Housing not all or nothing
It's sad to see the heritage versus housing conundrum presented as an all-or-nothing debate in Saturday's (June 25) Weekend Herald. Nothing is that simple. So-called "nimbys" have children and grandchildren who need housing. Do all younger people striving to own property have no interest in our built heritage?
Sadly, Oscar Sims, from Coalition for More Homes, does not, dismissing inner-city Freeman's Bay and Ponsonby as being poorly built, so unworthy of Special Character protections. Surely, we need to preserve the whole range of built heritage that tells our story. Great cities protect their heritage housing: Paddington in Sydney, most of inner London and Paris. Sims also disparages substantial housing intensification in Mt Roskill and Avondale, saying people want to live closer to the city. But that's the best place for affordable family housing — close to schools and recreation opportunities.
Destroying inner-city heritage homes, allowing up to seven storeys in St Mary's Bay will not produce affordable housing due to high land values. At Wynyard Quarter, most apartments are bolt-holes for the well-healed.
The Auckland Unitary Plan makes provision for up to 900,000 new dwellings in the next 30 years. There is no need to irrevocably decimate our world-renown wooden heritage suburbs. It's perfectly possible to preserve a good deal of it, along with well-planned intensification for more affordable homes.
Helen Geary, St Mary's Bay.
High-rise distress
Margot McRae (Weekend Herald, June 25) drew attention to the pending fate of heritage housing in Auckland. Despite the effort and turmoil of the 2016 AUP and its apparent suitability for decades, council opposition to its overturning seems to have been muted.
Council did not early on adequately draw ratepayers' attention to government proposals. Action would likely have prompted and enabled citizens to more effectively challenge the Government. For many, the fate of special character housing, about the only aspect possibly open to compromise, will be the least of their worries. Few live in or regularly traverse the affected streets. The greatest distress will be experienced by citizens everywhere when three, six, or more storey blocks arise a metre away on one or all of their boundaries.
Bob Culver, Avondale
Health worker shortage
Samantha Cunningham (NZ Herald, June 24), writing about overload in the health system, fails to talk about the number of cancer and other health-related deaths as a result of the closure of hospital outpatient clinics, mammograms, colonoscopies, and other outpatient procedures, as this Government turned a blind eye to shortages of doctors and nurses. It's all very well to talk about the hospital chaos averted during lockdowns, but now, many nurses and doctors are experiencing burnout, leaving hospitals short-staffed, patients in corridors, and dying because they cannot be seen in time. GPs are also leaving in huge numbers, making it hard sometimes to find a doctor.
Robin Harrison, Takapuna.
Nato/EU diplomacy
John Roughan recommends that Nato must stick together. Nato/EU has no other choice. In mid-March, President Putin effectively told the collective West Russia had no further interest in them. Since then, there has been a large amount of diplomatic and technical work put into harmonising the East Asia Economic Union, the Shanghai Co-operation Agreement, and Brics. Russia and China have their own operating interbank messaging systems which are being harmonised to replace Swift. Work is being put into preparing a common trading currency outside the US dollar. Africa and the Middle East, although nominally neutral, largely lean towards Moscow judging by their actions. These groups combined have no need of anything from Nato/EU, but the latter cannot survive without the former because of their control of commodities. What has brought these disparate countries and cultures together against the collective West? Essentially, Nato/EU no longer does diplomacy.
Blinken, Truss, et al, just march into another country and make demands. That no longer works against Russia, China, India, Saudi Arabia, UAE etc, and is resented by others on the receiving end who consider that they have been bullied and belittled. Countries "without the law" still have skilled diplomats who can negotiate without infuriating the other.
G.N.Kendall, Rothesay Bay.
Political funding
The reversal of Wade v Roe (effectively outlawing abortion in the US) is part of a reactionary tide sweeping the country. Sheldon Whitehouse, senator for Rhode Island, explained how the law changes that permitted "Dark Money" — or secret "charitable groups" through which rich donors could anonymously support Supreme Court candidates as well as nominations for the Senate and the House, would ensure what are politely called "conservatives'' would be elected.
It is by these meansthe will of the vast majority of the people in areas such as women's rights and gun control can be frustrated. The capturing of the Supreme Court by these groups could mean moves by the Republican Party to limit voting rights in many states will not be struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. It is vital we seek the utmost transparency in political funding in New Zealand.
Bob van Ruyssevelt, Glendene.
