Contact tracing should be compulsory
Surely this is the time to make the Covid Tracer app scanning and/or signing in compulsory countrywide.
The out-of-control Covid situation in the whole rest of the world, most worryingly our nearest neighbour, is more frightening now than it was in round one.
I know that our Government
and health authorities have done a tremendous job thus far, but the public have become scarily complacent.
I stood and watched at least 50-80 people enter an Albany supermarket on Monday and I was the only one that had scanned in. I was horrified.
Please wake up people, I'm doing this to protect you as much as me and I'd feel a bucket load happier and safer if you would just reciprocate.
Gavin Sheehan, Torbay.
Decisive action
Whether your editorial on Auckland beach health hazards (NZ Herald, January 7) will have any impact on the decision-makers from Auckland Council, remains to be seen, in years to come.
Maybe it is a good thing that Auckland's highest polling central government representative, Chlöe Swarbrick is in the game, because, quite frankly, it's an insult to Auckland residents and businesses to see how they have been treated by past and present council representatives.
Years of coning-off entire inner-city blocks, drinking water and wastewater inefficiencies and north-bound harbour crossing issues, all point to an urgent need for a shake-up, making Auckland liveable again in years to come, not decades away.
She certainly appears to have what it takes to act for the greater good of her constituents, rather than to feed her personal ego, something that cannot be said for the apparently shambolic state of Auckland Council's representatives.
Let's hope something good comes out of her presence, because apparently Auckland's political mismanagement seems to have been compounding, due to the old school's way of hanging on to protocols - or lack thereof - that have not served its residents and businesses over the last decade.
René Blezer, Taupō.
Spent force
Nothing points up more the difference between Labour and National's economic and political management positions than does Labour's insistence on raising the basic wage by 5 per cent, in spite of MBIE's advice to the contrary.
Socialist governments "spend it". Liberal conservative ones create wealth and adopt policies that suit the economic circumstances of the time.
Labour chooses to ignore the harmful impact of its economic policies particularly on small businesses in favour of its worker voter base.
Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.
Treaty perspective
Over a period of 25 years, and 73 settlements the total amount granted by the Waitangi Tribunal is $2.2 billion. This compares with $1.6 billion given by taxpayers to bail out investors in South Canterbury Finance when it went bottom-up, and it's about the same amount that it costs us for two months' superannuation. Many iwi have managed their settlement money wisely and have created wealth for their whānau, and that's credit to them.
Many iwi are using proceeds from Treaty of Waitangi settlements to fix longstanding problems facing their people, investing more in social housing, savings schemes and health insurance.
Susan Grimsdell, Auckland Central.
Inside job
I think the two inquiries Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis and chief executive of Aotearoa prisons Jeremy Lightfoot are setting up to investigate the Waikeria Prison protest will be a cover-up, protecting themselves and other senior Corrections staff; a waste of time and taxpayers' money.
If an inquiry is to have any credibility and a chance of changing things for the better, it needs to be carried out by a respected person who is completely independent of Corrections, such as a judge, or even better, Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier, who has already investigated conditions at Waikeria and found them to be cramped and unhygienic.
That he went to the prison unannounced last year to check conditions shows he had a serious intention to find out what was really going on there.
Boshier has said since the protest that he is considering conducting such an inquiry. I hope he will. He has the statutory authority to carry it out.
Then hopefully there will be a big change, long overdue, to the systemic racism and inhumane conditions that have caused the five day protest at Waikeria last week.
Genevieve Forde, Whangaparāoa.