Letters to the Editor, March 28, 2020

In your Letters to the Editor today: Tasmanians can do distancing much better; time to stop the Major Projects Bill; and life in a new world

STILL SOCIAL: Tasmanians are lucky to have space.

In your Letters to the Editor today: Social distancing, Major Projects Bill and live in a new world.

ROOM TO SAY HI ON OUR BEACHES

PHYSICAL distancing not social distancing. The World Health Organisation changed the terminology for a reason!

We Taswegians are blessed by the fact we can still attend our beaches etc amid the current crisis.

And while it’s absolutely fine to take a wide berth, we can still smile and say hello as we’re doing it. It really does make all the difference at a time like this. So come on Tassie, let’s make friendliness go viral!

Janine Connolly, Howrah

E-cigs for hardcore

WHAT Professor Mark Nelson and others in healthcare and medical research don’t seem to understand is that nicotine is highly addictive (“Never a better time to quit,” Letters, March 26). And, because of government policies, remaining smokers are the most hardcore and the most affected by psychological problems, recognised by psychiatrists and at least two Liberal politicians, Trent Zimmerman and Eric Abetz. Traditional quit therapies only work for a small number and most who have tried them, including myself, have failed to quit repeatedly. It is the tar and other chemicals that kill and maim — tars and chemicals that don’t exist in e-cigarettes. The best option is to quit and use nothing. But that is not an option for many people. E-cigarettes are not a magic bullet, but adding them to the arsenal about doubles the number of people who quit.

Richard Watkins, Kingston

AFL reality check

OBVIOUSLY the AFL players think they are very special and are necessary for mankind to exist. Get real please! Thousands have lost their jobs (no 50 per cent offer!). No income at all! One would hope with the mega-salaries you have enjoyed, you should have factored in the hard times. Maybe you have to sell some of your accumulated assets to get by. Everyone else has to join the line to Centrelink. Get your heads out of the clouds boys.

Helen Souter, Sorell

Until the next pandemic

I HOPE Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Immigration Minister David Coleman and every premier realises that Australia, and indeed the world, cannot go back to what it was. The PM and premiers must start planning now for what the future of Australia is going to look like, because the old business model is dead in the water. The reason the world has irreparably changed is that another virus will appear in the next few years but next time we won’t have any money to throw at it. We have had COVID-19, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Kivu ebola, H1N1 and the zika virus.

It is wishful thinking to imagine we can go back to our former lives without encountering another pandemic. All we have left is our ability to think what our future ought to look like. That future should not rely on China for the majority of our medicines, immigration and students, and all our plastic “stuff”. Over to readers for their thoughts.

Alwyn and Julie Johnson, Legana

Keep Kangaroo Bay as is

CLARENCE City Council, what a disappointment now when the plans for destroying Kangaroo Bay have to be cancelled or at least put on the backburner. We the people in Bellerive think it’s for the better to keep developers out. The Crown land was sold freehold to a Chinese multinational. In the rest of the civilised world land is leased, governing bodies can then keep control of its uses. The council has refused to listen to ratepayers’ concerns, and they have in fact abrogated their responsibility, which is to do the right thing, and stop overdeveloping our beautiful bay because we like it as it is.

Allan Boman, Bellerive

Well done MPs

A HUGE thanks to all our members of parliament, of all colours, red, blue, green and independent. You have an enormous responsibility on your shoulders. We Tasmanians depend on you to give us the advice and direction to help us protect ourselves and our communities through this dreadful virus. Thank you all for what you have done, and for what you need to do, to keep Tasmania safe.

Heather and Chris Donaldson, Westbury

Police boss too busy

IT’S unbelievable the Premier has chosen the Police Commissioner to co-ordinate activities associated with COVID-19. I would have thought the most essential services, police and health, would have needed full-time involvement of department heads, both areas under immense pressure before this emergency, with police having difficulty because of ridiculous laws that give law-breakers more rights than the offended, creating masses of paperwork for every event. I would have thought some leader not presently involved in government, such as Robert Clifford or Stuart Wardlaw, both known for tenacity in getting things done, would have been foremost on a selection list.

J. Pritchard, Claremont

THIS IS NO TIME FOR MAJOR PROJECTS BILL

REGARDING the Major Projects Bill and reform of the Tasmanian Planning Commission. We are in the midst of a world crisis. Where has greed and overdevelopment got us?

Are we happier, healthier, more secure in a home and a job?

This focus on growth at all cost has not served us well. Maybe it’s time to focus on the wellbeing of the people of Tasmania, our rights and dreams for the future of the areas we have chosen to call home. What right do governments have to destroy our dreams and peaceful way of living, devalue our properties to make way for developers and give us no say in what is supposed to be a democratic process?

These crises occur to remind us that we need to change our thinking or this Earth will no longer support us. Time is running out. We have few chances left. I implore that this Bill be removed.

We are being given the opportunity to start anew. New thinking, new ways of being and new governance. The mindset behind this Bill is what is contributing to the rapid destruction of this planet.

There must be someone out there with the courage to take the next very important step so we can embark on a happier and more sustainable future. The deadline for public comment on the Major Projects Bill is April 9.

