New workers in New Zealand need to be aware we have minimum wages and rigorous employer rights. Photo / 123rf, File
Intolerable exploitation
Time and again we read of the exploitation of recent immigrants from countries where such activities are rife. Every new immigrant should have a compulsory session with Internal Affairs, MBIE or the appropriate agency to explain the employment system in New Zealand; the minimum wage, the role of government departments and police. They should know that in our country employee abuse is not tolerated and they can approach authorities without fear.
John Little, Milford.
Unpretty polly
Tax cuts! Tax cuts! Chaos! Chaos! A parrot in a cage could possibly be taught to say these two phrases fairly quickly. If shouted often enough, people would begin to believe it. This year’s election campaign is shaping up to be shallow, lacking in substance with a bit of racism and propaganda thrown in for good measure. Climate crisis, local environment crisis, health crisis, education crisis, balance of payments, the list goes on. Our species is facing increasing challenges and many politicians are clearly out of their depth. Everyone wants more money, much of which doesn’t exist. Whoever holds the reins of office in a few months’ time has a very unenviable task ahead of them.
Bruce Fletcher, Remuera.
A saw point
Following my letter (NZ Herald, January 18) it was pleasing to see the report finally released on forestry practices in the Wairoa and Gisborne areas. The persistence of EDS and many others has paid off. I wrote to Stuart Nash about it but never received a reply. I note that the Gisborne District Council comes under the gun: “The panel found that the forest industry has lost its social licence in Tairawhiti due to a culture of poor practices — facilitated by the Gisborne District Council’s capitulation to the permissiveness of the regulatory regime... these factors have caused environmental damage, particularly to land and waterways, and they have put the health and safety of people and their environment at risk.” Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz said the report was harsh and some commentary unsubstantiated. Perhaps she should review the findings from the storm in 2018. To repeat a well-known phrase, “you have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting”. Let’s hope the Tairawhiti region doesn’t have to wait another 10 years for action.
Steve Jardine, Glendowie.
Independence illusion
The idea that New Zealand maintains an “independent” foreign policy defies reality. Labour PM Norman Kirk emphasised this fashionable trend in the early 1970s and successive Governments have attempted to follow. True “independence” in most fields in life commonly requires size and considerable expenditure to succeed. Our size is modest and our ability to spend in foreign affairs is limited. More health, education, and infrastructure spending at home is clearly needed. Labour PM Fraser understood such reality well through hard-won WWI and WWII political experience. As more recently did National PM Holyoake when powerful long-standing friends sought our help in Southeast Asia. In essence, both chose to support old well-established friendships. The price of a truly independent foreign policy is a luxury we cannot afford. Minnows attempting to stand alone tend to be eaten. It’s important we in turn also help our smaller Island neighbours. Aotearoa New Zealand needs reliable friends, plural. As with recent cyclones, sometimes we all have to pitch in and do what we can. As in Ukraine. nationally and internationally as trouble looms large.
Rob Munro, Wadestown.
Gaseous dreams
Buried in the middle of Jack Ewing’s article on Norway’s high level of EVs (NZ Herald, May 12), is the reason why. Its electricity grid is 97 per cent hydro-dominated and it earns NZ$284 billion annually from gas and oil exploration. He omitted to mention also that Norway, a similar size to New Zealand, has built a NZ$1.4 trillion sovereign wealth fund derived from gas and oil export which enables them to offer extensive incentives to go EV. Dream on, New Zealand.
Nick Nicholas, Greenlane.
Māori votes
Interesting that Meka Whaitiri should claim a “commitment to Māori voters” as one of her main reasons for crossing over to Te Pāti Māori. Perhaps she should have studied the numbers more closely. A cursory analysis of the Māori seats shows that the Māori voters to which she is so committed overwhelmingly support Labour by a margin close to three to one. Adding their 60,000 electoral and 23,813 party votes together, Te Pāti Maori secured less than 84,000 votes compared to the Labour combined total of 209,000 in 2020. With close to 600,000 Māori eligible to vote, the fact that only 10 per cent give the tick to Te Pāti Māori makes a nonsense of John Tamihere’s claim that the party speaks for the Māori voter.
John Denton, Eskdale.
For and against
Having spent a couple of decades falling about laughing at most of the New Zealand First leader’s antics, I’ve just read his piece (NZ Herald, May 12) on our constitution and the monarchy. For that alone, he may well secure an extra box ticked come October 14. But we need to have a chat first about that cameo appearance on the less than grassy knoll in February 2022.
Gerard Rennie, Chartwell.
Small fruit
Kiwifruit farmers are unable to get the size correct for export due to the floods and are going to ditch all the undersized fruit and feed them to the pigs. Perhaps a major trucking company could offer its services, and deliver them free to Auckland stopping off at local primary and intermediate schools on the way dropping off a bin at each.
Chas Foxall, Meadowbank.
