Pollies living in another universe
FIRST Peter Dutton removes the Aboriginal flag from his press conference, then Adam Bandt removes the Australian flag from his.
Next the NSW Premier Dom Perrottet is erecting a flag pole for the former on the Sydney Harbour Bridge at a cost of $25 million.
What alternate universe do these political leaders live in?
M. Ross New Town
FAR FROM UNITED
MY family has a long association with Aussie Rules in Tasmania, in which it takes great pride.
But I am not for a billion-dollarplus stadium being built in innercity Hobart.
AFL club presidents should be aware that the Tasmanian community is far from united in its support for the stadium proposal.
The issue will grow only more rather than less controversial as Tasmanians discover their taxes being used to subsidise a blank cheque for a white elephant.
The government knows there is opposition or it would have consulted various affected groups, from local resident groups to those with interest in the Regatta Grounds. It didn’t, because typically it thinks it can just bulldoze these measures through.
Those days are over.
With a global recession possible and inflation accelerating, the costs of infrastructure projects are ballooning out of control around the world.
The stadium costs are going to be far in excess of the farcical government guesstimate of $750 million.
Worse, the stadium is destructive of the scale and amenity of our unique, historic, colonial inner city, obliterates one of the few public access points to the river in Hobart, and desecrates the Cenotaph. Worse yet, it will be our taxes destroying what we love about our city.
At the same time our appalling illiteracy rate, our worsening public health system, our burgeoning housing problems, and our farcical public transport system are left to further languish, the worst in the nation.
Where’s the leadership on any of these critical matters by our government?
Why should we pay for government follies, as we did in the 1990s, with our closed schools and hospital wards, and with the desecration of our unique city?
The stadium is a blank cheque for a bad idea in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Time for our government to get serious about helping Tasmanians in need, not further subsidising the same AFL that did so much to destroy Aussie Rules as a popular grassroots sport in Tasmania. Richard Flanagan
Hobart
DEMOCRACY DENTED
THOSE few remaining who think the political persecution of Julian Assange is justified and sensible tend to lack the most pertinent points of the case.
The 17 counts of espionage the US court wants to pin on Assange will be for the first time leveraged against routine acts of investigative journalism.
The one hacking charge is simply nonsense, as Chelsea Manning herself did not even need to hack any files. The secret espionage court in Virginia where he is headed almost always prosecutes and
he will not be able to argue public interest defence or receive First Amendment rights.
The case boils down most simply to a so-called bastion of democracy using a maligned character to criminalise public interest investigative journalism no matter where in the world you are.
Carrie-ann Smith
Blackmans Bay
BENEFITS FOR ALL
AFTER reading Alan Leitch’s letter (June 23), I felt compelled to point out that “unions trying to get increases for their members” is not exactly correct. Unions covering various trades and professions aren’t only advocating for their members. Any benefits gained are for anyone employed in that particular profession, whether they’re a union member or not.
Something for union bashers to contemplate the next time they’re checking their super balance, while they enjoy the four weeks’ paid leave — courtesy of the unions. Peter Joseph
Glenorchy
BIT SLOW ON THE UPTAKE
ABOUT one month ago, I bought into the “Let’s not kill our wildlife” debate and had my ears boxed by Kimberly Mendonca and Jude Lennox, so I’m telling myself that I must not comment on the column by Gillian Unicomb (June 23). Drat, I didn’t succeed.
In one sense, Kimberly, Jude and Gillian are right. If we slow down, we’ll kill wildlife less often. So why do I feel so unhappy about the “slow down” strategy?
It is a bit like the abstinence strategy for birth control. For effective birth control, we need a better strategy than abstinence. For wildlife protection, we need a better strategy than pleas to slow down.
Curiously, Gillian mentions this as an afterthought near the end of her column. We don’t need new magic technology. Humans have been building fences for millennia.
A useful fence might cost a bit more than a useless fence, but we only need fences that can protect Tasmanian wildlife. They don’t need to be moose-proof or elephant-proof. The job is easy; a matter of “won’t”, not of “can’t”.
Keith Anderson
Kingston