Dean Winter of my Discontent
Labor has given up, and lost the plot, and will never ever be in power again. Their word means nothing. I will never never never ever vote Labor again and will encourage many many others not to! This is totally unacceptable and demonstrates that Labor can never, nor will they ever, ever, keep their word. They lie.
Dean Winter you are not a leader, you cannot lead, you just follow! Dean Winter’s mantra is jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs and it doesn’t matter what anyone else says. Shame on you Mr Winter, it just shows weakness and a failure to lead and keep promises. You just don’t give a damn do you?
Oh let’s not forget Mr Winter your support for the extinction of the Maugean skate, logging old growth, extinction of swift parrot, inshore polluting antibiotic ridden salmon farms, and now a monstrous ugly stadium instead of a working hospital … ?!
– Maria Riedl, Battery Point
My letter to Ella Haddad – Labor’s Infrastructure Pipeline Misdirected
Hobart needs to develop the public transport along the northern rail corridor which was abandoned 10 years ago. This will open up development north of Hobart and provide enormous future benefits for residents (and voters). It would also bypass the frequent traffic gridlock on feeder roads – provided it goes all the way to Mac Point.
However, this essential infrastructure is regarded by Labor as being a project that is too expensive with no mention of the marvellous ‘pipeline’ of construction jobs that such a project would generate. Labor regards an AFL stadium for watching football matches on prime public land as a far more essential project than the provision of essential public transport. A stadium in the wrong place with unsolved construction difficulties and access – all uncosted.
In August 2022 the Premier announced that a new wouldn’t be part of Tasmania’s AFL bid – https://www.afl.com.au/news/
Now Labor has capitulated too. In the most duplicitous way – just after the election. Labor voters are regarded by Dean Winter as expendable fools. We are neither fools and we have memories. This confirms for me that the two major parties are too cosy with, and intimidated by, the big-end-of-town and no longer represent the interests of the electorate.
What are Labor’s priorities? Any mention in Labor’s infrastructure jobs ‘pipeline’ for Glenorchy’s recently lost ice rink or swimming pool? All children should be able to learn to swim but it seems they will have to play AFL instead. Dean Winter’s feeble justifications and his duplicity for this white elephant are going to cost the Labor brand dearly.
– Ailie Bruins, New Town
Climate change worth a mention
At a time when climate extremes are occurring ever more frequently around the world it was astonishing to learn that Premier Rockliff apparently believes climate change isn’t relevant for Tasmania. No mention of the words, ‘science’ or ‘climate’ in any of the recently announced ministerial portfolios. His failure to acknowledge or recognise the critical importance of climate science across all aspects of policy development and legislation shows a total disregard for the first responsibility of all governments: the welfare of those who put them there.
Whether one listens to, reads, or watches the news, scarcely a day passes without details of en extreme weather event occurring somewhere in the world. Be it unseasonal and heavy rains, powerful winds, snowstorms, bushfires, floods or drought, more often than not they result in catastrophe for the community and the country impacted. It’s not just the loss of life, homes, and infrastructure, but also the damage to natural environments. For decades scientists from all disciplines have urged action on climate change. They warned the business-as-usual approach will simply increase the economic, environmental and health risks that are already on the rise. They’ve repeated ad nauseum that burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of climate change, and that only by stopping its use will humanity have some hope of putting the brakes on extreme weather events.
It’s to be hoped that collaborative approach Mr Rockliff has claimed to espouse in this new parliament will indeed translate into some genuine cross-party discussion to ensure Tasmania is far better prepared to withstand he impacts of weather extremes. Because while fossil fuels continue to be mined and used Tasmania won’t be immune to the fallout.
– Anne Layton-Bennett, Swan Bay
What’s wrong with logging
For decades now, the Tasmanian government-legislated forest industry, Forestry Tasmania, has been indiscriminately logging then burning public forests for the singular purpose of frantically regrowing trees for future harvest.
At a time when other states around Australia have put an end to native forest logging for the sake of human health, our threatened climate and endangered forest species, Forestry Tasmania continues to log native forests and firestorm everything that is left on the forest floor.
More than half of the forests’ biomass is left lying to waste on the ground after logging, which is then scraped into piles and then burned to a crisp. These post-logging infernos irreversibly damage the environment, kill wildlife, harm human health and release huge quantities of dangerous, climate-destroying pollution into the atmosphere.
Most people confuse fuel reduction burns with logging regeneration burns, and the forestry industry does nothing to correct the confusion. There is a monumental difference between the two types of burns. Fuel reduction burns are essential for bushfire safety, but the sole purpose of forestry ‘regen burns’ is to regrow harvestable trees back as quickly as possible for future logging.
The destructive, harmful practice of native forest logging and post-logging burns must end now. Bob Brown Foundations new website: https://forestwatch.org.au/
– Dr Colette Harmsen, Tinderbox
How Much for an Unnecessary Stadium?
The latest revelations by the ABC that the government is considering some kind of public-private partnership (PPP) on the stadium just makes it worse. Not only are we on the hook for untold millions, we’ll be paying a commercial rate of interest for what we could otherwise borrow at much lower rates on the ‘state credit card’. All for a lose-money facility that will be empty most of the time.
It’s also a disgrace that in that article the ABC refers to the $715M cost several times. We all know that’s bulldust. It was a back of the envelope calculation to start with and now it’s two years out of date. If ever built, heaven forbid, the overall cost with the inevitable blowouts, interest on PPP and so on will be close to $2 billion. Currently the only committed funding from outside the state is the AFL’s $15M, ie. nothing.
All for an AFL team to play 7 games a year, when we currently have a suitable Hobart venue that hosts 4. And before you carp on about how Bellerive is not suitable because it’s not the palace of your dreams, harden up buttercup: it certainly will suffice for the 12 years of the trial licence period. After that, let’s talk.
– James McCracken, Somerset
Never Miss an Opportunity
I vividly remember seeing skulls and an assortment of human bones being placed on a wall by workmen building the Hutchins School Science block in the 1960s. We all knew it had been a graveyard so it was reasonable to assume the odd skeleton or two would surface from time to time during construction. No one stopped work or held services or any of that sort of nonsense, we just continued to our next class while the workmen kept digging, although as a child it was a little creepy!
Which brings to mind an event at another private school well over a century before. My great-great-grandmother Lysbeth Grey attended Ellenthorpe, a boarding school for young ladies, just outside Ross in the 1830’s. It was run by an exotic Spanish lady, Hannah Maria Clark with scant assistance from her indolent one-eyed husband, George. The school provided girls with a sound classical education and declared that ‘every attention would be paid to deportment and they would be practiced in the usage of polite society’. She must have seemed enchanting and a little mysterious to her young charges, with her large, dark eyes, black curly hair and curious, large rings on her fingers.
When, on 4 May 1838, the school was attacked by armed and dangerous bushrangers the gallant Mr Clark lead the girls upstairs, locked them securely in their rooms and safely secluded himself in his bedroom. Meanwhile the convict servants were valiantly fighting off the bushrangers killing one as the others calmly left taking several hostages with all the booty they could carry. Never one to miss an educational opportunity Hannah released the girls from their captivity before leading them outside to see the body. As a devotee of phrenology Mrs Clark began to teach her young pupils and the other teachers on the subject. This she did by pointing out the various nooks and crannies on the poor man’s head and explaining how each part can be used as indicators of the deceased’s intelligence and character, a lesson they were unlikely to forget. Or so the story goes.
Just image the glee in Hannah Clark’s dark shining eyes had she been my teacher when discovering a cluster of human bones just outside her classroom!
– Dr Ian Broinowski, Battery Point
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