Trolls lost to mayhem
can be unemployed through divorce, having had a caring role for children or parents or not previously participating in the workforce due to a caring role. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said one third on Newstart find employment within 12 months.
What is the percentage of women over 55 who have found full-time work in that period? Many are on the poverty line and becoming homeless. The number of homeless has grown 14 per cent in four years. The allowance is too small to pay most rents or a mortgage and assistance should be given so they do not become a homeless statistic. Income taxes have been reduced and will in future for those on very high incomes and it is only fair that those who need support also receive assistance.
Lease to foreign buyers
REPORTER Jack Paynter raises some issues that ring alarm bells ( Mercury, July 20). I’m no rocket scientist. I am very concerned about my three-year-old nephew’s food security when I learn foreigners are purchasing agricultural land in Tasmania at a very fast rate. Foreign governments are opportunists securing food for their people in a rapidly changing environment. The prime agricultural bounties will be exported and the profits will more than likely be as well. Reckless government on all sides seem to be ignorant of the consequences. I support the idea of foreign ownership of land in Tasmania being in strict lease agreements only. TAKE heart, Simon Bevilacqua ( Mercury, July 20), your words are loud and clear every Saturday. The “trolls” are lost to a world of make-believe, plagued by plastic, electronic mayhem, a world that possibly will self destruct. You are correct, there is salve in “a setting sun”, something infinitely precious, that we must protect if we are to survive as a species. Everyone, even the trolls, owe their existence to a menagerie of molecules, energised by our beloved sun.
Don’t become wimps
I APPLAUD the letter from reader Rupert Manners regarding the need for occasional risk-taking (Letters, July 23). But I decry Stewart Edwards’s suggestion that bushwalkers should pay a bond and be issued with a “man-down pendant” before heading off on a trip. The rescue helicopter is permanently on standby, not only for lost walkers but for any other rescue event. Police would much prefer to search for a lost walker than attend a horrific road accident or murder scene.
I have half a century of bushwalking experience devoid of any rescue, yet an accident that put me in hospital for three weeks involved a fall in a shopping centre. Maybe I should have signed an indemnity form before entering? Let’s not turn into a nation of wimps. Be grateful that the bush is there for some peace, sanity and above all, a sense of achievement after overcoming any risk.