'Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith states we need to “try something different” to justify his attempt to reduce crimes against dairy owners.'
The folly of citizen’s arrests
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith states we need to “try something different” to justify his attempt to reduce crimes against dairy owners.
In his own words he says we need to experiment. Presumably he’s deserving of a gold star contribution from the dairy and business community.
But escalating the odds that criminals will arm themselves with more lethal guns, not just knives and hammers that mainly just wound, unwittingly involving the innocent public, is cynical stupidity.
Everyone knows why they have “target me” signs on their foreheads: nicotine and alcohol - soft recreational drugs that make up 47% of their profits. They also know that most people wouldn’t lay a hand to help them, putting themselves at increased risk of harm while “holding someone steady” for what could be accurately called assisting “soft drug dealers’” increased profit margins.
Goldsmith’s “experiment” will go the same way as boot camps, just another failed experiment and unnecessarily increasing the public’s risk in the process. This is the exact same reason our police do not currently carry firearms.
Too often this coalition is repeating failed experiments here or overseas. Axing school lunches is such a case: an entirely predictable revamped failure given their poor record.
Teething problems with guns gives no leeway compared to late, burnt, cold, incorrectly ordered, foul, unappealing “Marmite sandwiches”. The “wealthy and sorted” tongue strikes once more.
Steve Russell, Hillcrest.
State of the nation
New Zealand is facing pressing challenges that suggest our society has lost its way.
Recent observations indicate that urgent decisive action is needed from our leaders. News reports reveal that methamphetamine use is at an all-time high. Data from wastewater testing shows that consumption doubled in the second half of 2024.
This alarming trend raises serious questions about the effectiveness of our current law enforcement strategies and justice system. The consequences are far-reaching, increasing pressure on our hospitals, courts, and correctional facilities.
One proposed measure that will assist is the implementation of compulsory (not random as at present) drug testing for motorists when stopped - a practice that has already been in place in Australia for several years. Adopting a similar approach here could serve as a deterrent and could at least help address the drug-related challenges we face on our roads.
In an era of economic uncertainty, the media reported that 10,000 Warriors fans travelled to Las Vegas for an NRL league match. Even with chartered flights available, such an expensive outing seems incongruous with the financial struggles faced by many New Zealanders.
Employers conversely continue to battle with staffing shortages in sectors like cafes and manual freight handling, with jobs that require minimal formal qualifications. It appears many New Zealanders prefer to stay on the dole. Where are we at in toughening our unemployment benefit conditions - lots of talk but not much walk?
“Orange cone” madness persists on our roads, showing little sign of diminishing, despite assurances from local councils and government officials that they are addressing the issue.
Finally, the growing number of charity Op shops springing up across our suburbs, towns and cities must be symptomatic of broader socio-economic challenges that must also give us a wake-up call.
These examples represent only a snapshot of some of the issues confronting New Zealand today.
It is time for our Government to take a strong, decisive stance. Without bold, and at times, unpopular measures to address these multifaceted challenges, our nation risks a continued decline in both its economic vitality and global standing.
Randal Lockie, Rothesay Bay.
Changing times
The problem with the “good old days”, when a humble sandwich and an apple fed school children adequately, was the economic environment of those times.
I suspect that many of the correspondents who fondly remember those days and promote self-reliance were baby boomers growing up post-World War II and where the 1950s was a decade characterised by virtually full employment and a growing economy.
Unemployment was 1% and the quarter-acre section allowed for vegetable gardens and little overcrowding. Present-day New Zealand post-Covid is quite different with high unemployment, falling educational standards and schools trying to cope with numerous social issues, along with sub-standard, overcrowded housing that create the hungry children of today.
We can debate cause and effect until we’re blue in the face, but tomorrow, next week, or next year, these children will be hampered from reaching their full potential. Part of the debate regarding our poor productivity compared to international standards, won’t be enhanced by the next generation of young people who were ravaged by poverty.
They certainly won’t be the doctors, scientists, engineers and financial experts Aotearoa needs.
Mary Hearn, Glendowie.
State power
Shane Te Pou is spot-on in his article on the failure of our power generation system (HoS, Mar 2).
Max Bradford’s gentailers are a disaster for NZ consumers and businesses with grossly overpriced electricity. It is time for the Government to sell their shares in the gentailers, providing all the proceeds to a new “Electricity Corp” to build a continuing supply of geothermal power up to the level of our hydropower.
This way the Government can keep ahead of demand and ensure that prices are kept low. NZ is too small a market for the current set-up.
Electricity needs to be government-controlled similar to Transpower and our road system.
Derek Paterson, Sunnyhills.
Backward policies
The way this Government operates is to take something that’s working well and replace it with something worse.
Reduced speed limits saw the road toll reduced – so they’ve decided to reinstate higher limits. Anti-smoking measures were receiving worldwide acclaim and a reduction in smoking so they removed those measures.
The school lunch programme was completely successful so they scrapped it and replaced it with one that’s a disaster. We were approaching climate change targets by moving into renewable energy, so they walked away from solar and wind and are promoting oil and gas instead.
We were making inroads into conserving our wonderful environment so they cut the Department of Conservation’s already inadequate budget. We had desperately-needed new ferries under way so they cancelled them at huge cost.
Our overriding need is for more houses, so they cancelled 60% of social housing projects. More and more people are renting because they can’t afford a house so they removed protection for tenants and gave landlords tax rebates.
All these backward policies are done deliberately and in full knowledge of the effects on NZ society.
Susan Grimsdell, Auckland Central.
Investing in our future
A possible solution to the school lunch situation would be to see them as a productive investment in the future of New Zealand.
A highly educated population, trained to think through problems, with appropriate adaptable skills for a future employment market containing job opportunities few of us can yet even imagine, would be a substantial and productive resource.
That would mean immediately returning to the efficient providers of nutritious school lunches already identified and reliably employed for a number of years.
This would decrease current unemployment costs and increase the tax take, children would receive nutritious meals known to improve learning capability and physical development (check the science) and current politicians and other adults would have some assurance of good management of the economy and creation of new and vital work opportunities as they move into their own older life stage with increased health problems.
We could consider children to be our greatest resources to be developed and nourished for the future health and economic productivity of the whole nation.
Or we could keep talking about Marmite sandwiches and keep paying Government ministers to do nothing, which doesn’t increase productivity or wellbeing in any way.
Let’s invest in the health, education and social value of all of our children.
Caroline Miller, Birkenhead.
Emergency services are responding to a fire in Minden, Western Bay of Plenty.