Snubbing smokers
GREAT work, Hobart City Council. First you come for the car owners/drivers, then you come for the smokers. How the centres at Eastlands Rosny and Glenorchy must be loving this, most of the shops and services in Hobart are represented in those centres. Soon, the only patrons of city shops and cafes will be the international students — with probably not a whole lot of money to spend. Welcome to the ghost town!
Ended up in this mess
THE yourrighttoknow campaign is welcome antidote to the Morrison Government’s obsessive and anti-democratic secrecy and I wish it every success. However, I think it was a bit cute by half for the timeline published on Monday to omit the legislative changes that have got us to the current mess and how the Australian media seemed to be asleep at the wheel when these changes were being pushed through. Horse? Stable door?
Childhood loss
I AM a 78-year-old Aboriginal man who grew up in a little old shack at Austins Ferry. We lived on a block of land between the river and a railway line. You could not, without a lot of effort, drive a car to our front or back door. But I loved it.
My father went to World War II with his white soldier mates. In Palestine, while driving an army truck, he accidentally ran over and killed a little girl. He returned home when the war ended.
Mum was the loveliest and kindest person you could ever like to meet. She was white. (I hate those two words, black and white. We are supposed to be all equal.) They had a little baby girl, my sister. Sadly,
Mission not fact-finding
STRANGELY, Corrections Minister Elise Archer says Meander Valley community representatives could be offered an interstate trip to visit another prison town on a fact-finding trip and a “study” to find out the impacts. This is a bizarre claim. The government must know that a reliable impact study can only be designed and run by professional, independent researchers to give accurate, unbiased data. The trip would not be a “study” and any claimed findings would not be facts, they would be invalid and meaningless. Surely no taxpayers should need to pay for a trip that does not fit the requirements of a study and can only be a PR exercise or junket.
Winx brother’s sad end
WINNERS are grinners, as the saying goes. And that’s certainly the case for former horseracing champion, Winx. But her less than successful brother ended his career in Korea. And, to be more specific, in one of its abattoirs, where you can be sure he wasn’t grinning when he met his end. Winners might be grinners but losers don’t get to be choosers. And that’s the case for so many of Australia’s racehorses (and greyhounds) whose careers end up ending up in places like Korea. If anyone is left in any doubt about the dark side of racing in Australia, then all that’s left to be said is: all bets are off.