Letters: Coalition Government incoherent on climate change; tech giants orchestrate ‘heist of the century’

Flooding in South Dunedin, October 4. Photo / George Heard

Letters to the Editor

Coalition incoherence on climate change

Are these guys talking to each other? Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is quoted as saying while visiting flood-ravaged Dunedin South: “We also need to start thinking about climate adaptation and actually how we are going to deal with it.” (NZ Herald, October 8).

At the same time, Shane Jones has extolled the virtues of fast-tracking a new coal mine. Huh? Who thinks digging more coal out of the ground and burning it is going to help mitigate climate change?

Luxon says he wants “political parties to work together on long-term solutions to climate vulnerabilities”. Perhaps he should start talking to his own Cabinet’s political parties first?

Neil Anderson, Algies Bay.

Court powerless

Deep-sea mining was stopped by the Supreme Court. Now the Government wants to fast-track mining off the Taranaki coast. This means rulings from the Supreme Court are not worth the paper they’re written on. An Australian company will again take most of the profits.

Rita Briggs, New Plymouth.

Google v media

The corporate supranational known as Google was on full show when its country director Caroline Rainsford leapt into print to threaten our Government and press with withdrawal of the miserable pittance they pay New Zealand news outlets for their material (NZ Herald, October 4).

Meta, Facebook, Google and their ilk far surpass anything Robert Maxwell or Rupert Murdoch might have dreamed up by helping themselves to ordinary Kiwis’ personal data and then using cheap advertising streams to sell our news back to us, amassing immense private fortunes in the process. In the process, they are enabling online bullying, stalking and the sexploitation of our kids. This is the heist of the century.

When do we follow other countries like Australia, Canada and the UK, and call for this to stop?

John Terris, Media Matters in NZ.

Public protections

We are fortunate that contributors to the NZ Herald and BusinessDesk are willing to take up issues demonstrating the lack of protections for New Zealand consumers, most recently banking scams (Lane Nichols), the supermarket oligopoly (Sasha Borissenko) and the loophole of the so-called wholesale investor regime (Maria Slade).

With the new Ministry for Regulation in the offing, it is likely that these protections – such as they are – will be weakened rather than strengthened. The danger is that the watchword under this new regime will be “caveat emptor” (buyer beware) or, more colloquially, “you are on your own mate!” We will then be left with just the media to call out these deficiencies.

Peter Davis, Kingsland.

Great escape

You’ve got to hand it to Tom Phillips, who has apparently been hiding in heavy bush around Marokopa for several years with his three kids and amazingly has never been seen or caught by police or the military.

Surely there has to be a job waiting in the wings for him – something like an SAS soldier, for example, where he would come with most skills built right in, especially bushcraft.

But how is it that with all of today’s high technology, he is still able to avoid detection? To me, it seems something doesn’t quite add up.

Paul Beck, West Harbour.

Te reo truths

Yesterday’s Herald editorial (October 8) praises Erica Stanford for her efforts to turn around our falling education standards, as well as the debacle over the school building programme.

Interestingly, the fallout from taking $30 million in te reo funding for mathematics has been labelled racist by much of the mainstream media and of course the political Opposition (who haven’t produced any solutions to our sad education decline). As the editorial points out, the $30m course is one of many that are available. There are plenty of free classes – just go online. Let’s get more accurate reporting on this issue.

Ian MacGregor, Greenhithe.

Performance pay

Ever since I remember, the National Party has wanted to impose performance pay on teachers. With charter schools, it has finally (through the back door) done it.

In the past, teachers’ unions have fought vigorously to prevent performance pay. The current chronic teacher shortage gives them a good weapon to fight back with, which should make the next two or three months interesting.

The irony, of course, is that if the same principle – pay based on performance – was applied to politicians, many would be gone before breakfast.

Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.

AT priorities

I have no sympathy for Auckland Transport’s financial woes after I witnessed five workers last week planting grass (?) in pots on top of the roof of our local bus stop.

Given reported constraints on the transport budget, how can this be priority expenditure? Presumably, this project will also require ongoing maintenance and cost over the summer. Are all Auckland’s bus shelters getting the same treatment? What is the cost benefit and why is it even happening?

Quentin Miller, Te Atatū South.