Locked away for no crime
My aunt is 95 and in a "caring" rest home. Our whānau is extensive and long to visit but it allows only one person for half an hour per week per patient - in case we spread Covid to other residents.
If she is dying, whānau
can visit at any time on "compassionate" grounds. But what about the safety of other patients then?
New rules also allow us to take her out anywhere - to a cafe, a mall, on a marae for as long as we choose - with no stipulations for her safety or of others on her return as this "won't compromise others in the rest home". But, of course, it could. What do they take us for?
Meanwhile those sunny nooks, pianos, decks, gardens, and posh lounges the imprisoned inmates have paid for remain silent and lifeless.
The word "compassion" has been egregiously abused by the Ministry of Health for over two years. This blanket rule ignores individual circumstances and is cruel to young and old.
We're all vaxxed, boosted and happy to mask up, but time is not on her side.
How can our aunt and thousands of elderly or infirm around the country escape their Government-endorsed prisons?
Mary Tallon, Takapuna.
Idle moments
Chris Hipkins (NZ Herald, May 9) refers to National seeing Gliding On as old-fashioned.
As the writer of all the episodes in the 1980s, I'd like to point out that the series portrayed only a non-specified stores department, and never those very hard-working public servants who made hard decisions every day (and still do).
Roger Hall, Takapuna.
Media teems
Chris Hipkins' (NZ Herald, May 9) list of the additional bureaucrats that Labour employed was selective.
There was no mention of how many more spin doctors and public relations people were employed by his Government. In July 2019, RNZ reported that public sector communications staff grew by 60 per cent and salary costs were up 45 per cent, compared to wage inflation of 14 per cent.
More spin from a Government that promised to be "open and transparent"
Nigel Gerbic, Parnell.
Envy tax
Amid the wealth envy behind National "giving massive tax cuts to top earners" (NZ Herald, May 9) some basics are overlooked.
Firstly, people earning $180,000 a year are paid that because they are worth it otherwise Q.E.D. their employers wouldn't pay it. Taking just one example, the average salary for an experienced GP in NZ is above $180k, and who would claim GPs are overpaid, or deny our need to attract more of them?
Secondly, it's only above $180k that tax rates would reduce by 6 cents in the dollar so, for example, the tax reduction on a $250k salary under National's plan amounts to $3300, hardly the $18,000 that's being bandied about by opponents of the reform.
And finally, why shouldn't high earners keep more of their salary once they have paid their 33 per cent, $50k plus, tax contribution to society?
Any individual knows that he or she can spend their cash more wisely than the Government can. "A nation cannot tax its way to prosperity" is as true now as it has always been.
John Denton, Eskdale.
Capital controls
Is this a sign of things to come in New Zealand? "Zimbabwe imposes capital controls to stem currency slide" reads the headline in Bloomberg news. If Labour and the Greens were ever to impose a wealth tax in New Zealand, we would be in a similar position.
The wealthy have the means to move their capital offshore or the accounting methods to get around such a tax, or simply relocate to another country. The wealth tax would primarily fall on middle-class homeowners. The wealth tax proposal is a very bad one that would make New Zealand poorer.
If all the money wasted by the current Green/Labour Government had simply been given to those in need, it would have achieved far more than all the commissions and committees that have been appointed during the last five years.
Dan McGuire, Nelson.
