Letters to the Editor, March 19, 2020

In your Letters to the Editor today: Good leaders, money for local footy and fighting the pandemic.

In your Letters to the Editor today: Good leaders, money for local footy and fighting the pandemic.

GOOD LEADER LIKE A GOOD MUM

FEMALE values are co-operation, fairness, nurturing, finding creative solutions and inclusivity. These are embodied in a good mother.

PROTECTION: Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon washes up before meeting staff in Glasgow supporting a public information response to COVID-19. Picture: AFP

She would never give a few of her children shelter, good food, clean water, healthcare and education while denying those things to her other children. She would never protect a few of her children from bullying or exploitation, while letting her others suffer. She would never treat wild animals with cruelty and eat them (until this results in a deadly virus!). She would never pollute the land that sustains the family, remove shade and allow fertile topsoil to be blown away.

After hundreds of years of male-dominated politics, female leaders such as Jacinda Ardern, Nicola Sturgeon and Iceland’s Katrin Jakobsdottir are implementing these female principles through a wellbeing policy that says the success of any society should take into account the overall wellbeing of its people, and unless all of the people are thriving, there is work to be done. While obviously we need to see many more women in politics, female principles are also in men (yin and yang) and these need to be encouraged, rather than mocked, in our male politicians.

Carole Chainey, Blackmans Bay

Shane, come on down

DURING this worrying and rapidly changing time Australians want and need updated information which is timely, comprehensive and objective. Wasn’t Shane Fitzsimmons terrific during the bushfire crisis? He drew in and consolidated current information from all the other relevant experts and operatives. He then presented it to us clearly and succinctly. Wouldn’t it be great to have such a person speaking about the coronavirus on every news medium at 7am every day; with his statement then repeated every hour?

Murray Harper, Rose Bay

Stuck with pricey petrol

JUST how often have we heard “Prices at the pump starting to drop” (Mercury, March 17) and why are petrol retail outlets in Tasmania allowed to charge exorbitant prices for fuel and not passing on the reductions? The average cost for unleaded petrol on Hobart’s Eastern Shore is currently retailing around $1.53 per litre yet last week in suburban Melbourne and on the Mornington Peninsula the average was well below $1.30 for the same product. Why are we Tasmanians being exploited financially to this extent and just who is prepared to accept responsibility for this total rip-off?

Chris Davey, Lindisfarne

Little lives lost

TASMAN Highway, Swansea to Sorell, February-March 2020

Warning: hazard on road,

Hundreds of native animals dead,

Wallabies mostly, occasional birds, a parrot here, a magpie there,

Who would notice a tiny honeyeater?

A possum or twelve,

Driven by drought from dry bush and dead paddocks,

Lives snatched by human drivers,

Cannot humans make minor changes to their patterns?

Avoid driving between dusk and dawn.

S. Davenport, Swansea

Transport for housing

ROBERT Clifford is spot on with his thinking on ferry boats for the Droughty Point development. There is no point in a large Eastern Shore housing development with no transport for residents. All the politicians do is talk about it. Over nearly 80 years of my life, Tasmanian governments have frustrated the life out of me with their talking about “it”. For God’s sake actually do something about it. They have had professional experts talk about the northern suburbs railways. Families are moving out of the city to Bagdad, Brighton, Broadmarsh, Tea Tree, Campania, Colebrook. These places are going to be the northern suburbs sooner than the Government think. Politicians, get your act together now.

Ray Wakefield, Claremont

Grim reaper beckons

SCARY viruses, stockmarket collapses, housing crises, royal commissions galore, parliamentary childish and farcical behaviour, terrorism, drugs, twitter trolls, greed, theft and farce all over the place … the list goes on and on and on! The Grim Reaper is starting to appear a rather wise alternative, though I can’t seem to find his number in the phone book. Though not caused by his stupid reasons, Prince Charles’s prediction of looming Armageddon, might actually be coming true after all. Oh dear!

Steve Bailey, Glenorchy

POUR ALL THAT MONEY INTO LOCAL FOOTY

WHAT solutions are being offered by the Government, Opposition or the AFL to the issues raised by Luke Edmunds article? (“Country footy in crisis as clubs fall,” Mercury, March 14). The current health crisis will threaten the viability of even more local clubs.

A Tasmanian VFL side is a disaster waiting to happen for local footy competitions.

A Tasmanian AFL side without strong local competitions to support it, is no more than empty populism. The money being offered for a Tasmanian AFL side would be much better spent on our local teams.

Once Devonport and Burnie are back in the TSL, and teams that have folded over the past few years are back and going strong in their regional competitions, then we concern ourselves with an AFL side.

The money spent on Hawthorn, and the laughable notion of an NBL team should also be dedicated to our footy. Local, community footy. If necessary, I would even be prepared to sacrifice my team, North Melbourne.

When the TSL (supported by the regional competitions) is again competitive with the mainland state competitions, then interstate players will want to come and play here, and an AFL side may well just naturally occur.

