Tempting, but questions remain

ELECTION PROMISES

THE Government has announced plans to pull Tasmania out of the national electricity grid if re-elected. While this sounds good on paper, with the promise of 10 per cent lower prices, we need to remember that the current freeze on power prices is to expire in May, just after the state election. This new plan seems rather contradictory, as former minister Groom announced last September plans to double Tasmanian hydro power to provide extra baseload power to feed into the national grid. We can certainly generate extra clean and possibly lower cost hydro power, but if we withdraw from the national grid, how could we manage to then feed power into it?

The Government claims they support alternative energy, but they are not providing any real incentives for homes or business to install rooftop solar panels. An extra 50,000 solar installations, as planned in South Australia, would take pressure off the network, and provide energy security in times of drought.

Further, as oodles of others have noted, the Southern Outlet itself is not the bottleneck; that begins at the traffic lights at Davey St and occupies most of Macquarie St and Davey St. Maybe we need a few more plumbers in politics; people who understand that if I’m trying to get water from where it is to where I want it to be, a bigger pipe where the bottleneck is will be much more useful than a bigger pipe where it isn’t.

Nexit

EXITING NEM (Nexit?). Could somebody please explain how Tasmania can exit the National Electricity Market and still plan to sell power to the mainland or maybe buy power from the mainland. The idea of the NEM is to sell and buy across the market participants. I am not privy to the contractual detail of maintaining the Basslink cable but I strongly suspect there would be a cost to keep Basslink even if Tasmania is not exporting/importing.

Broken

ELECTIONS bring out the worst and best in pollies. All of a sudden money comes out of nowhere. The hospital is still a mess. Now they say the hospital will be finished by 2020. It is marvellous how they will cut elective surgery in half. Political mobs can do wonders when a vote is wanted.

Keep the pokies and bugger everything else. After you kill the racing industry you have the gall to go to the races and campaign for votes. Hobart and Launceston A new way to have your say themercury.com.au readers have a new way to have their say. It’s free to use, just register and have your say. For more details and to register, visit the website. cups are coming up, plus the greyhounds’ cup is also running now. Maybe when you lose in March things will improve under Labor. I could sit here all morning and mention all the promises you people broke.

Same buses

MINISTER Rene Hidding has labelled moving the Elizabeth St bus mall underground as a game-changer. How would moving buses underground make traffic problems any better? The buses would have to travel on the same roads. Considering there appears to be no detailed plan, budget or engineering evaluation, how do we know this is practical or achievable? As there is no agreement from Canberra for funding, how would the huge construction cost be funded? With the election weeks away, we can safely assume this is yet another pie in the sky promise that is designed to impress voters and will never get off or under the ground.

Belated

AS an eligible voter, I’m sick and tired of governments that make promises on items they should already be addressing and have ignored whilst in office. It’s about time political parties addressed community expectations and not just pork barrel or make decisions purely on the basis of party political survival. The taxpayer deserves better.

Ambidextrous

WILL Hodgman signs Commonwealth-state agreements left-handed, but plays backyard election-stunt cricket righthanded ( Mercury, February 6). A man for every camera angle.

Meaty swap

GET rid of the pokies and bring back the meat raffle.

Christmas pudding

LET’S think of the next election like a Christmas pudding. Many of the ideas put forward by each party seem half baked, so the only solution seems to be to put all promises into the mix, and see what comes out, deflated egos and all. The result may surprise everyone.

Power of the players

I HOPE the pokie players of Glenorchy realise the tremendous power they wield. As, apparently, the entire economy of the city depends on them, they should band together and demand a fairer share of the pokie profits. If their demands are not met they should go on strike immediately.

Sad priorities

IS this what you would do? A lady paid $64 for cigarettes, her son said, “Mum can I have an ice cream?”. She said “No, I can’t afford it”.