Why are we paying for racing?

I WRITE in support of the issues raised in Jan Davis’s letter of 24/01. Ms Davis is the chief executive of RSPCA Tasmania, and therefore her opinions on the racing industry carry weight and should be heeded.

Ms Davis notes that Tasmania is the only state where the government guarantees annual taxpayer funding for the racing industry, and finds it difficult to understand why our taxes are being spent on a sport that exploits animals for entertainment and profit, when essential services (such as medical services) are under serious funding pressures.

Last year, 13,500 Tasmanians also found this difficult to understand and called for its abolition in a formal petition. To no avail, as this government in effect ignored 13,500 of its taxpayers on this issue.

The government must take its head out of the sand and overhaul both funding arrangements and animal welfare issues in racing. Margie Murray

Cygnet

Lack of flags a shame

WELL it seems all the do-gooders have got there way. Went to try and buy some small Australian flags, not one of the smaller shops had them.

Coles had very limited items. When I inquired why no stock, the answer was simple we don’t want to upset anyone.

Well I am upset, this is still Australia. This whole country is becoming a joke run by spineless w**kers.

Anthony Howlett Moonah

Glass roof a worry

HAS there been any research done or have any specialists been consulted regarding how a football stadium with a fixed glass roof would perform acoustically when used as a venue for a rock concert etc?

The Federation Concert Hall had a terrible sound until it was retrofitted with acoustic baffling devices.

Or is it all just a rush job? Scott Plimpton

White Beach

Old still rates

THE local TV ratings from Sunday night have a spinster, Vera, at number six despite it being a repeat whereas the ‘unmissable’ show, The Bachelors, has dropped out of the top ten to languish at 11.

Vera is a long running, high quality and enjoyable police show where all I know of The Bachelors is from the ads and that is enough to tell me, yet again, to avoid ‘reality’ TV.

It is becoming more and more apparent why streaming services are becoming so popular and profitable. Dennis Fitzgerald

Box Hill Vic

Pokie problem

IN REGARD to poker machines, why is never mentioned the effect and results of input of the manufacturers’ research and development department in the design of the things, which is almost as important as having an entrance slot for the money to a punter’s loot?

Pokie R & D relies on the collective input of a group of the highest professionally qualified mind-bending specialists available – psychiatrists, psychologists, hypnotists, mesmerists, neurologists, behaviourists, audiologists, architects and an assortment of other homegrown experts in attitudes and playing practices.

In collaboration, they aim through sight, sounds and a tantalising win/ loss tempo to create a brain chemistry mixture that will, in certain people with the gene that determines

the difference between a social player and an addict willing to lose the lot, a lamb’s pathway to the end.

It’s OK to mess with people’s minds with an evil, devious device that cannot lose a cent and inevitably ends up with everything you own, but not so the likes of dope and LSD etc. Noel Christensen Punchbowl

Don’t tear us apart

WITH Christmas and the new year out of the way, the Australian Open under way, the next big event is Australia Day, when Australia tears itself apart.

I have two solutions. Either, delete the January from each year, in the same way that in 1752, Britain and her colonies dropped 11 days in the changeover from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar; and 2 September 1752 was

followed by 14 September.

If this solution is too radical, my second solution is pure elegance.

Use the date the first Aborigines arrived in Australia, or what later became Australia.

Sorry? We don’t know what date that was? So assume it was the equivalent of 26 January – after all it is just as likely it was this date as any other date.

This is a far better suggestion than Bob Brown’s of some years ago that we use 1 September, the beginning of spring.

There’s just one problem with that date: Hitler invaded Poland on that date in 1939.

Not the best date, is it Bob, to commemorate the founding of modern Australia: neo-Nazis would have a field day as they celebrated. This is one of the troubles when we mess around with dates: we don’t

know what unforeseen results will eventuate.

Rodney Quinn Bellerive

Take on MMA way off

IN RESPONSE to Phil Georgeff’s comments on Rob Wilkinson.

Instead of judging something you clearly have no knowledge of, I suggest you go to a few MMA gyms and talk with the athletes. You’ll find them to be very welcoming, approachable and friendly.

They’re not trying to ‘kill each other in a cage’ neither is it a ‘blood sport’. Combat sports is a test of one’s self, a test of bravery, of skill and to have a chance to put into play the hours and hours of hard work and dedication. Or not – most are happy just to train, form bonds with others, get fit and gain confidence.

The combat-sports community in Tassie is an amazing community to be a part of, filled with some of the best humans you’ll find. Society rejects? Please. Many of the combat athletes I have the absolute pleasure of knowing are the most caring, reliable and trustworthy people.

Rob Wilkinson is a humble, friendly guy and he’s done something for himself and our little state that no one has before … won a world championship in the hardest sport in the world. So please, don’t judge what you don’t understand.

Jess Nischler

Glenorchy