Caring for those who need help
THE Presentation Sisters in Tasmania have continued to show their preferential option for those in need by donating 3ha at Blackmans Bay for affordable housing. They keep alive the spirit of Nano Nagle, their founder, who responded to the poor and needy of Cork, Ireland, through practical assistance in education and social services. This legacy, that started 250 years ago in a faraway country, continues to address the disparities in our society that leave people without such basics as reasonably priced accommodation.
The 40 properties to be built on the Maryknoll site will assist some on the lengthening public waiting list and those involved in the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Hopefully, this benevolent gesture will stimulate the government into funding more affordable housing projects as a matter of justice for the citizens of Tasmania most in need — it is their right and our responsibility.
Ed Sianski West Moonah
GREEDY SNOUTS
REGARDING Peter Chapman and the Tasmanian Constitutional Society’s regular missives about restoring the House of Assembly to 35 seats, he needs to extract three commitments from the parliament, before he can expect widespread public sympathy to the cause.
(1) The current total salary bill does not increase. That is, the current MPs must take a pay cut to cover the pay of extra members.
(2) At least three advisers per ministry are made redundant. With extra MPs you don’t need so many unelected unaccountable advisers.
(3) As the most over-governed state, there is commitment to merge 29 councils to three — one for each old telephone area code.
Without that, the public will see the campaign as just more greedy snouts in the trough.
Stephen Zvillis
Granton
FISH FARM REGULATION
JULIAN Amos claims “the industry has been on notice forever: it runs under a very strict regulatory regime run by the government.” (Mercury, October 10). And therein lies the problem. Government regulation is not strict. Its regulatory regime for the salmon industry is proving as weak and as environmentally destructive as it proved to be with forestry.
Forestry is another controversial government-run industry and one that has been a constant drain on the public purse for decades. It has resulted in environmental destruction, social division and harm. Both industries might be valuable to the economy but they must be more realistically managed.
We are a small island with a globally recognised and valued natural environment. How foolish to damage that priceless asset. The salmon and forestry industries would be more profitable if run as boutique businesses able to claim a high price for their niche products. Big isn’t always beautiful, in Tasmania’s case that’s certainly so. Why risk our clean green reputation for greedy short-term profit and environmental degradation? It’s stupidity on steroids. We are very poorly served by an irresponsible, unintelligent government risking our economic future.
Anne Layton-Bennett
Swan Bay
NATIONALS NAME CHANGE
NOW Barnaby Joyce has resumed leadership of the Nationals, he ought to change its name back to the Country Party. The case for this name change was well fortified by Barnaby himself when his daughter was recently and nastily trolled on social media. Understandably, it affected him so he instantly placed social media regulation on the National’s agenda because it was only then that it became important to him. Such self-interest drives National Party thinking and policy disposition. The Nationals have always been a non-urban interest group and will never be any more than that.
David Tyrrell Primrose Sands
ESSENTIAL SERVICES
WHY has the government reduced the provision of essential health facilities (“Therapy pool win,” Mercury, October 9) and other infrastructure announcements to photo events by politicians, with funding given out like lollies at party election time? Planning and provision of essential facilities should be based on analysis and need. We should not have to wait for the next election. It is the job of government to plan for and provide essential health facilities and services every day. This haphazard planning has caused the disabled and mobility impaired, requiring medically prescribed rehabilitation, to wait years for the replacement of the government’s Douglas Parker Hydrotherapy Pool.
There is growing need for more hydrotherapy facilities. Glenorchy Barossa Lodge 20m Hydrotherapy Pool is to be dismantled after just five years, due to lack of government preventative health support. Janiece Bryan
Montrose
MOUNTAIN HERITAGE
THANKS to reader Angela McGowan (Letters, October 4) for bringing to light the importance of the wonderful colonial-era logging complex on kunanyi/Mount Wellington. Information remains sketchy and the complex is poorly understood, but it’s pretty well impossible to walk off-track on the lower slopes on the Eastern face of the mountain without stumbling across remains. There has been no comprehensive survey to document these nationally significant remains. Until such a survey is done, it’s impossible to plan future developments on the mountain without risking heritage damage. Maria Grist
Hobart
MORE CUDDLES AND HUGS
OF course we use zoom to speak to our families interstate but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to hug our new grandchild and our other grandchildren, see our children and their partners.
Jan Smith Blackmans Bay