Handfish help

IN relation to the Arm End effluent pipeline, Clarence Mayor Doug Chipman said that protection of the handfish had been raised in the planning application and there was a requirement that its breeding season and habitat were not interfered with (“Canberra asked to stop the pipeline”, Mercury, February 8). The only permit condition relevant is that construction is to be timed to “minimise risk to Spotted Handfish breeding”. The developer is left to decide what minimise means and they could be drilling during most of the breeding season, threatening handfish eggs. The council should have prohibited all drilling during the short breeding season (September to October). Outside breeding season, drilling equipment could penetrate the bed of the bay, killing and injuring handfish and destroying habitat. This risk could

Pokies in clubs, not pubs

TIME for a compromise on pokies. Take them out of the pubs but leave them in the clubs. No big business influence or control, supports local communities, employs local staff who would be far more likely to provide awareness of and counselling for problem gamblers who would after all be one of their members. This model operates well in other states. Problem is the Tasmanian Hospitality Association is an amalgam of hotel and club interests and guess who has the smallest say?

Foreign buyers

WHILE the Federal Government seems hellbent on keeping some 200 asylum seekers away from Australia on a remote island, the same authorities demonstrate indifference to the purchase of our houses, farms, industries and businesses by foreign interests. While these may bring money into the country, the gain is short-term and will in the medium to long-term cause a money drain back to these countries. The price of homes has already increased disproportionately to our population and

Private but public

PRIVATE hospitals should be able to handle private patients in their emergency department, but no, sorry, we don’t have a neurologist on-call so you will need to be transferred to RHH. But wait, let’s still charge you for the privilege. No wonder RHH is so busy when it costs nearly $400 with $200 of that out of pocket for private health insurance members to attend an emergency in the private sector and still have to go through the overworked public system. Something needs to be done to fix our crippled health system.

Above the line

HOW naive and disastrous would it be for all Australians to vote below the line (“Donkey vote,” Letters, February 8). It is like asking new staff in a private corporation to take over running the business at a profit for that business to survive. Voting below the line brings instability and Senate stalemate as new Bills or amendments are to and froed from the Senate to the House of Reps. We see it happening now.