Overseas passengers pose a great risk
WE have had a Premier who has, to date, done a great job in protecting Tasmania. One, however, now has to wonder why he has agreed to accept 150plus people from the likes of the UK into Tasmania.
This is a recipe for disaster as it will bring an unnecessary risk of Delta coming to Tasmania. There is no justifiable reason for risking Tasmanian lives like this! Why risk Tasmanian lives prior to at least 80 per cent vaccination? We are so close to that so why not wait?
All these emotive comments about families getting together by Christmas should be tempered by the risk to Tasmanian lives.
It is well known Tasmania has an older and more vulnerable population thus a greater death risk.
Steve Allie Hobart
WHAT ABOUT TASMANIANS?
Great news! We are bringing 150 Tasmanians home from the UK. Whoopy bloody do. The state government finds room to allow expats home but when it comes to our fellow Tasmanian’s languishing on the mainland for months, they have become invisible to the government.
Some of our fellow Taswegians have been inoculated for months and are living in areas where there is no active Covid cases and are refused entry to their home state. I am stunned!
These people are fully vaccinated, prepared to have a test to show no Covid and ready to isolate in their own homes. Our state government’s policy seems to be “nick off”.
If we can bring those overseas home who may be carrying Covid then we owe it to local Tasmanians stranded interstate through no fault of their own, a right of entry.
Ray Marsh Primrose Sands
LET US GO HOME
My question is when will we be allowed back to our home in Tasmania? My wife and I have been stranded in Sydney for two months waiting for the border to open. This week we learned that our G2G Pass was declined due to lack of rooms in a quarantine hotel.
Today I read that 150 UK expats will arrive in Hobart on Sunday and given hotel rooms for quarantine. We have both had our two vaccinations. C’mon Tassie let us back home.
Mike Gregory Charlotte Cove
BE PROUD OF UTAS
HEALTH professionals and teachers should be appalled at the Talking Point piece written by Ian Howard regarding UTAS (University on a crash course to fail, September 1). He lays the blame for our failing health and education systems at the feet of UTAS-trained professionals in those areas. He makes no mention of successive conservative governments ripping the guts out of public health and education funding which is much more likely to blame.
Mr Howard ignores the amazing, globally significant gains made by UTAS graduates in niche areas such as medicine, agriculture, oceanography, climate science, Antarctic studies, maritime engineering and information technology just to name a few. What an insult!
To be sure, UTAS hitched their wagon too strongly to the international student bandwagon. However, after the gains made during the Whitlam-era education-for-all approach, government funding has been steadily eroded forcing universities to seek funding elsewhere. Governments failing to prioritise education have also forced universities to increasingly casualise their workforce to cope with funding uncertainty.
As for moving into the city, Hobart’s CBD was already on its way to being a ghost town. It’s lively during business hours but the 5pm exodus means little stays open beyond that. I cannot see major corporations being convinced Hobart should be the location for their corporate HQ so the university’s interest in the CBD should be welcomed. Thousands of students and academics working in the city will provide greater impetus for the government and council to finally commit to the public and active transport improvements desperately needed.
With housing in such great demand and Tasmania likely to increase in popularity as a climate change refuge, the Sandy Bay site allows a wonderful blank canvas on which to re-imagine inner-suburban living.
Let’s proudly support our university and avoid insulting the high-quality graduates.
Clinton Garratt Lenah Valley
TIME FOR A PUBLIC DEBATE
Michael Foster (Mercury letters August 4) raises the issue of the university’s plan to move to the Hobart CBD.
He is concerned with what he regards as the arrogance of the university in refusing to consult with the community on the move.
In December 2018 at the AGM of the university’s Alumni we were given a presentation by the Vice Chancellor Rufus Black on the future growth of the university’s student numbers. At the end of this others and myself wanted to ask questions about the future direction of the university and the proposed move to the CBD from Sandy Bay. We were told by the convener that there were to be no questions. I made the point that if this were a meeting of shareholders there would be no doubt of the right to ask questions of the board. I supported then, as I do now, for a public meeting to get the full consultation which, at the time, the Vice Chancellor accepted.
I followed up my request in April 2020 asking for such a meeting. The reply reiterated that the university policy was set on moving to the CBD with no response to my call for consultation. My request still stands
John Livermore Former Dean. Faculty of Economics and Commerce