Not content with this shake-up, he has now moved on to teacher-only days during term (NZ Herald, Sept 30) and can produce no evidence linking them to increased truancy numbers.
On average, New Zealand teachers work at least 10 hours extra weekly outside of their contracted hours, so Seymour’s tinkering with teacher-only days can be construed as ignorance combined with disrespect.
Given that the Act leader did a degree in engineering and philosophy, he might be better suited to instituting a longitudinal study about how road cones really feel sitting day after day after day with no discernible purpose.
Mary Hearn, Glendowie.
Wake-up call
Not a day goes by when there is not a plea/demand to the Government from a person, organisation, company, trade union or whatever for financial assistance.
Many are reasonable and justifiable, but this country has to wake up. There is just no money available, times are hard and are going to get much harder before easing.
Gone are the days of the be-kind culture, where money was printed/borrowed then quickly despatched without checks and balances, in many cases for nothing more than political reasons.
There will no longer be money wasted on pie-in-the-sky projects such as the millions spent on preparing for a cycle lane on the harbour bridge needed because a minority thought it to be a good idea, or the even more millions on the rapid rail from the CBD to the airport. At a cost of billions of dollars, given the proposed route and number of stops, a ride in a rickshaw may have been quicker.
Heart-breaking though it may be, NZ just has to face the fact that this country is in a serious financial situation and justifiable or not there is no money to meet most of the desperately-needed Government assistance requests.
Rob Peterken, Auckland.
The nuclear option
A country’s energy security generally means having reliable, sustainable and affordable energy sources. Recent southern lake levels and two pulp mill closures would give the lie to that definition. Countries must also build energy resilience.
Methanex, the country’s largest gas user, will shortly move to a single-plant operation freeing up gas to feed standby gas-fired electricity generation plants. Energy resilience, I think not.
Approximately 80% of the country’s energy supply comes from renewables, hydro, wind, solar and geothermal. The first three suffer intermittency, fickle rainfall patterns and unreliable wind strength or sunshine hours.
Data centres and AI need energy 24/7. Both absorb staggering amounts of energy powering high-end microchips.
New Zealand’s extraordinary reliance on renewables is a significant vulnerability and will be exacerbated with the future energy demands of data storage and AI.
Time for a fresh look at this country’s energy policy, with nuclear on the list. France generates 70% of its energy employing safe modern nuclear plants and China is building nearly half the world’s nuclear plants presently under construction.
Malcolm Johnson, Cambridge.
Energy prices
According to the Mercury Energy CEO, “Demand has basically been flat from 2006 to 2023″ (NZ Herald, Oct 2).
Why are prices rising to record levels? It’s a market and regulatory failure. It’s staggering that majority state-owned generating companies are making record profits. While industries are failing and rural towns are getting decimated.
Obviously there’s nothing called social responsibility when it comes to corporate New Zealand, even when you and I own them.
Kushlan Sugathapala, Epsom.
PM’s profits
I wonder if the media and left-wing party supporters would have been in such a lather if Christopher Luxon had sold parcels of shares held in successful companies such as Infratil and Mainfreight, or partially financed a successful start-up then onsold at considerable profit.
These realised investments would also have returned tax-free capital gains but because of the obsession with property values and sales his gain from selling two of his becomes national news, whereas share sales would most likely have flown under the radar.
Gavin Baker, Glendowie.
