Letters: Climate crisis, gang crime, co-governance, retirement, and Ukraine

Heavy rain creates deep surface flooding in paddocks south of Tairua on the Coromandel Peninsula. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Opinion

Combating climate
It is nice that the Government is assisting in the fight to protect Ukraine and its people. It is the least it could do.
I do think that there is a war closer to home that we must confront. Given the devastation the weather has wrought on the East Coast and the damage expected in the coming day or so, it seems to me that the climate has declared war on us.
Maybe the Government needs to put New Zealand on a war footing to fight the impacts climate change forces are having on our country.
Such a step would bring all the resources of the Government to combat the current and future damaging impacts to regions such as East Coast Te Tairāwhiti. How does the military plan for a battle or war? Does it wait for the enemy to invade our shores and scourge our land, or does it send out troops to shore up defences and protect our people?
Michael Smith, Glenholme.

Mexican standoff
I have just finished reading American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummins, a novel set in Mexico. It is frightening because this could well be set in New Zealand in a few years' time.
The cartels in Mexico started in a small way, their power increasing gradually, almost surreptitiously, with their drug running, organised crime, disregard for any authority and fighting for territory.
Just like gangs in New Zealand today.
If organisations such as the police and judicial system allow a certain degree of lenience to gangs in NZ, to the wealth accrued from drugs and increasing neighbourhood violence and warfare over territory, their power increases. This is how the cartels grew in Mexico - by stealth.
Are we going to allow this to happen to our "safe" New Zealand? The police are doing their best and must be lauded for the recent crackdowns on gangs and should not have to be distracted by anti-vaccine activists.
Linley Jones, Half Moon Bay.

Guilt trips
Simon Wilson is a known protagonist for cycle lanes and now bus lanes at the expense of our beloved motor cars. His arguments are mainly based on emissions and climate change. It is certainly true that climate change can no longer be denied and that New Zealand, as a democratic and responsible nation, must do and be seen to do all that is reasonably possible to address this threat to the earth and humanity.
However, Wilson, along with the Minister of Climate Change and other commentators, know full well that, on a global percentage basis, emissions from this country comprise some one-fifth of 1 per cent of the total world emissions. This means that if every family converted to an electric car and all cows in NZ were culled, the effect on world emissions would barely be measurable.
This does not mean we should scale down or discontinue our efforts. What it does mean is that we should not regularly be sent on a guilt trip from the bombardment of (incomplete) messaging, and the Government and Auckland Transport in particular should not get away with unpopular projects using global warming as a handy excuse.
Rob Peterken, Bucklands Beach.

Minority report
Correspondent Chris Lowman (NZ Herald, April 12) states that the greatest challenge for democracy is the tyranny of the majority.
He also states that rich white males still assume that they are the only ones capable of making a decision. This smear is patently untrue. To say this is just a populist, gratuitous slur on a group in society, many of whom contribute much.
There is one thing obviously worse than the tyranny of the majority: that is the tyranny of the minority. This Government seems hell-bent on achieving this.
Peter Donnelly, West Harbour.

Unknown factor
Chris Lowman (NZ Herald, April 12 raises a number of very valid points regarding democracy in this country. It is said that co-governance describes arrangements for negotiated decision-making between Iwi and/or central government and/or local government. The question is what does that really mean as that spectrum could be extremely wide and become very cumbersome with decision-making drawn out. Will Iwi be a tiger with no teeth as one would assume the majority will make decisions, not the minority?
Lowman points outs this anomaly in the other direction with a minority party having the ability to decide what is best for the majority. The person in the street needs much more information on co-governance before deciding whether it's good or bad for this country. Fear of the unknown often conjures up negative thoughts and ideas.
Reg Dempster, Albany.

Voting rights
Our democratic government is ruled by the party or coalition gaining the majority of votes. This is not "tyranny of the majority" as claimed by your correspondent Chris Lowman (NZ Herald, April 12), but a recognition that it is only fair that the wishes of the majority of a people must prevail. The alternative would be to allow the wishes of any small group of people to dictate how the majority should live. That would resemble real tyranny and cannot be democratic.
Every adult New Zealander – regardless of race - has the right to vote and to stand for election. Nobody's vote is worth more or less than the vote of others. We all have to accept that our choice of a particular party may not accord with the view of the majority.
Janie Weir, Newmarket.

