Dear Premier and Mr Jaensch

I am appalled at the latest news coming out of TMAG with now a further two senior curators being asked to compete for the same job. I do not know who is making these decisions but they obviously have no idea of what these jobs consist of, and the qualifications required to deliver them. This is in addition to the axing of Dr Jean Jarman and Dr Gintaras Kantvilas at the Herbarium, once again both highly qualified and specialised curators.

I write this as a former State public servant in the Premier’s department, in the Department of State Growth and an employee of TMAG. After my retirement in 2007 I started as a volunteer at the Museum as I could see that I could make a contribution to office duties and document entry as the staff there had no chance or time to do this work but it is important work to keep the records up to date and to put on the digital system.

The way I see it the museum may as well close altogether as it will certainly not have the trained and qualified staff to keep it in the manner, required by State law, that it should be kept. 

Would you ask a doctor and an engineer to do the same job? This is what you are asking highly trained staff and curators (plus their volunteers and interns) to do as a result of these (and presumably further) positions being axed. There will be no other jobs for these people in Tasmania so, once again, valuable people will be lost to Tasmania.

Yours faithfully

Pam Stewart