Bread and circuses for the bored

ROMAN emperors knew “bread and circuses” were necessary because a hungry or bored population was the stuff of revolution.

The desire of our emperor for a local AFL circus comes at the cost of $1m a game. Sponsorship aside, the AFL business model sees the commission selling broadcast rights and clubs requiring 30,000 home-game spectators.

Launceston stadium rarely reaches its 14,000-seat capacity, although its central location attracts more than Hobart. Smaller teams, like the prospective Tassie team, transfer their home games against popular clubs like Essendon and Collingwood to collect the revenue from 80,000 fans. As an existing AFL state, Tasmanian games are of no benefit to advertisers, and the 12 clubs being subsidised by the AFL are unwilling to further divide the pie. That is why our emperor wants us to pay for a circus we already watch for free. Tony Mulder

Howrah

BOOZE SNOBBERY

TO read David Penberthy (Sunday Tasmanian, September 12) dump judgmental garbage on the heads of those struggling with substance addiction was upsetting. He mocks that “doing lines [of cocaine] is as acceptable as picking up a six-pack of classy imported lager”. Therein lies the problem with a perspective that glorifies alcohol as harmless and desirable yet vilifies other drugs and drug users. I’m not antidrinking. I’m anti-snobbery, and there was so much in his poorly written opinion piece.

Addiction is a sad situation for the individual and families, and the “poor old meth heads” he looks so disparagingly at are somebody’s partner, or child or parent.

Mike Radburn

Sandy Bay

VIRAL ROAD-TOLL TACTICS

I WRITE in response to “Let’s get smart on road safety” (Mercury Editorial, September 14). The comparison between Covid and road safety response was thought-provoking, the parallels stark. Road trauma, like Covid, is a public health issue putting lives at risk. And like the response to Covid, we need the community to play its part. Collectively we must all take precautions to prevent others falling acutely sick and dying.

With Covid and road trauma there is tension between individual freedoms and community welfare. We can’t act out of self-interest and not expect to be caught in mutually destructive behaviour.

Media reports of the few people escaping quarantine are akin to the reports of high-end speeders and drink-drivers. Both are high-risk behaviours that put others at risk. But stopping the spread of Covid is not just a matter of quarantining those at high risk, it’s about all of us taking precautions ... social distancing,

checking in, wearing masks, washing hands and getting vaccinated.

Similarly, if all the drivers on our roads speed just one or two kilometres over the limit, have a lapse in attention or drink and drive, our roads become high-risk to all of us.

Most road trauma is not the result of extreme behaviour, in the same way as most Covid cases are not contracted from the few quarantine escapees. It’s making mistakes, poor judgment, thinking it’s OK to be just a bit over.

Tasmania’s road toll is the worst of any state. The response to Covid has proven what can happen when a community is united and committed to doing what must be done.

Scott Tilyard Road Safety Advisory Council

FORESTRY FOR THE FUTURE

I INVITE Craig Brown (Letters, September 15) to take a fresh look at the benefits of forestry for the

environment. Timber is a natural, biodegradable, affordable and practical material. Harvesting and regenerating forestry is recognised by the IPCC as beneficial for carbon sequestration.

When considering benefits of forestry to the environment, we need to ask how much plastic is kept from our waste streams by using forest products? How much better for the environment is wood than steel, aluminium and concrete, and how much better for the environment are timber floors than carpet, vinyl and tiles? Alternatives to forest products produce significant carbon, are non-renewable, do not break down and/or contain plastics and chemicals. Forestry is the opposite. It stores carbon, is renewable, biodegradable and natural.

Our industry is easy to criticise as we cut down trees, and that is done in plain sight, but we also grow them, millions every year, and the reasons for this are all around us, timber is in our homes, workplaces and lives every day.

Native logging continues as it is only a small part of the industry (more than 91 per cent of old growth protected). However, it remains an important part for specialty timbers and hardwood oak. It is in such demand that if we don’t produce it here, on island, we would have to import it.

Attitudes to forestry are changing and the world is seeking sustainable forest products as part of the environmental solution. Our critics need to take a fresh look.

Nick Steel Tas. Forest Products Association

INSINCERE COMPLAINT

I BELIEVE that if ex-mayor Dean Winter and now Mayor Paula Wriedt were sincere in their accusations of sexism and threatening behaviour against Councillor David Grace, in an unrecorded closed workshop, then they should have engaged the Tasmanian Antidiscrimination Commissioner and called the police to engage the relevant Acts of law and the due government-funded and impartial processes to examine the claims. The fact they and the general manager did not do so speaks considerably of their insincerity.

The code of conduct, which is under review, and the Kingborough Council are obsolete, in that our rates and taxes are being absorbed in distracting issues of concocted victimhood rather than supporting the welfare and development of services to the ratepayers.

It is time for this state government to examine the dysfunctionality of councils that ratepayers cannot afford.

Julian Punch Longley