Wrong time to upgrade - Letters, 3/11/2011

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

Recession is wrong time to upgrade waterfront

Like many others I certainly support an eventual upgrade of the Tauranga waterfront but I do not believe that this is the correct time to commence what will potentially be a major and very expensive project involving, besides the upgrade of the waterfront, the relocation of 300 carparks, all at a considerable cost.

The negative of undertaking partial improvements at this time is that there is nothing to guarantee that future improvements will not have to result in the removal of work already undertaken as we have seen from council repeatedly in the past. Rather than commencing a major new project, the council and councillors should be accepting that this country is still suffering from the effects of the global financial crisis along of course with the Christchurch earthquake rebuilding costs, which both add to costs of finance and affect ratepayers.

Closer to home ratepayers will obviously be affected, even if only to a smaller degree, by the Rena costs and to a greater degree the devastating Psa disease that has hit our kiwifruit industry.

This is a time for council to consolidate and not a time to announce expensive new projects and undertake them on a piecemeal basis which will ultimately add to future cost.

MIKE BAKER, Bethlehem

No to asset sales

I am not in favour of asset sales. Do you remember when Telecom was sold for $4.5 billion? Does anyone recall seeing any of that money? If not, where did it go?

The main thing to remember with asset sales is that they do not belong to the Government, but to us, the people, so why would we want them sold when we already own them and be hoodwinked into then buying shares in our own assets that some stupid politicians have decided to sell on our behalf. God save us from these fools.

It makes more sense to me to own 100 per cent than 51 per cent.

BRUCE CLARK, Omokoroa

Electricity prices

Labour's "No Asset Sales" slogan implies that National's assets sales via the "mixed ownership model" of our energy companies will be detrimental to consumers.

Labour's slogan infers that Kiwis will lose control of these assets and that electricity prices will rise. The Labour Party's mantra also implies that keeping 100 per cent ownership of these SOE's within the state's assets will ensure stable electricity pricing.

The facts are, that under the Helen Clark government, retail electricity prices rose by 72 per cent over nine years.

Labour's Minister of Energy at the time was David Parker, a current member of Goff's front bench.

Why did electricity prices rise so rapidly under Parker's watch?

Struggling consumers and pensioners complained loudly to both the power companies and the Minister but the government were coining massive profits so chose to ignore their community's hardship pleas. So much for Goff's insinuation that a Labour Government can be trusted to keep electricity prices down.

MAX LEWIS, Mount Maunganui

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