Venison the answer

DEER culling was recently in the news but the argument used was an example of failing to look at the whole issue. The Premier wants to please the shooting lobby, Bob Brown wants to protect our wilderness. We can achieve both — and build a useful export industry. Recreational shooters do little to reduce the deer population because they mostly shoot for trophies — big antlers. This leaves the breeding population of does almost untouched. Professional cullers would focus precisely on the breeding population. The two groups are complementary.

Europeans love venison. Existing abattoirs could further develop a premium export market for prime venison. Recreation or culling? Why not go for a win-win? building numbers, the university filling our city with high-paying overseas student housing (maybe our future slums?) and with the advent of Uber and Airbnb causing a housing crisis, secret tourism applications without public comment. Don’t get me started on Macquarie Point and the cove. Millions wasted and still no plan, office buildings blotting out harbour views, underused floating dock, plans to move buildings from one side of the Cove to the other, Mac Point with the startling revelations of a pop-up cafe, cycle track and a garden.

We sit on a knife edge between mass middling-standard visitation and the protection of our brand and I appeal to all to take an interest in maintaining our brand and the lifestyle it offers. sooner or later be drawn to places where visitor facilities are actually up to expectation. Take a trip to Canberra to see what real world-class airport experience that sort of money can buy. Then tell me how Tasmania, for some reason, must settle for so much less. We have been caught snoozing, rudely awakened by the realisation of our long-held dream of being a premier tourist destination, but embarrassingly unprepared.