In name only
Yo Heta-Lensen's opinion piece (NZ Herald, April 11) illuminates the nub of the problem with co-governance through her example of Tūpuna Maunga Authority and its unilateral approach to applying its kaupapa, that "mana whenua world views, priorities and strong living connections …. is woven into their unified and cohesive long term care".
Heta-Lensen points out a fundamental flaw as the authority being "a Crown construct rather than informed by Māori cultural principles" and that representative mana whenua, according to Māori protocol, would have engaged in considerable consultation and discussion, before decisions were reached over care and protection of the maunga, but this has not occurred.
When we see so many Crown, corporate and community organisations adopt Māori names, such as Panuku and Waka Kotahi, I wonder whether they have any intention for co-governance, or at least the inclusion of the values and principles represented by the name or whether it's yet another form of tokenism, and the dominant culture lumbers along unchanged and unheeding of its appropriation.
Linda Blincko, Devonport.

Welcome retirement
After way too many decades in the workforce, I retired last year looking forward to the idyllic lifestyle I dreamt about for so long.
No more commuting, traffic jams, managerial and corporate edicts, deadlines, or any other inconveniences the working life brings. Now the only things I need to be concerned about seem trivial in comparison.
Things such as climate change and everything associated with it, Covid and whatever else is waiting to surprise us all, the threat of annihilation by nuclear war or meteor strikes, inflation, and so on and so forth.
Ah, bliss at last.
Jeremy Coleman, Hillpark.

Tanking warfare
The haunting scenes emanating out of Ukraine are set to get worse under Putin's relentless attacks now focused on the south and eastern flanks.
Yet every day we see great loads of Russian heavy metal tanks that will be melted down and recycled by the Ukrainian steel industry in the future.
This war has shown that tank warfare may be doomed to history by tiny, handheld Javelins... cheaper, lighter, deadlier, and digitally controlled.
Clumsy, old Soviet weapons and tactics that only blast and obliterate all and sundry are no match for pinpoint drone weapons that can drop onto tank turrets into the weakest points of construction.
Rob Buchanan, Kerikeri.

Killing time
It is incredibly disturbing to find a young thug who punched and killed a man is sentenced to less than three years of jail time (NZ Herald, April 13).
This means he might serve no additional time to that he has already served on remand for what most would assess as murder.
If the police do not appeal this trivial sentence and the Justice Department does not censure the judge, there is little hope for this country. I await developments with interest.
Rod Lyons, Kumeu.

Short & sweet

On politics
William Walker's tongue-in-cheek suggestion that Mike Hosking and David Seymour could run the country's health system was witty (NZ Herald, April 12). But considering they'd make a formidable, no-nonsense team they'd be better suited for tackling the gang problem. Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.

On super
If you can hear screams of hysterical laughter, I have just seen the increase in my pension - $16.37 a week. What on earth is that going to buy? I bet it won't even pay for the rates rise. Bob Jessopp, Massey.

On Russia
The experience of serfs, kulaks, Cossacks, and now Ukraine (again), provides grim evidence of what it means to be subsidiaries of a Russian empire. Unenlightened, history is bound to repeat itself. D B Hill, Freeman's Bay.

The Government's decision not to send our surplus light armoured fighting vehicles to Ukraine is a mirror image of their "be nice to gangs" policies here. Brian O'Neill, Chatswood.

On landlords
Over-dramatising is the word that springs to mind with the "plight" of landlords in the house buying slowdown. Neil Anderson, Algies Bay.

On inflation
Inflation is at 6 per cent and savers are earning 2 per cent, and even having the insult of being taxed on this. This is theft on a grand scale and makes a mockery of being encouraged to save. Vince West, Milford.

On Prebble
"Just because you say something doesn't make it true" (NZ Herald, April 13). Indeed, Mr Prebble, indeed. John Capener, Kawerau.

The Premium Debate

Reckless spending and deluded ministers

Richard, another good synopsis of why Labour continues to fail. Hopefully, those dyed-in-the-wool red supporters will read, comprehend and understand the facts you point out. Or maybe they'll keep pushing deflection and spin. Anthony C.

As usual, Prebble hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest. Satya F.

But he is right. Do not forget that. Tony C.

The Government looks a lot like the business I work for: a disorganised B-team with no strategy or tactical plan who thinks that everything is solved by throwing someone else's money at it. Raymond T.

The problems are all with Prebble. He has become a deluded old has-been who never was.
Can anyone tell me what did he ever achieve in his time as a Cabinet member? Ken R.

Who cares what he achieved, this is an opinion piece. He is regularly on the money with his articles because he's been around for a long time, and does the research. Who cares how old he is or what party he is in. Sometimes it's worth acknowledging that someone knows more than we do. Cambel F.