Practiced deception
Sometimes an arresting line or two appears in a book. In Graham Hurley’s “Truth and Lies: Last Flight to Stalingrad”, we read: ‘This was the age of the lie big or small. Truth filleted for what might be useful and then tossed aside. Deception is practised on the grandest scale. Whole nations, millions of Volk, misled, manipulated, lied to. [Nehman] was part of that. He understood the power of the lie, the artful sleight of hand, the dark sorcery that turned black into white, and good into evil.” Perhaps we hoped that the end of WWII might have seen the beginning of the end of such deliberate deception, yet it appears to be accelerating in volume and outreach. What is frightening is how accurately the quote fits the vast body of disinformation currently being promoted within and beyond democracies to deliberately sow discord and undermine Western political systems. For all democracy’s weaknesses, other options involve dictatorial, police-state, and military-dominating models to enforce their tyrannies. That just a day ago another audience could applaud Donald Trump’s perpetuation of demonstrably false assertions must concern all for whom truth is essential for freedom.
John Marcon, Te Kauwhata.
Who trumps Trump?
It is said that people don’t confront Trump for fear of retaliation. Surely in a country with the population size of the US, there must be someone able to take him on? In the recent interview following his latest jury decision, he used his usual strategies to put his well-regarded questioner, doing her job, to the fire. There surely must be one person in the whole country (the greatest and most wonderful of countries: they don’t travel) with the skills and guts to take him on. Don’t they have even one clever, articulate, cunning person to outsmart him? Trump excels at facts, non-facts, lies and downright lies, insinuations, innuendoes, abuse, name-calling, bluster - sorry I’m running out of paper.
Barbara Matthews, Onehunga.
Bags of profit
The Green Party parades its accomplishment that stopped retailers from providing free plastic shopping bags to their customers in July 2019. At that time, Countdown replaced plastic bags with paper, at a cost of 10 cents each. Today paper shopping bags are provided by my local supermarket for 40 cents. A 400 per cent increase over four years. What was previously a cost item for the retailer is now a profit item, and the consumer loses - again.
Quentin Miller, Te Atatū South.
Scan-do people
I was sent to the Greenlane Clinical Centre for an x-ray- no appointment was necessary. I waited eight minutes. The X-rays took about 30 minutes with the kindest of staff coping with me. It’s not all gloom and doom with our health services - quite the contrary, I have found.
Edwina Duff, Parnell.
On fairness
I wonder whether people realise that when they claim something is “fair” it is interpreted they mean that this will give them the greatest amount of money for the least amount of work. Bruce Robertson, Westmere.
On slash
As with mining, logging companies and forestry landowners should be required to restore and rehabilitate the land to the condition it was in before planting operations began. Bruce Tubb, Devonport.
On roads
Transport Minister Michael Wood announces there will be no significant cuts to Labour’s road-building programme. They just won’t get around to building them. Steve Dransfield, Karori.
On Budget 2023
Just smile and wave boys. Smile and wave. The penguins on the economy. Ian Doube, Rotorua.
On monarchy
Thank you for the article by Winston Peters (NZH, May 12) on the relevance of King Charles III to New Zealand today. Well written, informative and food for thought. Murray Reid, Cambridge.
On Warriors
I for one gave up watching the Warriors due to their inconsistency. The marginal calls would often go the way of the opposition. Don’t blame the ref, just play better. Mark Young, Ōrewa.
Liam Dann: Global food prices are falling - why not here?
In mid-2021 Grant Robertson said: “One of the consequences at the moment, given the fact that we’re recovering in such a constrained environment, is that we’re seeing some inflation as a result of that but I think ... New Zealanders can be proud of where the economy has reached.”Are we proud? I’ve said this so many times and I’ll say it again. Senior ministers have to be extremely qualified for their roles, irrespective of the parties in power. That means a degree strongly related to their portfolios and over a decade of experience reflecting strong leadership of delivery. Never before in our history has so much taxpayer’s money been squandered on projects that were not fit for purpose, were racially biased, or just became another u-turn. Jacinda said, “let’s do it”. I say, enough. Mike H.
Well, when you raise the minimum wage by 44 per cent, print money and spend $1b a week more, you get high inflation. It’s not that hard to figure that out. James C.
We give minimum wage earners 30+ per cent in increases in the last few years so the supermarkets add it on to food, the increased cost of transport fuel the supermarkets get is added on to food, increased power prices and rents for supermarkets is added on to food. Why? because this Government increased prices and taxes which created high inflation by borrowing the extra billions that were not needed, and with nearly the highest current account deficit in the world. We are going to be in trouble until we get rid of this government in October. David S.
The problem is much greater than who is in government. It is about the structure of our economy. Alan M.
The capitalists always blame the government. This makes the capitalists look innocent. Brian W.
The 19-year-old disappeared without her wallet or mobile phone.