Letters to the Editor, March 11, 2020

In your Letters to the Editor today: Tasmanian tourism, duck shooting, and the impact of the coronavirus.

IN your Letters to the Editor today: Tasmanian tourism, duck shooting, and the impact of the coronavirus.

Why holiday anywhere else?

WHY holiday anywhere but here in Tasmania? Once again our tourism operators and events have proven that when it comes to world-class tourism experiences, we only have to look in our own backyard. At the Australian Tourism awards, our tourism industry, which we should all be very proud and supportive of, won 17 awards including seven gold medals, more than any other state. However all operators and their staff are winners, consistently providing experiences that attract national and international visitors, many returning because they could not get enough on their first visit. Keep up the great work in keeping Tasmania in the international tourism spotlight.

Alan Leitch , Austins Ferry

Energy powerhouse

IT’S not often I agree with Simon Bevilacqua, but his article on setting up Tasmania to be a renewable powerhouse is spot on (Mercury, March 7). We should be courting the international electric vehicle market by setting up battery plants powered by renewable energy. Car manufacturers are screaming for ethical, renewable and sustainable supply, pressured by shareholders that want all of that from their portfolio. Australia has some of the largest resources of lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese required to create these batteries and is a first class jurisdiction for ethical and sustainable practices.

Tasmania has the renewable energy. Let’s be smart and leverage that with renewable energy to be a major supplier of EV batteries to the world made right here in Tasmania, employing Tasmanians. The government should make it a priority.

Tony Donaghy , Ellendale

Put men on the calendar

IN light of International Women’s Day on Sunday, this so-called banging of drums about equality, as a male where is the day for International Men’s Day on the calendar? If I’m not mistaken this smacks of discrimination, and before the feminists out there attack me, I have been asked the question and agreed about the discrimination by a lot of female friends, so whoever decides these days may I suggest one more be added to acknowledge the males of the world and what we bring to the table.

Daniel Webb , Glenorchy

Stuck in AFL queue

AFL in Tasmania? I don’t think so. Having stood in line for all of the first quarter and part of the second while the sole ticket office tried to cope with the many who turned up to watch the North Melbourne/Sydney practice game on Monday, we gave up and returned home. Whoever was in charge of ticketing at the Kingborough Twin Ovals should hang their head in shame. The AFL has proved its point at our expense, we can’t even organise an efficient ticket booth for a practice match!

Yes, we could have purchased our tickets online, but for the long line of footy-starved people who just turned up to watch a decent match, they deserve better service. No wonder many people chose to sit on the hill outside the fence and watch the game for free!

Pam and Dallas Hincks , Kingston Beach

Sandy Bay high school

I’VE been interested to read suggestions that the Sandy Bay campus of the University of Tasmania would make an ideal location for a new high school. One of the reasons given by the university for relocating to the city centre was to make it more accessible and reduce the travel impact on students, especially those needing to travel through the city to get there. Surely this issue would be an even greater concern for students at much younger ages travelling from any number of Hobart suburbs?

Jenny Rayner , Montagu Bay

Bridgewater openings

GIVEN that paper rolls from the newsprint mill at Sorell Creek have not been transported by barge for decades, necessitating the opening of the lift span at the Bridgewater Bridge on a regular basis, how many times has it had to be opened in the past 12 months for casual boats? Who knows when it’s required to be opened? Is there someone in Hobart sitting in front of a TV monitor with a remote control seven days a week during daylight hours?

John Wilson , Magra

Footy failures

JUST why do both state political parties believe the majority of voters agree with taxpayer dollars being spent on a state AFL club? There have been millions already spent on the present arrangements, but how has the state benefited. The majority get no benefit. There have been so many failures over the years this proposal will end up just the same. There are many more things our money should be spent on before subsidising these major sports.

David Harcourt , Bellerive

Town Hall music joys

HARPS and muses painted on the beautiful ceiling of Hobart Town Hall denote it as a place for music and the arts and at the weekend we had a feast of both during the Italian Baroque concerts. Van Diemen’s Band created an atmosphere of enthusiasm and enjoyment and their musicianship was superb. Thanks to all involved in this special event. But there is more: next week we celebrate 150 years of music played on the Town Hall organ!

Jennifer Bond , West Hobart

Hope the ducks have read the notices

AFTER reading Dr Eric Woehler’s article I am amazed that duck shooting is still permissible in Tasmania (“Hold fire as birds seek safe harbour,” Talking Point, March 7).

With so many bird species on the brink of collapse worldwide, it seems incomprehensible that we allow such a practice to continue. After a horrific summer of bushfires and drought on the mainland, ducks seeking a safe haven are further threatened by shooting.

Added to that in your Public Notices section I read with even more dismay the long list of places where duck shooting is allowed. I hope the poor creatures that have just arrived and endured the worst summer on record have read the notice and can survive this next onslaught. We must protect our native wildlife and should relegate duck shooting to the annals of the last century.