S. Thompson, Mt Stuart

HOT TOPIC: FIGHTING THE PANDEMIC

The window is closing fast

IMAGINE in four to six weeks when the Australian mainland sadly is dealing with the coronavirus pandemic with thousands of cases, we in Tasmania are corona-free with business as usual. A pipedream? Not if action is taken now to ban all incoming travellers of any source. Outward and inbound freight are permitted, the latter with precautionary fumigation/waiting times etc. We are unbelievably fortunate to have no person-to-person transmission yet. This window will not be open much longer. Surely a no-brainer when you think of the alternative — six months of economic pain and countless preventable deaths. Please act now Mr Premier.

David Legro, Kingston Beach

Quarantine best answer

THERE are seven reported cases of coronavirus in Tasmania. In Italy there were three and four weeks later there were 10,000. State and federal governments have shown a gross lack of responsibility through inaction in the case of a new infection to which none has immunity.

We have received the comforting advice that the young will get a mild infection while the old may die. Yet why are Italy’s hospitals on the verge of collapse after only two months? Vietnam declared an epidemic when there were six cases reported and closed off streets where only one person was infected. Government provides free food to people in the streets. Vietnam controlled infection by strict quarantine enforced by police and army. Jacqui Lambie has proposed the wise move of quarantining Tasmania, logistically difficult and financially disastrous for our tourist industry. However, how many deaths do we want in Tasmania? What will be the cost of those deaths? Anyone who can count will be able to see the current infection doubling rate is monstrous. If unchecked, I don’t think there are that many beds in all of Hobart’s hospitals.

R.H. Findlay, Lindisfarne

Banks, time to step up

IT has been suggested that access to superannuation funds could be used to pay mortgage repayments when people are unable to earn money. I would suggest this is a time when banks and financial institutions could regain some public trust. Why can’t banks simply suspend repayments for let’s say six months? The term of the loan could easily be extended by the same time, the banks would lose nothing and super funds could remain untouched and able to regain some ground rather than decrease an already declined return. How about some forward thinking by the financial sector, usually known more for taking than giving. Don’t hold your breath — it’s too easy a solution!

Dale Raisbeck, Latrobe

Hope for renters

LONG-TERM renters take heart. The worm may be turning. As tourists dry up there will be many Airbnb owners looking to revert to reliable tenants to fill their empty investments. Which will be great for the rental market — and prices may well come down as there is more availability. However, it may be time for the tenants association to step in and make a stand on behalf of renters. No six-month lease should be signed unless there is an option for the tenant to renew for another term – the only out for the landlord being a misdemeanour by the tenant. This may at last give some security, and relief, to those who have been struggling to find somewhere to rent long-term. A win-win.

Yvonne Stark, Battery Point

Fantasy island

IN Survivor Australia, 2020 (the coronavirus version), the tribal council has spoken. And those who fought with pensioners to get their hands on toilet paper they couldn’t possibly have needed themselves, or who have driven out of their cities to clean out rural stores of their supplies, have been voted off the island in disgrace. OK, so I’m getting confused with Fantasy Island, and what I’ve imagined is never going to happen. But if it did, that’d be one show that would rate its socks off.

Because what isn’t a fantasy is that there are also people who are generous enough to doorknock in their streets to ask their elderly neighbours if they need a hand with their shopping. Kudos to them. They’ve helped to restore my faith in the good people can do. And they’re doing it in increasing numbers on a daily basis.

Michael McCall, Primrose Sands

QUICK VIEWS

Resistant

IN these turbulent and panic ridden times, isn’t it reassuring that the petrol price stays solidly locked despite the plunging oil price. The ACCC must be asleep at the wheel.

Evan Evans, Lindisfarne

The winning slogan

RELAX all you worried quiet Australians; I think I might have come up with the magic four-word political slogan our PM has obviously been struggling to deliver, that will carry us through the coronavirus emergency: “Over to you Jacinda.”

Stephen Jeffery, Sandy Bay

Fair go fails at the first test

SEEING such shameful behaviour, shoving the elderly and disabled aside in the supermarket, the fair go and looking out for your mates is proving to be a sentimental fiction at the first test. Maybe the perpetrators could be put in permanent quarantine – who’d miss them?

Richard Upton, New Town

Make do with what you have

WORD to the wise, we’re pretty much on our own for the time being so if you don’t have it, make it, build it, grow it, cook it, invent it, make one for later, and one for someone else you can swap something, and make do with what you have, we will get through this.

Robert Lovell, Dysart

Plenty of other dangers

I THINK everyone needs to calm down a little and look at statistics of how many deaths have occurred with the coronavirus, so far only five deaths but on the roads 92 for the month Australia-wide. The amount of other people in hospital with injuries is not known, but would be lots more than people with this virus. Yes, it is terrible, but there is more people dying of other things, 1163 people on roads last year.

Felecia Phillips, Berriedale

Cheaper water

WE are being told to thoroughly wash our hands frequently. Surely a heavy discount on domestic TasWater fees would encourage this.

Chris Robinson, Austins Ferry

Clear leaders

HOW come Walsh and Pennicott are not our premier and deputy (in either order !)?

Craig Hills, Bellerive

Drastic action

THE Government is to be commended for implementing drastic restrictions to halt the spread of the coronavirus. When are they going to act on climate change?

J. Johnson, Sandy Bay

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