YOUR SAY: Why we don't have more electric trucks and buses on Tasmanian roads |
Electrifying transport
HUGH McDonald (The Examiner, Letters to the Editor, March 8) questions why Tasmania isn't further down the road to electrifying our heavy transport such as buses and trucks and the simple answer is money.
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The state government is broke and doesn't have the cash to pay for the electric buses, let alone the numerous fast charge stations etc needed, and it is busily selling off all the power it possibly can to the mainland so it can claim the dividends to try and bolster its flagging finances.
The fact that we export "green" power to Victoria who then uses it to market products produced with "green" power is bad enough, but to sell at discounted rates in comparison to what Tasmanians are charged is even worse.
Your dream of an electrified transport system, while we keep selling our soul to the mainland, is a pipe dream.
If Tasmania kept its power here and used it to entice businesses to set up here, who then provide extra income for the state, we may be able to afford the costs involved in converting the transport network.
But until Tasmanian power is used here and not sold to the mainland for pennies on the dollar, I don't see much hope. Remember, we have "Rockliff Stadium" to build and we need the money to make sure that happens.
Climate change and fixing the act
LAST week, a young man told me that he and his friends were unlikely to have children because climate change is such a threat.
Peter McGlone (The Examiner, March 8) explained the critical need for Tasmania to start reducing carbon emissions. The current review of the Climate Change Act is the opportunity to make the Act stronger, specifically to introduce legislated targets for a reduction in emissions across all sectors and organisations.
Premier Rockliff presented his State of the State 2026 report on March 3. While he referred to many important matters, he did not mention climate change at all. Neither did Josh Willie, Leader of the Opposition, in his reply.
This is why the Act must also legislate for an independent body to provide intelligence and advice to the government. Our young people depend upon it.
Janet Berry, Pipers Brook
WHAT will it take for our government to fulfil community wishes and spare forests like the ones in the Dial Range?
At this point, it appears that the inappropriately named agency "Sustainable Timber Tasmania", via our state government, tries to prove a point in the Dial Range. The agency seems to fear, if it favourably considers well-founded public and economic concerns, it could become an "inconvenient" precedent. One that could force this forest agency to finally act in the public interest and reconsider other environmentally unacceptable forest operations that don't meet community expectations or interests.
After 250 years, it is time to overcome our colonial economic habits and stop selling off all that is dear to our communities and everything that makes Tasmania so special and the most attractive island to visit or live on.
Nowadays it is essential for extractive industries to act and adapt to scientifically proven, critical environmental and climatic realities so we finally can create and live in a truly sustainable Tasmanian economy.
Should we still lose parts of the Dial Range forests to wood chips now, I suspect it is purely due to childish stubbornness of blinkered leaders clinging to the past, a past that has well and truly proven to be unsustainable.
Helmut Schwabe, Gunns Plains
Good character references
I MUST agree with Amelia Higgs, president of the Law Society of Tasmania. No legislative amendment is needed in Tasmania regarding good character references when sentencing procedures are underway.
As much as we empathise with the victims of sexual assault, to exact revenge on behalf of them is not one of the primary functions of the criminal justice system. Its procedures are not there simply to make victims feel better.
More important functions are to protect society, to deter criminal behaviour in the population, and to rehabilitate offenders.
Therefore, good character references are very relevant to sentencing, as they bear on how much society will need protection from the offender and how "rehabilitatable" they are. It makes a big difference whether we are dealing with a thorough psychopath or an out-of-character lapse.
And if a victim of crime is distressed at hearing how good an offender has been in their life in general, this is no reason the court should not hear it and take it into account.
Gary Bakker, Upper Rosevears
THE Examiner opinion page, March 10, goes in to bat for sharks with a comprehensive review of an upcoming kids' book about a juvenile great white pulled off the shore over Manly way and through sustained efforts by onlookers returned to its original habitat to live a normal existence.
With no direr warning than "without sharks, the entire ocean ecosystem would collapse" we are left in the dark to ponder, how come?
How can the difference of a big fish not eating a lot of smaller ones collapse the ocean's ecosystem, and not just make it a roomier place for sea dwelling life forms?
Noel Christensen, Launceston
ONCE again, I am pleased to see another article regarding the White Ribbon sponsored Metro bus advertising Prevent Violence Against Women.
