Time to put and end to racing
SO Racing Minister Jane Howlett is banging on again about her love for the racing “industry” while it implodes all around her.
It’s like Caligula cheerfully enthusing from the stands about the carnage in the Colosseum.
Genuine animal lovers look forward to the inevitable day when these so-called entertainments are consigned to history, along with bear baiting and cock fighting.
Even the leaders of the racing clubs acknowledged (on ABC radio on Friday morning) that many in the younger generation take a dim view of horse and dog racing because of the inherent welfare issues. That’s where the excitable Ms Howlett should perhaps focus more energy and attention. Deborah Fleming OAM
Cygnet
MAKE THE SWITCH
SAD to hear of a house fire in Moonah on Thursday (Mercury, Fri, Sep 3) that was started by a light bulb. Luckily the fire brigade was able to prevent extensive damage or a total loss.
This is a timely reminder for owners, tenants and landlords to change all incandescent and halogen light bulbs to efficient and cooler-running LED globes. These can be retrofitted to all common socket styles and voltages without having to replace entire light assemblies. Other than in rare applications and ovens, filament and halogen globes should all be replaced.
I have two filament bulbs – in the oven.
Paul Merhulik Blackmans Bay
CUT THE SMOKE
Great excitement: spring is here! Hold it! No reason for celebration. That means cloudy smoke-filled days will return, thanks to Tas forestry. Hope not many fires get out of control again, as in the Derwent Valley last autumn. Wouldn’t it be lovely to experience just one sunny, still, windless day in Tasmania this year, so Tasmanians could really breathe in fresh, smoke-free air? Especially since we’ve been confined to the state, without a chance to travel abroad for practically two years now. That would really define a genuine fresh-air deal for Tasmania.
Anne Francis
Sandy Bay
ELECTRIC DREAMS
So the Greens and the other government parties are promising incentives to people who purchase electric cars to help with environment – where have I heard that before? Oh, that’s right, it was incentives for installing solar panels for the same reason and we know what happened there, they removed some incentives and reduced the rebates to next to nothing. It was a smack in the face with
a wet and smelly sock, nothing less. My advice to electric car owners, further down the track they will find a way to rip you off as well, that’s for sure and certain.
Geoff Kennedy
Claremont
DODGY DECISION
THERE is a terrible irony in Cricket Australia communicating with the brutal Taliban regimen in Afghanistan to arrange a game of cricket in Hobart on November 27, when the dust hasn’t yet settled from the desperate withdrawal of American and ADF members and civilians, witnessed so graphically on our televisions only days ago!
There are still hundreds, if not thousands of individuals still trapped in Kabul and other places in Afghanistan, fearful for their lives and their future if they cannot escape from the Taliban – while Tasmania is planning on having a game of cricket with privileged Afghans who apparently have the
freedom to come and go at will!
Sport is victorious yet again, it would seem, while human suffering is swept under the rug of indifference and complacency.
Where is our collective moral and social conscience when sport holds such sway and takes priority over addressing human suffering? Sue Carlyon
Kingston
GIVE GREENE A BREAK
I think the AFL and Tribunal got it wrong with Toby Greene. During this year the AFL players have been put through the wringer, given twice what they would ordinarily have to endure and have trained and travelled and played and been torn away from their families under extreme circumstances. Toby simply expressed his total frustration and, yes, anger to an umpire over a match decision that could have robbed GWS of further progressing in the finals.
After all they have had to put up with, and now the umpiring in some instances having even left the broadcasters scratching their heads. One decision in the dying minutes of the Bulldogs game was blatantly wrong, and players need better standards; it is a hard, tough sport putting your whole year on the line, and wrong decisions should not happen in finals.
Gary Gillies Geilston Bay
LEFT HIGH AND DRY
The Huon Valley couple stranded in Sydney have every right to question the Premier (Mercury, September 2). This couple and many others have been denied access back home to Tasmania with the lack of quarantine beds being the excuse but like a Christmas miracle enough rooms suddenly appeared allowing the Tasmanian government to accept and quarantine 150 returning Australians from Great Britain. Premier Gutwein also stated that it is likely that the Covid Delta strain will arrive with them. What deals have been done to give these people priority over fellow Tasmanians?
Randall Corney Acton Park
THE DOGS OF WAR
We are talking of the people various countries have evacuated from Afghanistan and the ones sadly left behind, but no one talks about the dogs who helped the military and probably saved numerous lives by their detection of explosives. It seems, as with the interpreters, we use people and animals up when it suits then spit them out when they are no longer useful. Shameful! I hope as many handlers as possible were evacuated with their furry saviours!
Glennis Sleurink Launceston