Invest in productivity
With house prices in decline, the euphoria which fuelled domestic economic activity is now lost as attention reverts to our exporters to extricate us from a possible downturn and create true wealth for the nation's good, instead of house price increases, that "feel good" factor. For so long we have been fixated with over-capitalised housing as a secondary investment vehicle. Instead, we should divert attention, invest in and strengthen the productive sector, to secure real prosperity and ensure businesses thrive and remain in local ownership and not held hostage to foreign takeover.
P. J.Edmondson, Tauranga.
Pressure building
Can we please stop being told, by everyone from Andrew Little down, that the system is "under pressure"? This lazy fudge of a situation is cleverly intended to distract us from finding out what the actual problem is. The listener's temporary discombobulation gives the speaker time to side-track on to some irrelevant self-edifying remarks intended to falsely convey that it's only an imagined problem. Finally, we are given prolonged descriptions of how the whole issue is mainly caused by misconceptions among the people who voiced concerns, blaming the messengers. We managed to banish the linguistic abomination "at the end of the day"; can we please now work on banishing this fatuous "under pressure" fudge device?
Jim Carlyle, Te Atatū Peninsula.
Taking stock
In Tasman District Council's draft Stock Control Bylaw 2022, it would appear that farmers will be required to keep sheep 50m back from the road while shifting stock until all vehicles have driven past and, also under this bylaw, any stock effluent on the road is not to be washed into adjacent waterways. To achieve both these requirements farmers would have to apply some serious Kiwi ingenuity. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.
Training health staff
Largely missing from the debate on health staff shortage is that we are simply not training enough staff. We are not training enough nurses. Every year dozens of our best minds head for Australia to study medicine because it's impossible to get into the two medical faculties here. And most don't come back. Why should they? Higher salaries, lower housing costs, lower cost of food, and lower taxes. Losing staff to Australia is inevitable, and it's essential to factor that into our workforce training. Otherwise, we are on the backfoot from the start.
Kushlan Sugathapala, Epsom.
Alcohol sponsorship
Gregor Paul (Weekend Herald, June 25) is to be applauded for making a powerful case that New Zealand Rugby must cut its ties with the grog industry and end "its long and troubled relationship with alcohol". In my lifetime, alcohol has come increasingly to be recognised as an often toxic substance capable of creating enormous physical and mental harm. To succeed with rugby's current plan to reimagine the sport, administrators must walk the talk by removing existing beer company sponsorship from their commercial relationships.
Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.
Short & Sweet
On Matariki
While Waitangi Day seems to deliver tension, angst, anger and division, Matariki engenders feelings of joy, awe, calm and inclusiveness. Renton Brown, Pukekohe.
On mid-year joy
Matariki was like a Christmas in the middle of winter — family, friends, and food. On Saturday, like a Boxing Day, the relaxation, eating, and visiting continued. It would be good from next year that all retail shops closed for the day too, so more of us could enjoy it. Glenn Forsyth, Taupō.
On fake news
Can someone please tell me the difference between Russian propaganda and so-called democratic nations propaganda. I don't know who to believe any more. Chas Bennett, Paihia.
On US rights
The US Supreme Court has ended the right to legalised abortion and endorsed the legal right to carry hand guns at all times and anywhere. So abortion is murder but shooting people is not? Helen Pickford, Eltham.
On heroes
Kee Lee and the other heroes deserve bravery awards for confronting the knife attacker at Murrays Bay. Lee is 66, has prostate cancer and a shattered knee cap and stepped right outside his comfort zone to protect the public. Dave Miller, Tauranga.
The Premium Debate
Really hearing the truth about the hospital system now that a family member is a first-year nurse. The staff are doing their very best but can't go on like this indefinitely. No breaks in an eight-hour shift, no senior staff on the wards, huge responsibility for new grads. Bronwyn W.
The reality is, New Zealand is in the middle of a social and economic downward spiral, which it has not seen for ... a very, very long time. And no turnaround in sight. Alexander G.
We are losing critical health-sector workers to Australia because they pay up to 50 per cent more, education is better and houses/cost of living are cheaper. This Government spends our tax money on consultants, PR, restructuring and vanity projects instead of paying market rates to critical frontline workers. They are showing a lack of foresight or commercial understanding, and we have been badly let down. John A.
A change of government offers a sliver of light but, to be fair, my family, friends comprising professionals across medical, trades and small business, aren't going to tread water economically for the next decade just to get through. Warren C.
Well-written article, heartbreaking that our doctors and nurses aren't paid adequately and that we don't have enough staff. It's not good enough. Anna K.
At least we're getting lots of new cycle lanes built at huge cost. Jeremy T.