Letters: Abuse in care, wealth distribution, Covid compliance, and education

Alison Pascoe spent 50 years in a mental hospital despite having no psychiatric illness and has shared her story with a Royal Commission. Photo / Michael Craig

Abuse in care
Indescribable abuse in psychiatric care provided by the state is being described at the Royal Commission hearings (NZ Herald, July 15).
While this may be shocking news to the public, it is no surprise to the authorities.
Many of those giving evidence have tried desperately for decades to receive justice.
My complaint (and complaints by eight others), about Claybury House, Kingseat Hospital, 30 years ago led to an in-house inquiry, although a state-funded cover-up would be a better description. What ACC ruled to be medical negligence did not lead to any form of accountability.
I complained to the District Inspector, the Medical Disciplinary Tribunal, the Nursing Council, the Human Rights and Health and Disability commissions, and the Ombudsman and I have given evidence to previous inquiries.
It is not that the state has not known.
It's time now to compensate the surviving abused patients and the families of those who died in state care. And not pathetic amounts like the $18,000 given to a survivor of appalling abuse who had claimed $4 million.
It's time to make psychiatric care a place where vulnerable patients are cared for in safety, and with dignity and respect due any patient who is suffering.
Name and address withheld

Systemic wrongs
Isaac Davison's story (NZ Herald, July 15) of Alison Pascoe's tenacity over 40 years of heart-rending loneliness and sustained abuse by state caregivers, despite their holding positions of trust, makes salutary reading. Such inhumane hospitals were allowed to fester for too long.
Alison's request for structural change to the system must be urgently adopted nationally. This will be money well spent if compassionate, competent, and honest leaders are appointed to this mammoth task who will, by their personal integrity, attract a team of committed professionals to right these systemic wrongs, for the sake of the Alisons we all know.
Mary Tallon, Hauraki.

Wealth gap
This is a quote from the 2017 study by Oxfam: "The eight wealthiest individuals in the world own as much as the poorest half of humanity, and the gap between rich and poor is widening."
Is it surprising that populations around the world are getting very angry? The latest example is in Sri Lanka, a country which is technically bankrupt.
The trend towards greater disparity of wealth is probably second on the issues confronting us – the first being climate change.
This makes it truly remarkable that the National Party now proposes to reduce taxes, which in all cases will grant far greater relief to the wealthy, particularly landlords who will again be able to claim interest as an expense.
On the other hand, support for health, education and social support will have to be cut back because National knows the country should not borrow more.
The job of Government should be to ensure that all citizens have access to the basics of life.
If they don't then history shows us that the consequences can be awful.
Tony Sullivan, St Heliers.

Team spirit
It strikes me that the once-vaunted "team of five million" is very like the All Black teams of recent times.
There are moments of brilliance, followed by moments of disarray. We have experts both inside and outside of the team clamouring for us to focus on simple steps to take the pressure off of the country and win test matches.
Yet we seem indifferent to those voices, just like the 15 men on the field last week.
If we could just keep our eyes on the ball and follow the game plan, both teams could once again be the envy of the world.
Dunstan Sheldon, Rototuna.

Uneducated generation
You have to wonder what is going on when 40 per cent of school-age children either do not attend school regularly or do not attend at all.
No wonder we rate low in numeracy and literacy. I thought that there was a legal requirement for these kids to attend school.
It is about time that those irresponsible parents and the education authorities were held to account for this situation. Where are the truant officers? No wonder we have some very young kids out and about at night involved in criminal activity, showing no respect, obligation or responsibility.
Are we going to end up with a significant number of the adult population uneducated? So much for the country under that situation
Ken Graham, Greenlane.

Prolonged conflict
John Minto's (NZ Herald, July 13) false equivalence between Masafer Yatta and Eva Rickard's battle to regain Tainui Awhiro land is an insult to the justice of the iwi cause. The land in question has never been owned by Palestinians.
Israel gained control of the territory in a defensive war against Jordan, who had ruled it from 1948 to 1967. During this time Jordan could have established a Palestinian state, but didn't. Prior to 1948, the land was under the British Mandate system, having been won from the Ottoman Empire.
This region in the Eastern part of the West Bank was set aside for military purposes at a time when the threat from Jordan was a reality and a security buffer was seen as a necessity. There were no permanent dwellings or residences at the time.
The West Bank is Judea/Samaria and is the indigenous land of the Jewish people, the place where their unique culture, religion and Hebrew language began to develop over 3000 years ago.
Minto's subversion of history is an attempt to delegitimise the only democracy in the Middle East and the world's only Jewish state. It does not help the plight of Palestinians and Minto's efforts only serve to prolong this sad conflict.
Sheree Trotter, Wellsford.

Improving relations
Here we go again, John Minto has written yet another article (NZ Herald, July 13) demonising the only Jewish state in the world. Fortunately, many Arabs and Palestinians simply do not share such negative views of Israel today.
A recent poll, by a Palestinian media outlet, found that 93 per cent of Arab residents of Jerusalem preferred to remain under Israeli rule as opposed to Palestinian rule. In recent years, many Arab states have joined the Abraham Accords, indications are that others, including Saudi Arabia, may soon follow. The last election in Israel saw the conservative Arab Islamist Ra'am party join the Israeli coalition government.
Arab attitudes towards Israel are changing towards the positive, it's a shame we are not seeing the same from Minto.
T Vincent, Whangārei.

