Lift standards
HOW I wish I had participated in the surveys the Mercury has been writing about. I would have said forget about encouraging thousands of people to move here when we have problems with unemployment and worse, under-unemployment, and little appropriate adult education to address them. Jobs created are invariably shortterm contracts, with no security. No influx of interstate people while there are people living on the streets. Make sure that everyone, especially the people trying to survive in grinding poverty, has a roof over their heads.
As for tourism, have you tried to fly out of Hobart recently? The departure lounge is untidy, uncomfortable and it is chaos. In reality, there are only two doors to go out to access aircraft. You can have a double queue at the doors, and people can easily finish up heading for the wrong aircraft.
Wowsers
WOWSERISM is once again on the rise in Australia, particularly in Tasmania. Progressive wowsers stridently say no to pokies, forestry, red awnings, salmon farms and any large building project, particularly if its backers include Chinese.
Number concerns
THERE has been a lot of talk about housing and rental availability both here in Tasmania, and Australia. I wonder how much of this problem is caused by the immigration rate. It was reported that the average number of immigrants arriving in Australia since 2010 has been 200,000-250,000 per year. With this pressure on top of the existing rise due to childbirth, we have no hope of keeping up the infrastructure to maintain our way of A new way to have your say themercury.com.au readers have a new way to have their say. It’s free to use, just register and have your say. For more details and to register, visit the website.
Necessities
SO ‘’Hobart is a city of whingers’’ and should embrace development (Letters, January 8). Tasmanians are resisting moves by developers to destroy our unique environment, which attracts discerning visitors. We don’t want the “many developments around Australia’’. Edward Abbey said: “Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.”
Where did he get his hip?
WE have had a top tennis player who just had hip surgery who will soon be back on court playing again. I had mine replaced 3½ years ago and still have problems getting my boots on, as well as other problems.