Letters: Down and out in Auckland, refugees, quarantine and vaccinations

With some of the choices for emergency accommodation so daunting, is it any wonder people sleep on the streets? Photo / Florian Gaertner, via Getty Images, File

Victims of dreadful circumstances

I have just spent an afternoon with a friend, aged late 50s, who is suffering from depression and anxiety. The circumstances are irrelevant, however, how he has been treated and continues to be treated is nothing short of inhumane and disgusting.
Last year he was placed into emergency housing in a motel but was asked to move on as he was told the existing accommodation was too expensive.
He was then placed in accommodation with ex-prisoners and those deported from Australia. As he wasn't "one of them" he felt constantly threatened.
With help from my wife and myself and other friends he is now in a rather rough-and-ready hut with none of the amenities most accept are necessary, warmth, shelter, means to keep clean, means to feed oneself and toileting.
From his sickness benefit $50 each week is deducted to pay back the Government for the emergency housing that was provided for him.
The remaining $240 is all he has to feed himself, clothe himself and keep a roof over his head. He is one of thousands living in cars, friends' garages, under bridges, etc.
Is this fair? Is it humane? Is it an example of kindness from the Government?
Jim Radich, Red Beach.

Refugee selection

Craig Foster and Sonny Bill Williams have made a plea (NZ Herald, May 31) to the Australian Prime Minister to allow 150 refugees presently being held in Australia to be allowed into New Zealand.
While I appreciate the humanitarian motives, it would be better if they took a broader approach.
The 150 refugees in Australia are there because they have had the money and support to make it there and attempted to get in by illegal means, quite common in refugee situations.
However, when the UK government had Syrian refugees attempting to get to the UK via France, they took a much more practical approach.
The UK government simply said it would not allow any refugees to enter the UK by illegal means.
Instead, officials went to the Syrian refugee camps and allowed the families who had been in the camps the longest, to apply be allowed into the UK, over and above the UK's annual refugee quota.
These families did not have the wherewithal to get to the UK, even by illegal means, and had been waiting the longest to be considered.
Perhaps Foster, Williams and Jacinda Ardern could consider this much more humane approach.
Michael Walker, Blockhouse Bay.

Australian example

I sit stranded in Melbourne, a retired GP, observing the similarities and differences in Covid-19 management.
I think the New Zealand Government needs to take note of a number of lessons, especially as the current outbreak variant (B1.617) is clearly more infectious, continuing a worrying trend.
Isolation/quarantine in hotels is not ideal. Does MIQ stand for mixing and incubating quota?
Prepare for a significant escalation of contact tracing capability in advance of almost certain near-future Covid incursions.
Mass vaccination should be embarked upon with greater urgency, especially in Auckland, if it remains the main border and leak point. And vaccination should be compulsory for aged care workers.
Dr Richard Stirling, New Windsor.

Happily vaccinated

Having heard that the Covid-19 vaccination centre at Highbrook was taking "walk-ins" we took that opportunity last Sunday.
We were welcomed by a very happy and helpful army of Māori Wardens who produced a wheelchair for my 96-year-old husband and proceeded to take us to where we had to go. We could not have had better attention.
From the recording station followed by the very professional nurse who administered the vaccine injection and on to those who kept an eye on us until we were able to leave - for us, it worked like clockwork.
Thank you to all concerned, we had a fun Sunday afternoon's entertainment, we found only help and positivity. Why are there so many complaints??
Katherine McGarry, Remuera.

Case against redress

President Barack Obama on page 17 in his new book A Promised Land
offers his opinion that: "I saw how a political campaign based on racial redress, no matter how reasonable, generated fear and backlash and ultimately placed limits on progress."
As an elderly, impartial observer, I was wondering whether the people behind the current political campaign in New Zealand based on racial redress have a different opinion or whether they have little concern as to the fear and backlash which their campaign may cause?
Ray Peel, St Heliers.

