With $750 million committed to Hobart's waterfront stadium, we now look forward to Premier Jeremy Rockliff delivering for the most popular participation sport in Tasmania.
To have the Premier, the Member for Braddon with his office in Devonport, home to the all-conquering NPL and Lakoseljac Cup winners, Devonport City Strikers, who played the A League's Wellington Phoenix during August provides us impetus to strike. There has been no bigger game in recent Tasmanian soccer history, and it was right in the heart of Mr Rockliff's electorate.
There is no more prudent investment than spending money on junior sporting facilities.
The University of Tasmania (Thomas, Cruickshank, and Patterson) longitudinal study of Tasmanian primary schools from 2009 to 2019 found that, “…regardless of size, there was a direct correlation between a school’s relative educational advantage and its success in running carnivals. The richer they were, the faster they ran.”
They are accused of 'loading up' on alcohol before the game. This makes sense because mid-strength beer served at the MCG on a cold autumn evening is more likely to cause long lines at the toilets rather than fights.
But, if football codes don't act quickly and bring behaviour under control, I know where it ends.
Segregated crowds have been part of association football for decades, particularly across Europe.
Long before a Jack Jumper was a franchise and when teams of the black biting ants were more likely to require an EpiPen than hoops, Launceston's YMCA provided the boards for junior basketball.
Primary school basketball was huge in the 1980s with kids introduced by a small number of teachers who held a love of the game.
If I was a betting man and odds were available, there would be coin to be made on the date of Australia Day changing during my lifetime.
Of course, I have hopes for a long life, but I do not study the form placing me at a disadvantage when predicting worthwhile punting opportunities, however, I feel it in my bones.
This is not a sign of disrespect, rather, Australia Day is a relatively new concept and the young people of our nation, our next leaders, are much better at acknowledging the past.
Leave it out! Use idioms to press your case, but do not take us for idiots. The Tasmanian public is thankful that politicians are asking questions and holding the state and federal governments to account.
We have stakeholders in empty bars telling us not to overreact as restaurants close due to a lack of staff.
There are cafes and eateries resorting to takeaway service because they dare not risk exposure.
Thankfully, the Premier has chosen to be more circumspect, prefacing most sentences with, "I don't wish to sugar coat it".
Fifteen years ago, the saying, ‘boys will be boys’ frightened me – it still does. The saying was employed in a way that was not about climbing trees, or ruling the neighborhood on your BMX; rather, it was a justification for hard-drinking and womanising and belting the living suitcases out of each other when fuelled by alcohol. It was at the pub, or on a sporting field where tightly enclosed groups of blokes developed aggressiveness far beyond ‘white-line fever’.
When I spoke up about this, arguing against the timeworn justification, I was often met, ironically, with anger and sighs of frustration as my view was considered destructive to the confidence of males and the reason why we were having so many problems with discipline in our schools and communities…
Blaming teachers, which is essentially what the South Australian Labor policy is about, is seductive for government's because it presents as a budget-friendly solution to the problem of Australia's sliding student performance. The "teacher quality" debate conveniently takes the focus from cuts and underfunding that would not be countenanced by any other public service. For example, when was the last time you heard "doctor quality" as the reason for ramping at emergency departments of our hospitals?
Or what about a bad fire season being blamed on "firefighter quality"?
As Southern Tasmania sadly descended into a three-day lock-down, I was reminded of one positive of the lock-down during 2020 – the opportunity to slow down.
The news of stay-at-home orders travelled fast with grocery store aisles filling quickly as non-perishables and the need to stock up on an endless supply of toilet paper like it was the height of a gastro outbreak were rapidly depleted across local stores.
The long lines of traffic waiting to park coupled with trolleys tailgating checkout queues and the resultant empty shelves were predictable, but also sad and difficult to watch as the reality of heading back into lock-down hit the punters of Southern Tasmania long before the Premier made his announcement.
My favourite Australian sporting team is the Matildas - footballers who have inspired a generation both male and female to take up the world game. They are supremely talented, tactically advanced, and have a team spirit and determination second to none.
And even when the Matildas lose, they win with even more supporters proud to don the green and gold in recognition of their efforts.
