Costs of development
WELL may the Premier complain about the anti-everything brigade. His government is set on development at all costs in national parks and World Heritage areas, secretly moving boundaries, and having a Facilitation Act to suit a developer. Councils are overridden and new anti-protest laws may criminalise anyone unwittingly caught in their web. Need more be said?
Wombats and zebras
THE well-intentioned Hobart City Council “safety” measure known as a wombat crossing actually has the opposite effect. I experienced this at the Hobart Aquatic Centre, when pedestrians mistook the marked speed hump (wombat crossing) as
‘Little guy’ suffers
I HAVE visited the Tasman Peninsula at least annually for the past 18 years, and watched the recent explosion in tourism. I have also seen at first hand the council amalgamations in southeast Queensland. It has been obvious to me that when amalgamation occurs the “little guy” always comes off second best (“Merger threatens to sink Tasman”, Talking Point, March 7).
My observation is that the nature and needs of the Tasman Peninsula (which requires the infrastructure that accompanies tourism) is completely different from the needs of Sorell (which, as a satellite suburb of Hobart, is a place to stock up prior to going on to Tasman Peninsula). It is very unlikely that the needs of the Tasman
Praise for flying the flag
IT was disappointing to see the negative slant to the piece about distribution of flags to taxpaying Australians (“High cost of flying flags”, Mercury, March 2). An alternate angle could have read “Australians continue to demonstrate a love of their country as they requested over $566,000 worth of flags from MPs and Senators offices between July 1 and September 30 last year”. This positive interpretation more closely reflects the facts.
What actually happens is that these flags are issued on request to individuals and approved organisations through the local electorate offices of federal members and senators. A register is maintained in each office of all flags issued. That is, taxpayers are choosing to spend some of their money to fly an Australian flag. The carping angle of the story encourages a grievance culture and undermines our democracy. This is another example of criticising our elected representatives when they are only doing their job.