However the now-disbanded Zonta Club of Launceston gave a large donation to enable this worthwhile project initially and this needs to be acknowledged.
The Zonta Club has supported many Launceston organisations during its 40 plus years of operation. Unfortunately declining numbers forced its closure last year.
Lynette Derrick, Norwood
Local action on childcare
ACCESS to affordable, accessible childcare remains a real challenge for many working families in Launceston and across Tasmania.
With limited places and rising fees, combined with cost-of-living pressures, many parents simply cannot work the hours they would like. For many households, this means underemployment and less income while everyday expenses continue to climb.
Rather than relying on another large national program, there is a strong case for practical, local solutions. Communities understand their needs far better than distant policymakers.
The experience of large, complex schemes such as the NDIS, projected to cost around $58 billion by 2028, shows how difficult and expensive national programs can become.
A local approach could make a real difference. By strengthening partnerships between councils, community organisations and childcare providers, we can expand capacity and support models that suit local families. Ideas such as shared community facilities, flexible care options or partnerships with local employers could increase availability while keeping costs manageable.
Better access to childcare supports families and benefits the whole community. When parents can work the hours they choose, household incomes rise, local spending increases and our regional economy grows stronger.
Kyle Barret, Waverley
Petroleum scarcity panic
THERE seems to be significant concern regarding Australia's reliance on imported fuel. However, it's important to highlight that Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and condensates extracted from natural gas wells are free and abundant, as they are by-products with their costs fully subsidized by the extracted gas.
Australia is in a strong position with access to LPG and condensate from gas wells. The panic surrounding our dependence on imported petrol, diesel, and jet fuel appears to be unfounded. We possess sufficient hydrocarbon by-products to power all of our machines.
David Hurburgh, Opossum Bay
Stadium at exhibition
JUST been to the Glover exhibition and this year the exhibits mostly look like landscapes!
Should anyone want to see what Rockliff's Folly (the stadium) might look like, just tootle off there and stand before one of the paintings. This inflated mushroom dominates the whole area and Hobart will have to live with it!
Maybe we should all club together and donate it to the Rockliff emporium so that it hits our premier in the eye and he can see what a monstrous mistake he is making! The artist has done a very good job!
Glennis Sleurink, Launceston
A SCAMMER is ringing disabled people wanting to offer an upgrade or new deal for Disabled Parking permits. Families and those with disabled clients need to warn them.
Advise them the action to take or what to say. Best action is to hang up. Block the phone number the scammer used.
Student accountability
UPON hearing the claims for parity of wages and conditions between all our frontline workers, no doubt appropriate, I believe an opportunity exists to merge the services of our police force and education department.
Where violence is threatened or carried out by any student against any member of the education community, the police should be called and interviews carried out. Hours of Junior Community Service should be sentenced depending on the behavior, and parents or guardians should be required to deliver and collect the offending student from community service or fines would be levied against the adult. Parents and guardians need to accept some responsibility for their children's behavior.
The hours sentenced would relate to the behaviour and the frequency: change your behaviour or do more community service.
In this way, we start changing violent delinquent behaviour during the school years rather than waiting until these students are on the streets behaving as we now see increasing in Tasmania and rampant throughout Victoria.
Yes, we would need more police, but surely this is a spend all Tasmanians would prioritise, and as an extra benefit we show our non offending students, teachers and principals we care for them.
Don't create a separate police department, use our frontline police to let everyone know we take this seriously. Just employ more police for this early intervention. I know there will be the usual responses about children's rights. These traditionally ignore the rights of everybody else. It's time to harden up.
Tony Bush, Launceston
GOD only knows how much of the $2bn annual budget for the ABC was spent on it, but whatever it was, to the last red cent was a total worthless squandering of hard-earned taxpayer money if the opening episode of Tonight At The Museum, March 6, was any indication.
It was, and I confidently say will remain so for ever, the worst heap of garbage ever seen on our television sets, and that includes every single garbage tip worldwide, not just local. My jaw remained permanently in the dropped position for the entire show as it opened lower than the Mariana Trench and for the entire length of the show hurtled in a vertical trajectory downwards, such was the sniggery schoolboy innuendo and double entendre dialogue, devoid of any semblance of good taste.
