More help, please
MINISTER Jacquie Petrusma, have a heart. Your response to industrial action by child safety officers is disappointing. I doubt applicants for frontline positions will be deterred by the action. The occasionally dangerous nature of the job and the turnover/burnout rate are already well known. Rather, I imagine a positive response to the action will reassure applicants workloads are manageable, and encourage them to take on this vital work at the forefront of some of our most complex social problems. I was very encouraged by your announcement of extra funding for child safety, so I was surprised to hear about the action. I attended the
Home, sweet home
IT is not hysteria driving opposition to the proposed development of five apartments in Cremorne ( Mercury, 6 September). Nor is it opposition to any form of development on the site of a former shop and service station. Rather, it is concern with over development of a site in a lower-density residential village. The developer is right that Cremorne isn’t a sleepy shack-type village. It’s a vibrant and active community that has lodged submissions to Clarence Council dealing with the impacts of this proposal. I’ve lived here for over 31 years and have an old-style shack on one side and a modern structure on the other. They’re called homes. They vary in style but none is an urban-type apartment block.
Tiger win, fox next
GREAT news about photographic confirmation of the Tasmanian thylacine ( Mercury, September 7). Now it’s just a matter of trapping it, strapping a GoPro camera and GPS to its head and following it until
Missing out
ASYLUM seekers are not “illegal”, (Letters, September 8), and most on Manus and Nauru have already been scrutinised and found to be genuine refugees. It is true their incarceration is costing unnecessary billions of dollars, but that is because the government chooses to waste our money in this way, instead of allowing them to become productive and taxpaying citizens. Consider the many Dutch, Italian, Greek and Vietnamese refugees and migrants and the contribution they have made. Then ask this government why we continue to deny ourselves the contributions this group of people could be making.
Clear up regulations
IN Singapore building regulations are well defined. In contrast, building regulations in Hobart are buried in a “mishmash of decision making” ( Mercury, September 8). Planners in Hobart City Council will still be able to grant variations because there are no hard limits. Aspects such as height limitations will remain open for negotiation. What a playground for developers and local people with vested interests.