Correct action
Your letters (NZ Herald, January 5) seem to be dominated by correspondents who have a profound belief that only ministerial involvement will fix issues, whatever they maybe.
Minister Davis did the right thing by letting the professionals in Corrections manage the situation. His past performance in other roles proved he had little to offer in the way of skill or experience in any matters including prison unrest. To assume the politicians in any party are experts in all matters is naive and hopelessly optimistic. The fact that this was resolved without violence or significant injury is a credit to the professional staff involved.
Dragging in politicians will get you a headline, which is what the prisoners want, not what Corrections or the public need. You only have to look at the Ihumātao settlement to see what the cost of political interference brings, time wasted and significant cost to the public, then a settlement that is still disputed by some parties.
As an example, Covid has been mostly successfully managed by professionals and the key messages delivered by politicians, that's the way it should be.
John Tizard, Howick.
Free Europe
Gwynne Dyer (NZ Herald, January 4) is indeed correct in asserting Brexit has set the EU free. They will be able to assert their long-held wish to develop a European military presence (despite Nato being a huge success) and the euro will undoubtedly become universal in all member states (ask Greeks how that feels).
There has long been a fudge on the question of whether Europe wanted a federal constitution. Now it is clear. Those of us with a long memory recall Margaret Thatcher denouncing Monsieur Delors' explicit desire for such a federal arrangement in her Bruges speech. She was in favour of a free market but preferred one agreed between nation states.
Ask any New Zealander if they would wish to belong to a federal Australasia or a Canadian if they would wish to be part of an enlarged America merely because they were close neighbours and traded mostly with them, then you will realise why Brexit happened.
The Brexit conversation has been far too European-centric; the real growth in the world is elsewhere, as New Zealand has discovered and Britain will now try to emulate, unconstrained by red tape.
Martin Jacques, Belmont.
Economic answers
Gary Hollis says " if you lined up all the economists in a straight line and asked them the way you should want to go they would all point in different directions" (NZ Herald, January 4) That theory lines up with information I received when I won the prize for first place in Western Australia in the Economics exam for Chartered Institute of Secretaries. Of course I used a strategy for the exam and carefully read every article that year in the monthly magazine by the Sydney Professor of Economics. Sure enough, every question came from his articles, so I told him exactly what he had said, so I was absolutely correct on every question. How could I not be?
The information I was told was that "every year, economics exam questions are the same but the answers change". Much the same as Gary said.
Murray Hunter, Titirangi.
Honour roll
The Queen's New Year honours list is a complete farce.
If any awards were going to be made it should have been to the many truckies who work for not much more than the basic wage but worked 24/7 during the lockdown to ensure that the country was not going to run out of vital supplies; or the brave check-out girls who carried on working in what then was unknown safety workplaces or the many other brave volunteers and other low-paid people who worked tirelessly during that time to keep this country going. They are the true heroes.
Not people who were already being paid huge sums of money just to do their chosen career then got awards for just doing their jobs.
Unless there's new, fairer criteria that encompass the more deserving, I think the whole thing should be scrapped.
L. Askin, Tauranga.
Safer roads
Your editorial (NZ Herald, January 4) and Bernard Orsman's excellent article in the regarding the expressway from Warkworth to Hamilton and Cambridge highlighted the economic importance and safety benefits of these four-lane expressways.
Travel time between Auckland and Hamilton has been reduced considerably.
Thanks to Steven Joyce and the National Government for declaring this and other expressways as roads of national significance.
Unfortunately, the Labour Government has cancelled other expressways that National proposed including the extension further north from Warkworth and instead is tinkering with existing road improvements.
We need more of these expressways, not only for reduced travel times but for the significant safety benefits
Ken Graham, Greenlane.
Plain disappointment
Being a close neighbour to the new and much celebrated (by Auckland Council, anyway) Te Komititanga public space, I would like to express my disappointment at yet another golden opportunity squandered.
Another sparse, desert-like area, which only encourages one to quickly move across the vast "Serengeti Plain" to seek refuge in the shade. It is an awful, paved, blue/grey area of nothing with little focus on bringing people together, contrary to the name and concept as per statements by the Auckland Council.
No international council representatives or landscape architects will travel to Auckland for any inspiration from this place. Where is the grass, water feature and shady trees? If only the designers had walked 200m south, they would have observed Takutai Square with children playing in the water feature, on the rocks and people gathering and enjoying the grassy area.
Added to this is the council's obsession with waterblasting the wooden seats twice a day, amidst a water shortage.
The ratepayers deserve both an explanation and a refund.
Annette Mills, Auckland Central.
Cost of housing
House prices are high because there is a high demand. Councils are responsible due to high costs of consent and long, drawn procedures to get through the red tape. Also building materials are expensive because the population is small.
Stop blaming the homeowners who took the initiative, risk and enterprise to own a home. Find some one else to blame.
Nishi Fahmy, Avondale.
Short & sweet
On Spark
Spark Sport has provided cricket lovers with long-overdue innovation. Stephen Moore, St Heliers.
Our cricket team is playing the best that it has played in a long time and we are being deprived of the pleasure of watching it. Six years will kill off New Zealanders' interest in the game and New Zealand Cricket will be the poorer for it. Trish Heikoop, Pakuranga.
On Waikeria
The Coalition Government of 2017 cancelled National's proposed new prison project. Had the building proceeded as originally planned, it may have been ready for occupation now and the riot may not have happened. A.J. Petersen, Kawerau.
Kelvin Davis said he did not want to speak during the siege as his role was to leave the response to the experts. I would have thought that the Minister of Corrections was the expert. Dennis Ross, Glendowie.
Looking at previous prison riots here and overseas, they usually end after five to eight days, prisoner exhaustion is usually the reason. The patient approach by those making the decisions was well rewarded. Patrick Grant, Stanmore Bay.
On Trump
You cannot demand 11780 votes be found just because you want them. That's not how democracy works in any free country. Dennis Fitzgerald, Melbourne, Aus.