At its peak (wrong word, I know) the hostess and quartet panel came up with unfunny, puerile, juvenile chit-chat that no other program in history has remotely entertained as suitable material for a genuine crack at bone fide value-for-money TV production.
Like, check their seats for dampness when they ripped into kangaroos having three vaginas and, to keep the topic bubbling along, insects with vagina guards among other such revelations related to a museum.
It was so indescribably bad, I'm seeking to join what will certainly be masses of Australians in a joint action for damages to everything you can think of, and especially time wasting.
It was so bad I can't wait until next time when episode number 2 hits the screens, just to see how close they come to the benchmark set on debut.
But with the proviso I will only watch out of one eye... lest I get hooked.
Noel Christensen, Launceston
IT WILL be interesting to see if the state government is going to help Tamar Marine rebuild to get back into business.
In the interest of fairness, it should put in to assist them after fire destroyed jobs and business.
We Tasmanians are putting up majorly big money to prop up the AFL in Tasmania for a stadium, where the AFL is only coming up with about one per cent of the cost, also putting in 10 million dollars to partly fund a private conference centre for Errol Stewart, so it is only appropriate, if the government use the same guidelines as they have in these two projects, that they cough up some funds to get Tamar Marine back in business.
Or will they use the broken budget as an excuse not to? Time will tell.
Rocky Alder, Lulworth
WHY do humans repeat the same thoughtless behaviours? The destruction of wildlife and disrespect of its vital importance in the health of ecosystems is repeated ad nauseam.
Year on year, in Tassie wetlands, the annual duck shooting season returns. It began this week, and with it, the calling-out of the banning of the slaughter of these water fowl by those who understand that the survival of animal, bird and flora species is dependent on humans' willingness to act to change their attitude and behaviour.
There are eleven species of native ducks as well as swans. Such beautiful gentle creatures who contribute to ecosystem health in waterways and wetlands, lakes, dams and sea shores should be protected.
There are always voices raised by the shooters, supported politically, who have no need to be hunters and gatherers for food. Their defence of having the right to access food from the land, waters and sky at any cost is impossible to accept when so many species are struggling to survive.
It is time the cruel maiming and slaughter of these feathered creatures stopped. Let us remember how once our beautiful native hens were hunted almost into extinction. Tassie's thylacine extinction should be a sage warning. We are living in a time of a planetary extinction crisis. Let's change the rules and end the shooting of native species for sport.
Rocelyn Ives, West Launceston
Moving up on $30 million
AT NO time during the information deluge that accompanied the news that our theatre, The Princess, would be renovated were we told that $30 million was a starting point.
Those in charge of this project have been aware from day one the Hydro sub-station had to be moved. I have asked where it was going - nobody knew.
I'm sure if our council had told us, the ratepayers and local residents, what the ultimate costs would be there would have been a huge uproar. I expect that's why we were kept in the dark. Maybe that uproar may have changed the results of the last council election. While I have no concerns with individual councilors, when they get together the results are, to say the least, chaotic and often not in the public interest.
Ron Baines, Kings Meadows
I AM very disappointed in Virgin Airlines service.
My partner has mobility issues and needed a wheelchair on a recent flight. Virgin was advised beforehand. We came into Launceston airport. We were last off the plane and had to wait a long time for them to get a wheelchair.
She got into a wheelchair, was pushed down a ramp, then had to change into another wheelchair.
I followed with coats and bags. She was pushed off the tarmac to just inside the terminal doors.
The attendant left her there and headed back to the plane. With difficulty, I had to manage wheelchair, coats and bags for a considerable distance through the terminal.
Carl Storay, Westbury
DOES refurbishment mean carpeting of the hall? Nobody has contradicted this. I repeat, what service is responsible for changing the recreation ground and the health centre, giant cricket stumps, pillars for chariot races? If they don't increase ratepayer expenditure, they certainly offer them nothing.
It is a huge space for a council meeting. Perhaps to include a larger audience? With new visual equipment, the meetings may be televised. There's even room for a brass band. Or maybe they'll make do with a lone piper. The councillors may have to check their makeup is appropriate.
Is this really okay with the present history group? It would not have been okay with the founding group.
Are councillors unaware of the letter written by the general manager (September 29, 2025) to the effect that the Garden Club should plan on the booking for 2025 to be the last?
I think this will be a security nightmare.
Lexie Brient, Westbury
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