People the losers
THE election has been run and won and the true losers this time are the people. The Liberal Party claimed to have 300 election promises. Please, publish a complete list. That won’t happen. Why? The people would revolt. The example provides limited details of the promises to the pokie lobby ( Mercury, March 9): $6.8 million over four years and that is just what they are telling us. I guess the pokie lobby got a good return on their investment. Sadly, the people are not going to know the true extent, at least not until March 2019. Yes, some of us will be watching.
Ancient Greece lesson
IT is an appropriate time to evaluate what the ancient Greeks gifted us by way of the democratic system. This election was distinguished by the courageous Labor policy of attempting to get rid of the community scourge of poker machines, and the pre- 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.
Dealt a blow
THANK you Simon Bevilacqua for your insightful and outspoken article “Gaming democracy”, ( Mercury, March 10). As you so clearly detailed, democracy in Tasmania has been dealt a severe blow by the undemocratic tactics of the Liberal political campaign. The Liberals didn’t so much win a second term in government as overpower their political opponents with an unsurpassed advertising spending spree funded by the pro-pokie lobby. Democracy in Tasmania now has a very small “d” and is in deep decline. At the very minimum the Liberal Government should declare their political donations and attempt to win back at least a modicum of respect from the Tasmanian community.
Renewable misunderstanding
THERE is a lot of indoctrination going on with regards to renewable energy feed-in tariffs with no understanding of the absolute necessity of having a reliable power supply and of network costs being the largest component of electricity bills. Soon we’ll be having people claiming to be self sufficient in growing food complaining that shops won’t buy their excess produce at what they consider a fair price.