Macquarie Point black hole
BURIED in the 2021 state budget is an unbelievable item — $64.6 million for Macquarie Point. What is there to show for the original $50 million from the federal government? This project is a black hole where funds disappear without trace. To add to the insult is $30 million to demolish and relocate the perfectly good Mac Point waste water treatment plant. Mona and Rosny Point residents seem to manage with a WWTP in their backyard. The only thing that stinks is the scandalous waste of public money at Macquarie Point. David Hurburgh
South Hobart
ABORIGINES LET DOWN
OUT of $7.257 billion revenue raised from lands taken from Aboriginal people, only $269,000 is allocated directly to Aboriginal people:
$116 million is raised through land tax, the land that Aborigines have never been compensated for. We get none of that.
$10.2 million is allocated for management of Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area because of its Aboriginal values, but not a red cent is set aside for Aboriginal management.
$10m to satisfy 4WD access on the West Coast but nothing for Aborigines to protect our culture.
There was no allocation in the budget for Aboriginal development, nothing set aside for a proposed treaty. Really, Aborigines feel let down, again.
Michael Mansell Land Council Chairman
NOT MORE ROADS
IN the Tasmanian government’s budget there is $149m set aside for the Greater Hobart Traffic Solution. Imagine if that had instead been allocated for a new Hobart High School at Macquarie Point. Building better road access just encourages people to live further out of the city and ultimately, with a substandard public transport system, increases dependence on personal vehicles to get around.
Just 10 years down track the roads are clogged again and nothing has been gained. On the other hand, an innercity school with good public transport or walking and cycling access has the potential to reduce traffic volumes forever.
Graham Reeve Lindisfarne
TECHNICAL EDUCATION
THANKFULLY, after 30-odd years, sanity has prevailed with the government committing funds to support technical education in Tasmania.
For more than 100 years Tasmania’s technical education had been successfully delivered by qualified/experienced tradesmen. Plumbers taught plumbing, electricians taught electrical trades, secretaries taught commercial and secretarial skills, carpenters taught building, etc. All technical teachers were required to be qualified tradesmen, with at least five years postgraduate and relevant industrial experience.
On joining the teaching staff of technical colleges, all were required to undertake formal teacher training.
At the stroke of a ministerial pen, technical education in Tasmania was destroyed.
As a result, purpose-built, well equipped and competently staffed technical colleges were replaced by illequipped schools and colleges, frequently using teachers without the necessary technical skills to deliver specialist training.
Tasmania moved from being nationally recognised as having the best trained and most competent tradesmen in Australia to needing to import skilled workers from overseas.
RICH AND POOR DIVIDE
Leigh Clark Longford
ON page 5 in the Mercury I read that “homeless measures” were “not enough”. Then on page 6, I read “Governor’s salary soars to $662k”.
What on god’s green earth could the Governor do for the benefit of Tasmania to receive well over half a million dollars in salary? And why the hell does she have to live in a massive castle paid for (yet again) by the humble taxpayer, while countless Tasmanians are struggling to simply put a roof over their heads?
To say this is an utter disgrace would have to be the understatement of the year.
Jim Richards Dunalley