Tightening grip

A BRIDGE of 55km has been completed connecting Hong Kong with mainland China. This bridge is an engineering feat unlike any other. However some HongKongers are not happy because they are suspicious of China’s “one country two systems” that promises economic freedom, plus independence. Hong Kong is deemed important because its bounteous financial system gives Beijing some extra clout. Now the much-vaunted independence from communist China is dubious, as China tightens its grip on the former British colony.

Sidestepping hurdles

THE Premier’s State of the State address uses all the right phrases in relation to our World Heritage areas: “protecting our precious quality of life”, “developers jumping all the hurdles” and gaining a “social licence”. Only, this government and its federal counterpart have in reality neatly sidestepped all of these requisites. World Heritage is being compromised, the hurdles are being eliminated by changing legislation and the community excluded from decision-making. The Lake Malbena/Halls Island helicopter-accessed fishing village is a case in point. Crown estate is leased to a private business for exclusive use by tourists, thereby for decades excluding Tasmanians if they can’t pay the big bucks. The experience of thousands of recreational, mainly Tasmanian users in the nearby lakes will be disturbed by helicopters.