Homelessness must be addressed
CRYSTAL Kenzie’s tragic story (Mercury, February 24) highlights the indisputable correlation between fractured relationships and homelessness. If the underlying causes of toxic relationships are understood and dealt with, the rate of domestic violence and homelessness would be reduced dramatically. A whole-of-society approach is urgently needed. And teaching young ones how to have respectful, sincere relationships will help to break this generational cycle of dysfunctional living and being. Understanding how to attain mental health and wellbeing through spiritual insight is the key and must be adopted and applied through primary education.
Sue Carlyon Kingston
PRINTER CARTRIDGES
SOME time ago I read an article about how it was cheaper to buy a new printer than replace the cartridges in the less expensive models. Basically, even though the old one works perfectly well it gets thrown away and probably adds to polluting landfill. Given that there are concerns about plastics and pollution and the world’s finite resources, shouldn’t there be an effort made to either make cartridges cheaper or adapt these ink cartridges to last the distance?
Ian Batchelor Margate
FACEBOOK FRIENDS
I WAS surprised ScoMo contacted NaMo for support and guidance. Lobbyist Ankhi Das was reluctantly let go by Facebook after it was revealed in mid-2020 by the Wall Street Journal that she was steering Facebook’s pro-Modi policy. Modi is unlikely to upset Facebook for the benefit of Australia. Modi’s stand against China is unlikely to be reflected in his approach to his Facebook friends.
Ike Naqvi Tinderbox
INTEGRAL PART OF THE MIX
ABC TV arts program The Mix is unfortunately to end after about six years of broadcast. The program covered a variety of national arts events. With COVID-19 having a devastating effect on the arts nationwide, it seems an inopportune time to delete such an important program.
Kenneth Gregson Swansea
ELECTRIC CAR FIX
READER Michael Lester’s comments on the need to speed up the introduction of electric motor vehicles in Australia (“We’re missing the bus on electric cars,” Mercury, February 13) includes some very salient points. However, several major issues not mentioned are the need to continue to use fossil-fuel production until clean green technology takes over.
How long to transition away and how are users going to be billed for the vast amount of revenues lost from the current federal and state governments’ fuel taxes, used to fund new highways, roads, upgrades and road safety?
Another issue would be the high unemployment rate of people involved in production, processing, delivery, selling and associated areas of the oil industry. It’s not a quick fix.
Raymond Harvey Claremont
CARD CALAMITY
THE Cashless Debit Card rolled out in another areas of Australia is cause for concern. There have been cases of people defaulting on mortgages through being on the card. It costs businesses $10,000 to be registered as an Indue-designated company for card recipients to use. Hence, businesses who can’t afford
the expensive registration miss out on business from card holders. This cashless debit card was recently mooted to be rolled out in Braddon by the Morrison federal government. It is a terrible idea.
Jon Price Bellerive
NEWSPAPER EACH MORNING
YEAH, I get it, a newspaper, the Mercury, delivered every morning, right to my door. Onya journalists! Go out and give us the real news. Facebook, Australia doesn’t need you. We are not your product. You need us, so don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
Margaret Nicol-Smith Blackmans Bay
PRIORITIES PLEASE
SURPRISE, surprise, just another cool $20 million extra needed for the Derwent Entertainment Centre, yet a measly few million cannot be found for a stand-alone palliative care unit in Launceston. I suppose dying with dignity is not as sexy. Looking forward to seeing all the photo opportunities from the corporate boxes.
Brian Walker South Launceston
LIBERAL CANDIDATE
The Mercury reported on Friday that Derwent Valley Mayor Ben Shaw will run for the Liberal Party at the Legislative Council elections on May 1. However, a caption in the article mistakenly said Mr Shaw was standing as a Labor candidate.