Jeanne Wills , Abels Bay

HOT TOPIC: CORONAVIRUS IMPACT

Boost economy with Newstart

PRIME Minister Morrison, in regards to the economic stimulus you’re likely to launch to assist the economy stave off a recession, please direct all of our household stimulus payments to a Newstart recipient. In times such as these you need to show leadership and protect the less fortunate because they are really struggling and we are more than happy to assist you in doing this. Remember not a single dollar of a Newstart payment lingers in a bank account, it’s spent on local goods and services to help them survive from to day.

What an outcome this would be — the Newstart recipient receiving a lift in living standards and the economy also receiving a much-needed boost. Perhaps you can do something Kevin Rudd couldn’t.

Adam Mooney , West Hobart

Fear factor hurts more

WHAT protected the Australian economy from a recession during the GFC crisis was not simply money spent by the Rudd government, because many countries spent yet failed to avert a recession. They failed because they allowed the fear factor to enter their economies due to drip-feeding government intervention, with a consequence of runs on the banks, selling down of investment stocks, high unemployment due to small businesses going broke and larger businesses reducing staff.

Australia avoided this by major government intervention from the start, people felt their money and jobs were safe, therefore continued spending! The Coalition Government has been drip-feeding for seven years with regular announcements of large funds being available over four to ten years with little spent in the meantime. Examples are spending on fuel reserves, NDIS, bushfire relief and now the lack of sufficient masks, medication etc stored locally which will probably be needed due to coronavirus. If the Morrison Government continues to drip-feed, the effects on the economy of the growing fear factor will rapidly outstrip that of coronavirus!

P. Kasz , Glebe

Duck-shoving

PETER Gutwein has shown a classic case of duck-shoving responsibility between government levels — Fine people for failing to self-isolate? That’s our job. Make sure that someone with no money, and no job or living security gets the support needed to be able to obey an order? That’s nothing to do with us, that’s a federal job. Surely governments can understand they must work together on a co-ordinated response to the isolation problem. Otherwise the problem will just get worse.

Bill Godfrey , New Town

Unrealistic isolation

STUDENTS and casual workers depend on their wages to pay their rent and buy food. It is unrealistic to imagine that someone in that category, and their housemates, who have been ordered into self-isolation are going to adhere to it, unless their rent is paid and they are supplied with food. Perhaps it is also necessary to notify their employer to ensure they don’t front up to their place of work. Going out and about on recreational activities while under quarantine should possibly be a criminal offence. After all, this virus in potentially lethal to the elderly.

Yvonne Stark , Battery Point

As healthy as the sickest

THE threat of a pandemic is a stark reminder that in this connected world we are as healthy as the most vulnerable and the sickest person in the world. The fortunate strongest links in the chain of life can be broken by the weakest link. To fight a pandemic the vulnerable, the poor, the sick, need financial support, compassion and care. We are all joined in the web of life, linked by our common humanity.

Elizabeth Osborne , North Hobart

Give us information

THE chaos, uncertainty and lack of direction by state and federal governments regarding the COVID-19 virus, has seen the general populace seemingly panic and self-interest reigns supreme. Why aren’t our medical practitioners notifying their patients, why aren’t there notices in supermarkets, in buses, at schools and universities, on all our TV stations, alerting us to what must be done, before we replicate what is happening in Italy and Iran.

Harry Quick , Berriedale

QUICK VIEWS

Why pick on kookaburras

VERY strange that one of the biggest threats to the natural environment and to the agricultural industry is deer. These creatures are not even native to Australia, let alone Tasmania. Yet the government picks out an Australian native bird, kookaburras. I wonder if this has anything to do with the $72.90 that gets added to their coffers for every game licence that is issued!

Paul Grigg , White Hills

Trees block the view

WHAT a disappointment, in my younger days the view from the summit of Mt Nelson was magnificent. Over the years the mostly daggy trees have grown to blot out the panorama. Surely these trees could be removed and replaced with suitable shrubs to make it once again the showplace of the Hobart area.

Ralph Goward , Bellerive

Dirty deeds

I WAS in an alley in the Moonah shopping precinct and thought I was overhearing a drug deal, because it went something like this: “I know you are desperate, but I can get you as many two-ply rolls as you want, but four-ply might be hard to source, as the bottom’s fallen out of the market.”

John Holley , West Moonah

Power scheme billions

BATTERY of the Nation — you would think it would be an impossible idea to sell. Spend $6 billion on a power scheme that does not produce one extra watt of power but will actually use hundreds of millions of watts in efficiency losses just to run it. The big idea they are trying to sell us is, it will reduce power prices. Just can’t quite believe it myself.

Mark Davis , Mornington

Perfect gift

WHO would have thought, a gift for all reasons. A suitably wrapped six-pack of toilet paper.

John Wilson , Magra

Ration packs

NOW the whole of Italy is in coronavirus lockdown, should we be sending over emergency rations of toilet paper?

Wendy Pearson , Sandy Bay

Big business

FOR SALE: one roll toilet paper. Exc. cond. One owner $250 ono.

Maurice Ducker , Mount Stuart

Nailed it

BACK to quartering a sheet of newspaper and spiking it onto a large nail on the dunny wall.

Hamish Kyle , Bellerive