Where does our money go?
HAVING been a resident of the Glenorchy City Council area almost all my life I agree with Betty Browning (Letters, September 14). Residents are turning to dumping unwanted goods such as furniture anywhere. We commute on the bike track regularly and see various items from heaters to lounge suites littered by the bike track and they sit there for months! Glenorchy did have a yearly cleanup, well advertised, but suddenly they couldn’t afford it. What about our top rates? Just where does the money all go to? Will someone please explain before our streets become our rubbish tip. Not everyone has the facility to cart their own rubbish away or pay the exorbitant tip fees.
Fair go on GST
THE N.C.K. Evers Network explains the how and why of the fair-go principle built into the distribution of GST and other funds to states and territories (Talking Point, September 13). The objective has been to ensure all Australians, regardless of where they live, will have comparably high standards of public services, particularly health and education. The Network makes the case that proposed changes will unfairly favour natural resource-rich states and will haveserious adverse effects for less well-endowed states and territories. Another factor that can undermine the supply of high quality public services is that the state and territory governments receiving their GST allocations are not held to using those revenues for public service provision purposes.
Disgusted
I READ the front headlines and the rest on Lisa Singh and am thoroughly disgusted ( Sunday Tasmanian, September 9). My first vote in the last election was for her because of what she represented. As far as I am concerned gambling can be addictive, just as alcohol, drugs and sugar are. These are symptoms of deeper problems, such as social and economic things. If theses things were dealt with the Royal Hobart Hospital may not be in as much crisis as it is now.
Legal claim
THE plight of those 17 Vietnamese people who landed in North Queensland concerns me. I thought we had a rule of law where we respected those United Nations Conventions to which Australia was a signatory. These 17 people had a legal right to land in Australia and make a claim for Refugee Status. Being labelled “illegal boat arrivals” is plain wrong and a demonising tactic used by politicians. Were these people given legal advice as to their right to present a case? Was any case heard by a court where they were legally represented? The speed with which they were returned to Vietnam makes me suspect the answers are “No!” It would also seem to breach the principle of refoulement where failed refugee claimants are returned to their country. It is a principle of customary international law this does not happen. The principle applies even to states not party to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol. It is also a principle of the law of nations. Vietnam has serious human rights issues.
Cut bottom MPs instead
OUR third-attempt prime minister has tweeted a view that a necessary evil and benefit of the drought in Qld and NSW will be to cut out the bottom 10 pc of farmers. It would appear a far better option would be to cut the top 10 pc of federal Liberal politicians. We may then have an outside possibility of actually finding someone who will be genuinely interested in serving the people of Australia, rather than their own falsely inflated egos.
Taking the credit
TASMANIA’S economy is booming yet the Hodgman Government is on the nose. They take the credit for cranes in the skyline which are thanks to Andrew Wilkie, booming tourism thanks to Mona, booming agriculture thanks to the irrigation schemes started by Lara Giddings and a lower Australian dollar helping exports to a booming China. All this should have the Government soaring in the polls. All they have to do is keep scandal-free and they can’t do that. They are incapable of fixing the issues at hand, that being ambulance ramping and traffic and are seen to be in the pocket of big business. In fact they seem determined to send our booming agriculture sector backwards by cutting biosecurity in their first term which has seen problems with fruit fly and blueberry rust. No wonder the polls are down.
Cable car asset
COUNCIL leaders and other objectors would have to be the laughing stock of Australia regarding tourism, virtually telling people we do not need additional tourists in Tasmania.
The Mt Wellington cable car would be a great asset for tourism. Bring on the cruise ships, build the high-rises to accommodate the tourists. A couple of top dogs said recently if you can’t pay the extra interest rate rise then get extra employment. Jobs are not easy to find. Tourism would create employment and lots of it. There are hundreds of battlers who would love part-ime work to earn extra money to pay their rising costs, so top dogs remove your heads from the sand and have a good look around.