Taste of Tasmania festival is worth saving
THE Hobart City Council should be ashamed cancelling the capital city’s iconic Taste food and entertainment event/celebration.
This is a world renowned event and puts Hobart on the world and Australian stage.
Shame on you HCC, maybe Launceston can cancel Festivale? But we all know that won’t happen!
We pay thousand of dollars annually in HCC rates and I think most ratepayers would be pleased to see our rates go into promoting this magnificent capital city, that’s left to practically promote itself; just by being amazing.
Maybe if councillors think the Taste isn’t important and iconic for Hobart, they should be working somewhere else.
Better still … just don’t promote or have anything in Hobart have everything up in Launceston and the north where three quarters of our politicians hail from anyway.
Maybe … that’s why everything in the capital city and the South gets cancelled or never acknowledged. The Taste brings in $40 million! Imagine any other city that had this event being told it was being cancelled … there would be an uproar … it’s time to hear Hobart roar …
Stop this happening Hobartians!
Lorra Hudson Sandy Bay
SHIFTING GOALPOSTS
AN interesting and thought provoking editorial “That losing feeling” (Mercury May 11) in regards to diminishing numbers of Tassie footy fans attending AFL matches at both Blundstone Arena in Hobart and UTAS Stadium in Launceston.
There is absolutely no doubt COVID-19 has had an enormous impact on interstate fans flying south to support their beloved Hawks or Kangaroos and the fact that both teams are languishing in last spots on the ladder would also have to be a contributing factor to low crowd numbers at both venues.
Given the Tasmanian Government pays a combined $8m a season to both Hawthorn and North Melbourne as part of a winter tourism package and economic stimulus this is a substantial monetary outlay of taxpayer money.
Our local Aussie rules competitions including the TSL SFL and Old Scholars play a great standard of footy attracting a good supporter base and the question must again be asked as to whether the government commits to further AFL games in Tassie or, as many locals would prefer, to see that $8m redirected into grassroots footy within our own footy crazy state and indeed whether this is ultimately better value for money invested.
Chris Davey Lindisfarne
WALKING WORTH IT
ON Saturday 13 March, 200 people joined Dementia Australia for the Hobart Memory Walk and Jog event.
Participants turned out in impressive numbers to walk or run at Regatta Grounds in support of people living with dementia.
I would like to thank the people of Hobart for their fantastic show of support and community spirit. It was inspiring to see such willingness from participants as they adapted to the changes made to the format of the event, so that it could be run in a COVID-safe way.
An impressive $29,000 was raised, and these funds will be used to provide invaluable support services, education and resources for people impacted by dementia in the Hobart community.
There are an estimated 11,500 people living with dementia in Tasmania. With that figure projected to increase to about 16,700 by 2058, events like Memory Walk & Jog play an important role not only in funding support, but also in raising awareness of dementia.
Maree McCabe CEO, Dementia Australia
CARBONATED BUDGET
THIS Budget fuels the fossil fuel fools. Whilst the rest of the world is decarbonising and phasing out the internal combustion engine Australia remains wedded to yesterday and to yesterday’s economy.
According to the Grattan Institute this government provides subsidies to the fossil fuel industries in excess of $10bn per year.
The rest of the world is going electric and we hanker for coal and want to build coal fired power stations. We want to destroy our pristine farmland to extract gas, to demonstrate our clean, green credentials. How sad!
What is going to happen in the next decade when no more internal combustion engines are produced around the world? Where will the tradies get their gas guzzling trucks and utes? Where will they get spare parts to keep the ones they own on the road? How much will they be worth?
This government has produced a short term budget to get re-elected with no foresight, no vision and no hope for the future. It continues to run a low-wage, low-growth and a no hope economy.
What will happen to Australia’s export industries when our trading partners impose impost duties on carbon, projected to reach $100 per tonne?
Let’s hope that somebody somewhere takes note and deals with these challenges before it is too late.
Jon Jovanovic Lenah Valley