To watch them on the world stage is a privilege and, as a result, legions of followers quickly snap up merchandise with Sam Kerr’s shirt atop the list closely followed by Hayley Rasso, Caitlin Foord, Kyah Simon, Ellie Carpenter, Emily van Egmond, and, new sensation, Mary Fowler not far behind.
No one should be naive enough to believe that some young people between the ages of 12 and 19 are incapable of making criminal decisions that deserve consequence. Yet, research tells us that youth incarceration simplistically delivers one certainty - an undergraduate transition program to adult prison.
Premier Peter Gutwein deserves credit for making the decision, following revelations heard during Budget Estimates and during a private meeting. Back at the start of the century Attorney General Judy Jackson made a very similar decision. Willow Court was closed in 2000, and The Royal Derwent Hospital soon followed ceasing operation 2001. They were once described as insane or mental asylums or even further back, lunatic asylums.
William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, Prince of Denmark between 1599-1601, over 400 years ago.
One of the most famous lines, an idiom, was "I must be cruel only to be kind" - where the young Prince scolds his mother, Gertrude, instructing her not to sleep with her new husband to save the honour of his late father.
The Prince of Denmark was attempting to be compassionate to his mother and loyal to his father after regretfully killing the father of his love instead of his new stepfather.
His cruelty was misplaced. It is important to reiterate, Hamlet was penned more than 400 years ago
There is a level of frustration and passion bordering on anger that inevitably bubbles to the surface when I read that families are threatening educators at schools across Tasmania in record numbers.
Verbal and physical aggression often born of frustration are not responses appropriate to environments determined to model and build community. In fact, they are not appropriate in most environments.
Fight for your kids, but do not fight those desperate to make a difference - our teachers and support staff.
You are not UFC legend Conor McGregor; you are your child's partner in education and along with love this partnership is the most important role you will ever play.
Nonetheless, the industry faces a complicated future.
They acknowledge the challenges ahead.
As a result of the book, they now have reputational damage to manage, and a well-oiled environment machine, thirsty to mobilise, that may impact their operations.
From the dam wars to the forestry wars and now, potentially, the salmon wars, this Tasmanian conflict is a well-trodden path and if not handled properly will lead to one certainty – bitter divisions that last for generations.
There is an exclusive Sydney based institution known as the Australian Club where captains of industry, politics, and influence gather to enjoy each other's company.
Members can invite female guests, but females cannot be members themselves. The Australian Club was founded in 1838 enabling businessmen to meet, unwind, and cogitate the issues of the day.
In Tasmania, our public schools will not reach 100 per cent of the SRS under the bilateral agreement signed by state and federal Liberal governments until 2027.
Every independent and Catholic school across Tasmania is already at that standard.
More than 70 per cent of Tasmanian students attend public schools, yet these schools attract 10 per cent less funding than their private counterparts.
Can you even begin to imagine if private hospitals received 10 per cent more funding year on year than the public system?
But thousands of years before European settlement the plangermairreenner, plindermairhemener, and tonenerweenerlarmenneclans (Ben Lomond tribe) called the mountain turbunna.
Hauntingly, following colonisation, it became a region synonymous with murder, dispossession, the Black Line, and "black catching".
Learn to "love the mud" is an answer if the estuary was not the economic lifeblood of the city.
For amenity and to support development, businesses, and recreation providers who we have encouraged to invest, the state and federal governments must reinstate a dredging program as a community service.
Frankly, learn to love the mud is akin to saying learn to love the cold should the City of Launceston council decide to stop heating the regional aquatic centre because it is too expensive.
When considering the historical and cultural issues associated with apparent retention of full-time students to year 12, the latest Productivity Commission report tells us that catholic and independent schools (63.8 per cent), despite significant federal and state government funding on top of weighty fees, are unable to retain students at the same rate as their public counterparts (80.4 per cent).
Conceivably it is the diversity of public college offerings and the critical mass of students that drives retention success. And when you add part-time students to the equation with Tasmania having a higher proportion due to caring and work responsibilities, apparent public college retention has hovered around the 80 per cent mark for a decade.