Janet Beswick, Dolphin Sands

HOT TOPIC: LIFE IN A NEW WORLD

Why not make it in Australia

SCOTT Morrison is spending billions of our dollars and isolating the nation so everyone is unemployed and no products or people go in or out of our country. Instead, now is the perfect time to invest that money to re-establish and support our manufacturing industries and farmers to produce all the goods, food and resources our nation requires, and sell only the excess to other countries.

We can manufacture and supply everything we need. We used to. Now is the perfect opportunity for us to become 100 per cent self-sufficient and employed, and not to be at the mercy of other countries’ trade whims or natural and unnatural disasters.

Russell Langfield, Kimberley

Italian kindness

I THINK all of you know how bad it is in Italy (I’m an Italian living in Claremont), however they found an amazing way to help each other. For those who need the most, like people in financial difficulty due to coronavirus (my hubbie and I lost our jobs), elders with small pension or simply people who can’t financially cope, I encourage all of us to leave items paid at supermarket counters to let them collect if they need! I think this can be a huge help and protects privacy. Please let’s help people who are in a hard situation right now!

Sara Lucchesi, Claremont

Normal life in lockdown

MARTYN Goddard raises the important issue of our exit strategy from our current response to COVID-19 (Talking Point, March 27). Tasmania is fortunate to be able to close our borders and better contain infection, similar to Singapore and New Zealand. Federal Government communication and priorities are inconsistent. Tasmania should go it alone.

Shut non-essential face-to-face services and give clear messages about physical separation, with regular updates as does New Zealand. We should have testing and supervised isolation of arrivals and those potentially exposed, in hotels. This gives an opportunity to starve the virus, after which we can go about normal life in closed borders, rigorously testing and isolating anyone unwell, until a vaccine is available. Meanwhile, business and society can return to some sort of normality.

Beth Rees, Rosny

Chance to restructure

LISA Denny overlooks the pre-crisis problems caused by penetration of foreign capital in Tasmania’s agriculture, education, tourism and property (“Long road to recovery must start now,” Talking Point, March 26). In the restructuring, will we be going back, cap in hand, to the same sources of foreign capital to fund an even more vulnerable and dependent economy and society? Or will we restructure using our own capital, people, land and water and innovation to build a more resilient, co-operative and affordable Tasmania?

Andrew Hejtmanek, Howden

Check before offloading

IT’S all very good to say we are good hosts but how do we know all these campervanners are virus free (“Some compassion to visitors,” Letters, March 27)? Self isolation doesn’t mean visiting shops and services. Nobody should leave the ferry before they are tested. People are making sacrifices by closing businesses and we are welcoming visitors fleeing the mainland? If this is happening, it is absolute madness.

Nev Rodman, South Hobart

Test, test, test

TASMANIA has the lowest testing rate in Australia and the highest positive return rate. This reinforces a perspective that, despite the blustery rhetoric, the Government has its head stuck in the sand. Testing kits are cheap and increasingly accessible. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom said, “The most effective way to prevent infections and save lives is breaking the chains of transmission and to do that we must test and isolate. You cannot fight a fire blindfolded. And we can’t fight this pandemic if we don’t know who is infected.” A lesson in common sense.

Mike Radburn, Leslie Vale

QUICK VIEWS

Slash HECs for frontliners

SOLDIERS sent to the front line are rewarded with generous deployment allowances. Similarly, essential workers serving us in hospitals and elsewhere in the COVID-19 firing line deserve compensation beyond their salary. They should be compensated with a 50 per cent reduction in their onerous HECS and TAFE fees immediately.

Peter McQuillan, Mt Nelson

Just the weather for it

GLORIOUS sunny skies and mild to warm days to enjoy and get out and exercise in our lovely fresh air. Aah, autumn!

Chris Davey, Lindisfarne

Landlords need rents

IF landlords are banned from evicting tenants for not paying rent, how are they then expected to survive as not all landlords are wealthy and need rental income to pay their bills, rates etc.

Martin Simmonds, Cradoc

Hit should be shared

A PAUSE for all commercial and residential mortgages, rents and interest for affected parties would be a meaningful way to take pressure off businesses and individuals. With so many struggling no one should be profiteering from basic needs. Everyone needs to chip in and take a hit.

Doug O’Neil, Hobart

Masks for protectors

WHEN our health system is crying out for protective equipment, it is shameful that clothing stores are selling masks to the public who in the main don’t need them. They should be sent to the front line to protect those who are protecting us.

Rowan Eiszele, Kingston

All that money

WOW! A billion-dollar stimulus package, lucky the Libs didn’t spend it on roads, infrastructure and the hospital.

Mark Paton, Lachlan

Quick cuts

THANK goodness I will no longer have to spin out my usual 10 minute haircuts to half an hour.

Robin A. Maguire, South Hobart

Checkout praise

ACCOLADES to workers in our supermarkets, especially staff on the frontline check-outs! Many thanks everyone.

Jenny Martin, Lewisham

Raw prawn

NEVER did I ever expect to pay $1.35 for a single sausage uncooked.

F. Steele, Howrah

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