Weak and ill-informed: Letters, 1 June

The Bay of Plenty Times welcomes letters and comments from readers. Here you can read the letters we have published in your newspaper today.

Rena captain only pawn in compo claim

A truck driver working the night shift miscalculates whilst taking a sharp bend, mounts the kerb hits a wall, writes off his truck and spills his cargo across the highway but, fortunately, without incurring any casualties.

In due course he is brought before the courts and duly fined for driving without due care and attention, a civil offence.

Clearly, the corporate team at The Trucking Co Ltd, share some culpability and if only in their own interest, need to take a good hard look at their recruiting and training policies.

Now witness the plight of the captain of the Rena, equally negligent for a similar offence, differing only in its scale.

Jailed the moment he came ashore then bailed and now sentenced to a prison term, branded a common criminal, a pawn in an international compo claim.

Geoff Garrett, Otumoetai

Reef beacon

I really do have to make a comment on John Perham's letter in Tuesday's edition.

Apart from being quite obvious that he has spent little time at sea, his comments are at the very least weak and ill-informed.

Was he indeed on the bridge to have made these observations?

The rock, being submerged - it was high tide remember and there being insignificant swell - would barely have painted a mark on a radar screen and could have been any number of slight anomalies that radars are prone to.

They did at least try to identify the trace and could see nothing. They would have been looking for small and poorly lit craft. They saw none.

Okay, they were off course and we all know that but I know that they would not have been "strolling around the bridge on to the bridge wing". There would have been an electric air of attention as there always is in this situation and because of that the AB who could have helped avoid the collision was a little apprehensive about concerning the captain with information he considered to be irrelevant.

So there we are: an accident waiting to happen and how many times have vessels only just missed it?

We will never know.

Mind you, a beacon on the rock would remove any doubt and it would be miles cheaper than what we now have.

Richard Lacey, Katikati

Aged care crisis

Another report comes out in the media once again raising the indisputable fact that we are failing our elderly in their homes and the community.

Equal employment opportunities commissioner Dr Judy McGregor went undercover in the elderly care industry, and her report showed nearly all the workers were women, earning $14 an hour, something McGregor says must change. In less than 10 years New Zealand will need 70 per cent more workers and it already loses a quarter of its care staff a year.

It is disrespectful of older people themselves that those who care for them are paid and treated so poorly.

I recall a report done (2010) by Green Party Labour Party Grey Party. Winnie Laban and Sue Kedgley travelled New Zealand, talking to people in their homes and communities about the quality of care they received.

Problems raised - chronic staff shortages, low wages, lack of training, extremely high staff turnover - and this affects the quality of care our elderly receive.

Was this investigated or just shelved by the Government?

The findings in both reports show clearly that the aged care sector is in crisis and has been for a long time.

Dr Judy McGregor found that out first hand in her inquiry.

G McIsaac, Ohauiti

Maori madness

The Nelson, Marlborough District Health Board, appears to be planning to get the retirement age for Maori down to 60 because Maori die younger than European due to chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.

This is more than outrageous - it's madness. What more do the Maori want from the rest of New Zealand? Land, money and early retirement and us as their slaves enabling this to happen, because the rest of us New Zealanders will have to work longer hours to support the lifestyle in which they are growing accustomed.

Teach nutrition in schools instead of putting the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff? It's all about food choices.

It's poor diet that causes the diseases in the first place and if they keep visiting the fast-food premises and eating that sort of junk, full of fat and calorie rich foods, why should anyone else pay for it?

Do these brain-challenged people proposing this not realise that heart disease and diabetes is not confined to Maori. All races are prone to these diseases, of which stress is also a leading factor in heart disease. What more shall we do? Rock them to sleep at night?

A Taylor, Tauranga

Lessons to learn

Even the best spin doctor won't convince me that increasing class sizes is good news.

Education should be a number one priority in any country but especially one without vast mineral resources to balance the books.

Our greatest asset will always be the developed brainpower of our population and the education budget should be the last to face cuts in a time of recession.

We need more and better-paid teachers so that our school leavers are the best educated of all countries.

The teaching profession should be one that our brightest students aspire to and we should make it worth their while to do so.

John Douglas, Mount Maunganui