Triple threat

I congratulate Mike Joy for his excellent column (NZ Herald, May 31). This is one of the very few articles that I have read that addresses the whole issue regarding our global environmental disaster. Global warming is just one component and reduces attention on two other important ones, pollution and habitat loss. All three have one other dominant driver, apart from population growth: consumption. We will not get on top of this problem without damping down consumption to a sustainable level. We need to stop worshipping at the altar of exponential growth and reduce it at least to linear or even more. Consumers should critically look at how much they spend or have been induced to spend on short-life items they do not really need or want. Manufactured products should be created with high quality to last for a long time and inbuilt redundancy penalised. A repair culture should be resurrected. It, and recycling, will reduce civilisation's insatiable hunger for the Earth's resources and might even create jobs for some of those who lose their job to artificial intelligence.
Bernhard Sporli, Epsom.

All consuming

The same edition of the Herald that had Dr Mike Joy (NZ Herald, May 31) telling us how we were outstripping the planet's capacity to accomodate our consumption also contained a supplement celebrating, indeed glorifying, the high-end real estate market, with headlines such as "What the mega-rich look for in a Kiwi home" and "More $1m-plus sales - and a desire for bigger and better homes".
These kind of contradictions are everywhere of course, especially in the media, but they beg the question; is there anything that can save us from ourselves?
Paul Judge, Hamilton.

Youth voice

I have I have walked with the young people on each of the climate change protests down Queen St.
I have seen their faces, listened to their voices and read their placards.They are crying out to be heard and acknowledged .
They know their future has a serious question mark over it and are aware that existing voters have not used their vote to protect the planet for future generations.
At least in terms of the climate change issue they might provide the impetus that the Government needs to make something useful happen.
Let's give 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote now.
David Tyler, Beach Haven.

Music boxes

Thanks Simon Wilson for all the visionary articles about how Queen St could be.
The new Britomart Station and adjoining safe pedestrian square are wonderful.
In Chicago, we saw planter boxes along busy downtown streets that lit up and played jazz as you walked by. If only.
Janet Drake, Remuera.

Free the bridge

Bevan Woodward is quite right (NZ Herald, May 31), Waka Kotahi has made spurious argument an art form.
Only today its spokesman was still claiming the gradient was an added difficulty. When asked why the protesters managed the grade so easily, he immediately dropped that and talked about the height of barriers. Obfuscation and procrastination is stock-in trade.
There is no reason why the bridge has to be a motorway at all. There are many stretches of the NZ roading network which are more dangerous to cyclists but NZTA doesn't seem concerned about them.
Let's have some relativity. Liberate the whole bridge.
Martin Ball, Kelston.

Fantasy ride

Oh goody, freedom to cycle over the Harbour Bridge, instead of inching along in traffic. Now I'll be able to get my old mum much more easily to her specialist appointments – she can share the pillion seat with the six bags of weekly groceries.
Other days, I'm sure I can get the three kids to their diverse commitments really easily, somehow, and the flatness of this city terrain and the predictability of its weather, are such advantages.
The best thing though, will be that the cycle lanes, like all the others around Tāmaki Makaurau, will only have a handful of bikes using them every hour, so I'll never be held up the way I am in my silly, impractical car. I can't wait.
P. Raine, Auckland Central.

Short & sweet

On rugby
Chris Rattue (NZ Herald, May 31) states the best team may miss the final. If you miss the final, you are not the best team. Anthony Browne, Birkdale.

On 501s
With the continuing return of New Zealanders from Australia, does this mean that the suggestion of one of our earlier Prime Ministers is now being reversed? That is, the average IQ of both countries is now being lowered. Morris Jones, Papakura.

On Osaka
Grand Slam organisers seem to have forgotten that freedom of speech includes the freedom to not speak. Andrew Draper, Glenbervie.

On bridge
Whatever happens, the Auckland bridge's restricted capacity needs to be used to benefit the largest possible number of users by such things as bus lanes and car-sharing before any exclusive bike lanes on the current bridge could be contemplated. Bruce Anderson, St Heliers.

Run a shuttle bus, modified to transport bicycles and riders, across the bridge on a continuous basis. Let's see how many cyclists turn up. Pim Venecourt, Papamoa.

Cyclists want a three-month trial lane in summer but not winter, which says it all for the worth of having a designated lane on the Harbour Bridge. Neil Hatfull, Warkworth.

Is there any difference between the illegal lane-blocking Mongrel Mob and this mob of mongrel bikers? No respect. Helen Acraman, Te Atatū Peninsula.