Letters: Chamberlain Park, migrants, election, Whenuapai, phones and Greg Foran

Has the local body elections result put a halt to developments at Chamberlain Park? Photo / Dean Purcell

Letter of the week: Geoff Shearman, Mt Eden

As a result of the recent council elections, it's great to see the ill-conceived and poor value chop up of Chamberlain Park will likely cease. The final product would have resulted in, among other things, significantly more roading and carparks than already exists.
The $30m-plus saved could be applied to another ill-conceived project – purchase of the Three Kings Quarry development. The quarry would be an ideal receptacle for the tonnes of fill to come out of the CRL project. If filled, it would bring the proposed playing fields level with the existing fields, create better integration with the existing shopping centre, allow transportation options to the West, as well as making restoring the mined section of the Big King maunga easier. The current proposed development is a poor outcome for the community and the city. I also think it won't work for the developer (Fletcher) either – who wants to live in an apartment in a constricted hole?
We require overseas mining companies to make good their mines when finished. Winstone, who created the hole, having mined it for 93 years, should be asked to do the same by the new council.

Select migrants

We certainly need a steady flow of migrants into New Zealand to keep our economy growing but what we don't need is more taxi drivers, Uber drivers, courier van drivers, etc - unskilled workers, which is what we seem to get.
NZ Immigration is doing a very poor job of selecting the correct immigrants. NZ needs highly skilled immigrants. There are a lot of them waiting to come and it should be made clear at the time of application that they can't bring their elderly parents, who will become a liability to the NZ taxpayer, with them.
Jock Mac Vicar, Hauraki.

Three more years

The last term of Phil Goff as mayor saw large rates increases, dictatorial attitudes from CCOs, AT creating congestion and ignoring community wishes, Watercare rates increases above inflation and without ratepayer input and large salaries to council CCOs.
Not much hope for the second term, then. Ratepayers deserve better.
Stephen Moore, St Heliers.

Airpoints

Incoming Air NZ CEO Greg Foran will do well to consider why the company enjoyed better times in the past. It was a period when Airpoints members meant a lot more to the airline and were treated accordingly.
For example, there was a time when an air stewardess might say, "Oh Mr Jones, I see you are an Airpoints member. We have a vacant seat in Business Class, I wonder if you would like to move to where you will be more comfortable?"
There was a time, too, when Airpoints members knew what it cost in Airpoints dollars to move from an Economy Class seat to a Business Class seat. These days you have to bid Airdollars to get out of Economy but that will only get you to a Premium Economy seat.
These were important points of difference between Air NZ and its competitors. The push to sign up more Airpoints members accelerated, so much so that the airport lounges are now crowded with access often limited to Koru Club members and privileged others. The airline enjoyed better times before and its Airpoints members did too.
Graham Astley, Epsom.

Drop the phone

Recently while out walking, my wife and I noticed many vehicle drivers using their mobile phones while driving. Just before a set of traffic lights, we observed five vehicles in a row with the drivers either texting or holding a phone to their ear.
I spoke quite loudly to my wife about the five drivers jeopardising not only their own lives, but ours too.
One of the drivers had her passenger window open and screamed out that she was legally allowed to use her phone while waiting at the lights.
The vehicles had not stopped but were slowly moving towards and through the traffic lights, which were green. I replied that it was illegal to use a mobile phone while driving at any speed and also when stopped at traffic lights. The driver persisted in arguing her point as she continued driving past us with her phone in her hand.
I wonder how many drivers, who use their mobile phones while driving, would agree with this woman. Or is it that they just simply do not care because they know it is highly unlikely they will get caught?
Ian Riseborough, Takapuna.

Whenuapai noise

So, it seems the minister has stepped in to end the Battle of Whenuapai, and quite right too. Never in the history of human conflict have so many bellyached over the dedication to duty of so few. Did these people not notice those magnificent men their flying machines before they moved in? It's an air force base, for flying out loud!
Dean Donoghue, Papamoa Beach.

Old ways

As I grow older and hopefully, wiser, I have returned to the food grown, gathered and once eaten by NZ's original inhabitants as fresh and healthy, low-cost, low-fat, no packaging - and feel good the next day.
Much of the foodstuffs bought at takeaways or at supermarkets is quick to single-source, quick to load, full of packaging, taxes, colouring, flavouring and preservative, and is depleting incomes of the poorest who cry out poverty.
Those people could pick up a shovel and, as a family, plant some kūmara, carrots, greens and herbs as our ancestors did. This also gives essential exercise.
A stop to buying expensive packets of cigarettes and cartons of beer will reduce poverty. It's better to brew quality, low-cost stout at home using known, clean ingredients.
Its all win-win when we return to being a hunter, food gatherer and grower! reduce our carbon footprint.
Rob Buchanan, Kerikeri.

A brief word

The death of the first human to "float" outside an Earth-orbiting spacecraft, in 1965, recalls the global excitement of space in the 1960s, and how inspired activists believed anything was now possible. RIP spacewalker Alexei Leonov. Rod Matthews, Melbourne.

God created women to comfort men? Really? In marriage, comforting one's partner is a two-way street with a man equally responsible for comforting a woman. Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.

From a little seed, with a great speed, a green plant grows, a grass or a rose. I await a sweet flower, who has above me a power. Kuhta Sergey Vasilievitch, Nikolaev, Ukraine.

It's a shame the whole Rugby World Cup wasn't cancelled before it begun because of the weather and played somewhere else through Sky Sports. Glenn Forsyth, Taupō.

A dubious, plainly inappropriate replacement cost revaluation of $2.4b for the railways, huge deferred infrastructure expenditures mainly for roading and over-taxation due to tax rate "creep" ... does not a surplus make. Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.

I cannot understand how all the British media and all the Six Nations rugby coaches found out that us Kiwis actually organised the typhoon in Japan just so the All Blacks would have an advantage. Phil Chitty, Albany.

Can this government tell us how to eat trees? That seems to be the challenge facing us because they want to fill the countryside with trees instead of sheep, beef and dairy cows.
A J Petersen, Kawerau.

It's suggested that Herald cartoonist, Emmerson, is the President of the New Zealand Labour Party. This is remarkable given his full-time role as Chairman of the US Democratic National Committee. Stewart Hawkins, St Heliers.

Like John Roughan, historical apologies make me uncomfortable. My concern being the cash content. Don Anderson, Rothesay Bay.

We don't need rowdy Extinction Reb-hellions on our streets – we need education on extinctions in our science academies, classrooms and media. Viv Forbes, Washpool, Qld.

If special votes tip Mike Lee out of office, he can look back on a public life well-served. We are unlikely to see the likes of Mike again. Gerry Hill, Ponsonby.