Other party
I am rather perplexed by the current uproar about the topic of abortions.
The reasons women do not want to have a child are because they either already have a large enough family; or they did not consent to get pregnant; or they cannot afford or tolerate contraception; or their life plans do not include motherhood.
What happened to birth control? Is it too expensive? Unreliable? Uncomfortable? And why should women shoulder the entire responsibility for contraception anyway?
There is a much simpler and safe solution to this problem and I cannot but wonder why it has not been raised before and discussed publicly.
So when are we going to talk about (and promote) vasectomies?
S D Hill, Cambridge.

Begets violence?
Oh please, give us a break. Laurie Ross (NZ Herald, July 15) writes we should not watch violence on our screens because it "normalises violence in real life".
I have watched every Rambo movie, Clint Eastwood and any modern, violent action movie I could. My kids have grown up with Play Station, Xbox, and violent war games where they shoot, stab, or simply blow people up. Yet none of us has ever assaulted anyone in our life. What do you want us to watch; Mary Poppins-type movies?
It's called education. My dad ensured that I never missed a school day unless I was near death and the same applied to my kids.
Ian Cunningham, Bayswater.

Arena of dreams
Auckland will have its train to the airport and now Christchurch will have its stadium. I cannot recall a major project in New Zealand over the past 20 years which has been completed either on budget or on time.
Christchurch ratepayers should look closely at how this project's plan has gone from $483 million, to $533 million (albeit with extra seats) to $683 million.
They should take no comfort that this is supposedly a fixed price contract as in the unlikely event they can find a contractor with a death wish, there is no chance it will be completed without a major additional contribution from them.
Even then the claim they will have 200 events a year beggars the imagination.
Rod Lyons, Kumeu.

Cost blow-outs
I read with interest the estimates that the experts say the cost for various buildings, new roads or bridges etc. will be, but when the real cost of the projects is millions more than what was projected how can they be so far from the real cost?
I can understand a little discrepancy between the estimated cost and the real cost but in some cases the difference is millions.
Perhaps if the experts had to make up some of the shortfalls, they would be more accurate with their estimates.
Geoffrey Slack, Silverdale.

Short & sweet

On breeders
As with J Willis (NZH, July 15) I also was appalled at the sentence for the people that mistreated the German shepherds. Barred from breeding dogs for two years? I would have thought it would have been for life. Hamish Walsh, Devonport.

On mandates
Christopher Luxon says it is ridiculous that the health professionals who lost their jobs because they refused to be vaccinated have not been allowed back. Most would say it is even more ridiculous and unacceptable that health professionals would refuse to be vaccinated. Sue Rawson, Pāpāmoa Beach.

I, for one, would not mind being treated by an unvaccinated nurse. Chas Bennett, Beach Haven.

On gangs
If we want to crack down on gangs we need to make sure that the potential members do not go to prison. Closing prisons might be the most effective anti-gang action a politician who wants to do something about gangs can do. Lloyd Weeber, Half Moon Bay.

On Foster
"I can't wait" were the last three words Ian Foster said to end each of the three pre-match TV interviews. Sorry Ian, neither can we. Tim Mitchell, Takapuna.

On stadium
If the Christchurch stadium is built for less than 25 per cent more than the "fixed cost" of $683m, history will be made. A future government will leap to milk the taxpayers for the "unexpected and unavoidable" cost increases and delays. Stewart Hawkins, St Heliers.

The Premium Debate

Why housing's no longer a one-way bet

If it's housing capital accumulated in the hands of the elderly that's a problem then it think we can safely assume it won't be a permanent issue. Pete S.

More "jawboning" from the Reserve Bank to attempt to get Kiwis to diversify their investments rather than anything that will really change in housing. As Conway notes, the nature of housing being "leveraged" investment is unique, however he fails to address the other key driver which is that most other asset classes fluctuate on returns and are considered higher risk. If someone does not invest in housing and, say, puts that amount in shares (so-called productive investment) or worse, crypto, they'd better have a really high-risk appetite. Housing as a favoured asset class will remain so in NZ for many generations to come. Ram H.

There's a huge variation in risk levels with shares. At one end, you have power companies, retirement village operators, and banks, which are never going to turn you into a millionaire overnight but have good reliable dividends. At the other end there are the start-up companies, which could fail or do very well. There's plenty in between too. Jeremy C.

This article covers all the bases but reads more like a defence of the Reserve Bank. The two biggest factors driving house price growth are immigration (and that's being turned on again), and the artificially low OCR. Grant Robertson acknowledged this fact but claimed "at least people have jobs". Poor management by the RBNZ and the Government sits beneath the 39 per cent mean house price rise from Feb 20 to Nov 21. Colin J.

Yep, housing will go down, especially Auckland. The soft-on-crime approach is driving people out of the country and city. Why would we get new immigrants who can go to Australia or other safer countries? People can no longer even get to work without getting mugged. Don't worry about economic factors, crime is affecting everyone. Gary R.

Admittedly it's only halfway through the year but so far I'm still 100 per cent for trips to work without getting mugged. Jeremy C.