicine" which are straight from the anti-trans playbook.
There is no "trans ideology", just trans and gender diverse people seeking to live our lives free of discrimination.
There is no "gender medicine", just a number of clinically-approved treatments to help young people distraught about their gender.
All of these treatments are used safely in other areas of clinical practice, all of them require parental approval and most of them are only used in extreme situations.
Mr Seeder was also wrong to attribute last year's angry response to anti-trans speaker, Kellie-Jay Minshull, to Equality Tasmania.
We organised a peaceful protest nearby and urged protesters to respond civilly and moderately.
Most of all Mr Seeder failed the basic journalistic standard of seeking the alternate view.
If he had, we would have said we champion free speech, however, we can't condone speech that inflicts harm on, or incites hatred against, trans and gender diverse people.
Some of the groups he cites don't just question treatments for young people, they explicitly deny that trans people can or should exist and want public services to ban or segregate us.
Freedom of speech is essential but it comes with a responsibility not to use that freedom to seriously harm others.
Rowan Richardson, Equality Tasmania president
Future of banking
No matter where you are in life, as soon as you go to school or you have one foot in the grave.
You have to deal with the banks, from trying to get your own money back from them or trying to buy your first home or the final steps of retirement.
Back in good ol' days when the banks actually paid you money for depositing money with them to use as they deemed fit, admittedly it was only a couple of percent, to now with most banks wanting you use your computer to do the banking and with branches and ATMs closing down and even shops refusing to take cash.
I wonder what is next with the banks, probably a cashless society with all our money going straight to them and we get an allowance to live on just like we were when we were teenagers
Anthony Galvin, Launceston
Discrimination prohibition not impossible
Barry Prismall forgot one key fact when he wrote that a possible federal law prohibiting discrimination against LGBTIQA+ students and teachers in faith-based schools is dynamite stuff and almost a mission impossible (The Examiner, March 31).
Such discrimination has been outlawed in Tasmania for more than a quarter of a century.
In that time, there have been no demonstrable problems.
No religious school has closed its doors because its ethos has been compromised.
No parents have withdrawn their children because a school was too tolerant.
No politician has lost votes because they support the Tasmanian law.
The sky has not fallen in.
What we have seen, instead, are students achieving better educational outcomes because they feel safer and teachers employed for their competence, not the gender of their partner.
Tasmania shows that the nation has nothing to fear and a lot to gain from protecting LGBTIQA+ students and teachers from discrimination in faith-based schools.
Let's be proud of the precedent we have set and send a message to the rest of the nation that it should follow our lead.
Rodney Croome, Spreyton
Party resignations should spark by-elections
Another politician has resigned from a political party that they were a member of and elected to federal parliament by that party's supporters.
This time Tasmanian Senator Tammy Tyrell has resigned from the Jacquie Lambie Network and has become an independent.
Voters vote for the party and that party's election candidates and should rightly expect that the party members show allegiance to the party and the voters that voted them in with that party.
A by-election should be called in cases were politicians resign from the party that they were elected with and go independent.
The voters are not getting what they voted and should be given the chance to re-assess the candidates at a by-election rather than have the candidate they voted for jump ship and go it alone.
If the JLN was not happy with her performance, can those who voted for her at the last election have any confidence in her performance as an independent?
Alan Leitch, Austins Ferry