Trophy design a car wreck

GREAT win and congratulations to Lauren Davis and what a decent tennis champion. But who on earth decided on a trophy that looks like a metallic part of a car wreck? And mounted on a block of wood big and heavy enough to sink a battleship. Never mind trying to get it home in luggage and finding a suitable place on the mantelpiece to display. Donate it to MONA and save the worry and cost. Continues a long list of cringeworthy Tasmanian trophies in many sports over the years.

Dennis Keats

Howrah

Housing cost crisis

I HAVE one question for Yvonne Stark (Letters, 14/1): Has she ever stayed in an Airbnb herself? Wouldn’t want to be hypocritical, now would we? Actually I have two questions. What has a greater effect on affordability? Short stay accommodation or those moving to Tasmania (population to hit 650,000+) and paying well above what locals can afford for real estate? Food for thought.

Tony Donaghy

Ellendale

CO2 balance not right

“WE’VE got the balance right. And I’d say to those people in the parliament that they should listen to what industry are saying, listen to what economists are saying as well.” Albanese

While appreciating that the Prime Minister has inherited a virtually insoluble problem with pollution emitters, the statement that “we’ve got the balance right” cannot go unchallenged. The pollution emitters and economists are precisely the factions which have knowingly caused the problem and we have listened to them for far too long. Even now, as concern for our atmosphere gets public traction, the fossil industry leaders are planning expansion of the coal and oil production over the next three decades.

Their anti-science rhetoric to steer attention away from scrutiny was backed by millions of dollars since 1975 when Exton advisers recognised the dangers in its own investigations. (Carbon Bomb; Guardian). You cannot offset the existence of yet more millions of tonnes of CO2 into a heating atmosphere.

We need some serious action to stop production … not vague ”We’ve got the balance right”

Bill Tomalin

Ranelagh

Birds in danger

THERE’S been little coverage of the devastating avian flu spreading rapidly through wild bird populations across the northern hemisphere. Unlike previous avian flus it is present all year round and jumping from species to species. Right now from Scotland to Utah seabirds, shorebirds, waterfowl and raptors are dying en masse. Migratory shorebirds face enough challenges already and Australia has now even more moral environmental obligation to protect every wetland and nesting habitat for these migratory birds. The proposed wind farm for Robbins Island must be rejected completely.

Brenda Marshall Loongana

Clean up our streets

IT is nice to know we have a person on the council like Louise Elliott who wants to do something about the state of the filthy streets in Hobart and the overflowing rubbish bins (Mercury 14/01). This problem is not confined to the city as anyone who walks up or down Montpelier Retreat will know – it would be a strong contender for the dirtiest and untidiest street in Hobart. Marguerite Forbes

Battery Point

Suffering landlord

AS a shared residential ‘landlord’ over many years, many locations (18), and many tenants, here is my ‘two bobs worth’.

In that time we had ONE exceptional tenant, 25% OK, and 75% unsatisfactory, the last left with unpaid rent and a damage bill of $7000.

After rates, insurance, damage, mortgage, unpaid rent, un-costed work, time or travel, and fractious tenants, our greatest net return was 3% on purchase price. Had it not been for appreciation on sale owning a residential property was a ‘loss’. We turned to commercial property, a national tenant, with such a lease neither the owner nor the tenant could ’sneeze’ without mutual agreement and respect – too easy. Nev Cooper

Dynnyrne

Leave speed limits

WHEN there is a sudden spike in statistics with no central or common cause we can be sure that it is just a statistical aberration and that a return to the mean can be expected subsequently.

As there were no more accidents attributable to speeding last year and not one accident was attributed in full or part to a speed limit set too high we can be sure that figures will relax this year. Politicians and motoring lobby groups are aware of this reality and are scrambling to take credit for the inevitable fall by suggesting or implementing a road safety initiative no matter how ineffective it may be.

Simplistic and unimaginative thinking ignores the results of trials done in Tasmania showing that lowering speed limits is ineffective and want to do it anyway, even though this increases traffic density and therefore risk on the road. New Zealand has a 100km/h limit and a higher road toll … Robert Stonjek

Kings Meadows

Woke Perrottet critics

I READ about NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet wearing a Nazi uniform as a 21-year-old and how he now regrets this decision. A number of voices are saying he should resign his position. This is another example of the woke brigade trying to force their deluded outlook on life on someone who was obviously young and impressionable. (I have seen the Nazi’s “handiwork” at Auschwitz and Birkenau). I am not trying to excuse him, far from it, but really, how can this influence his role as Premier many years later! I’m sure we all have incidences of behaviour that we now regret in hindsight. Why is it that some people get their jollies off by bringing events that happened years ago to the fore when there is little justification for it now. Obviously they have little in their own lives to occupy their time productively!

John Holley

West Moonah