Letters: Income insurance, regional parks, MIQ, Charlotte Bellis, and Georgina Campbell

Finance Minister Grant Robertson with the proposed New Zealand Income Insurance Scheme discussion document. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Wealth distribution
The Government's planned income insurance scheme (NZ Herald, February 3) is not the solution to support laid-off workers. State responsibility is essential, not an easily privatised "insurance scheme" that will miss out the many casual, under the table and usually low-paid workers and may conceal and undermine state provision.
Unemployment benefits and conditions need to be raised to give a living wage to all those out of work. According to Bernard Hickey, since the onset of Covid back in December, 2019, owners of homes and businesses have become $952b richer whilst the poorest are now $400m more in debt.
The solution now is for the Government to quickly and significantly reduce inequity and to reverse the current distribution of wealth. Immediate action is needed to significantly increase the living wage, provide employee status for pseudo contractors, to give generous state unemployment benefits and deliver a massive provision of state houses and easily affordable state home loans to stop the current growing inequity and hardship.
Anna Lee, Pt Chevalier.

Regional parklands
A proposal to break up the unique regional park network and place parts within a proposed new Hauraki Gulf Marine Park and possibly under co-governance bodies comes at a critical time. It is hidden within very general policies in the complex 500-page review of the Draft Regional Park Management Plan. Submissions close on March 4.
No logical reasons have been provided as to how the parks or the gulf will benefit, but it could be exceedingly detrimental to regional parks and to Auckland residents. No data has been provided to show parks damaging the gulf that would necessitate such a change. In fact, we can only think of reasons the parks are contributing to the health of the gulf.
A commitment is needed from Auckland Council not to break up the regional park system and have clearer policies to keep the regional park network in its entirety. Any reference to moving regional parks to the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park must be deleted from the Draft Management Plan. All future changes to or significant works in regional parks need to be specified and discussed openly through the formal management plan change process before being implemented.
Arnold R Turner, ARA Parks chair, 1963-68. Bill Burrill, past chair ARC Parks, vice chairman HGF, patron FOR Parks. Bronwen Turner, chair Friends of Regional Parks. Kit Howden, deputy chair, Friends of Regional Parks.

Cruel to be kind
I have read quite a few headlines recently referring to "cruel" MIQ but the only MIQ I know of is the "kind" MIQ.
New Zealand's kind MIQ has saved well over 5000 lives. Ireland, a country with the same population as NZ has had over 6000 deaths from Covid. Sweden, with twice our population, has had almost 16,000 Covid deaths.
How can our MIQ which is an important part of our pandemic defence, be called unkind? My son-in-law who went to visit his sick father, is trapped in the UK and can't come home because there is no spot for him in MIQ. He took a risk. That doesn't mean that MIQ is unkind. It's is Covid-19 that is unkind. Unkind would be if you or someone you cared for was part of the over 5000 NZ lives that would have been lost without MIQ and the other "cruel" measures that have been taken to save lives.
John Caldwell, Howick.

Out gunned
The Government seems to have met its match with Ms Bellis.
As a war correspondent for a leading news agency, she would not walk away from a fight; that's not what they do.
So "coming home" as soon as possible, as Winston Peters urged last year, is not part of her makeup or her job. More power to her arm.
Alan Milton, Cambridge.

It is life
Although we sympathise with Georgina Campbell (NZ Herald, February 2) and her friends, they need to be reminded that life has been very hard in previous generations. We cared for each other then and we care for your situation now.
In the two world wars especially, life was hard. Men left their countries to fight in awful conditions. Some never returned or were badly injured, mentally and physically. So there was a labour shortage and women had to fill the gaps - not too much dancing for many. And no husbands or children for many women.
We needed ration coupons to buy food and goods - if they were available as the supply chain was much worse than now. And in WWI there was the terrible flu epidemic without the medical help of this century. It is hard, but it is life.
R. Edgar, Mt Albert.

Emulating us
That Christopher Luxon seems keen to follow the pandemic policies (including RATs) of overseas countries is almost laughable. Surely we are the ones to be emulated, not them. Our policy-makers have found ways to keep the economy and the population relatively healthy, with a very low death rate and nearly normal life for many. The hospitals are expected to cope now with the Omicron surge because we've managed to hold it off while marshalling medical resources and raising further our vaccination rates. Yes, other nations have more freedom and less MIQ at the moment (at high cost). But copy them? Hah. Our decisions, our thinkers and our outcomes will soon be proven best.
B Darragh, Auckland Central.

Class chasm
What a thoughtful and well-written article by Josie Pagani (NZ Herald, February 2). The Labour Party and its Wellington beltway advisors are the most middle class and conservative left-wing government ever.
They are so out of touch with the people they say they represent it's no wonder poverty and deprivation are prevalent in that very group.
None of them appear to understand that outside the rarified bubble they exist in, real people are struggling to survive with the policies they put in place.
Who would ever have thought that a Labour-led Government would take from the asset-poor to give to the asset-rich?
James Archibald, Birkenhead.

Pinged pensioners
The case of a Kiwi pensioner couple (NZ Herald, February 3), stranded in Australia, being landed with a pension repayment bill for $16,000, provided our Prime Minister with a golden opportunity to show her consideration and kindness by using her discretionary powers to expunge the debt.
The fact that she did nothing to help reflects just how out of touch she seems to have become.
To avoid any charges of favouritism, she could then have quickly changed the policy so that other overseas pensioners in similar positions would not be penalised.
Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.

Roll with it
There is an overload of dissatisfaction, anxiety, anger and misery invading our increasingly divided New Zealand society.
Where is the "Keep Calm & Carry On" mentality of our older generations now? We could do with a good dose of it. Write it down - stick it on your walls.
All the whingeing, complaining, picking, prodding, blaming is so harmful to read, watch, listen to and witness day after day... Come on Kiwis, there's a queue banging at the door to come home. Why? Because it's a beautiful little country to live in, in peace and harmony.
Have gratitude for lives saved and patience with solutions delivery - there's no handbook on this one.
Janette Anderson, Paeroa.

Short & sweet

On National
With National's new focus on people, can we expect the return of Ruth Richardson as Minister of Social Welfare? Will those beneficiaries with long memories welcome her style of kindness and empathy? Murray Reid, Cambridge.

On Bellis
Since when was informing the New Zealand public that our officials in Kabul had tried to help her an invasion of privacy? S P McMonagle, Greenhithe.

On Prebble
Your columnist Richard Prebble is an asset, telling us sober truths about our predicament. I found myself agreeing with every point in this week's column. Chris Kiwi, Mt Albert.

On sport
Minister of Sport Grant Robertson has arranged for the Women's Cricket World Cup to have crowds of multiple hundreds in pods separated from each other. Good. Why then can't the NZ Golf Open and Super Rugby Pacific have the same rules? Gary Carter, Gulf Harbour.

On Tonga
How about Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have a race to provide Tonga with a secure, free communication system instead of having to rely on a crusty old undersea cable? Miranda Henwood, Otūmoetai.

On Omicron
It seems logical to me that the O in Omicron should be pronounced in the same way as the O in "ominous". Ian Dally, Royal Oak.

The Premium Debate

Income insurance scheme

Just what businesses need now. More costs. They will put their prices up from now on to help prepare for this extra cost. It effectively will mean that all employees will have to give their employee a 1.39 per cent pay increase so will include this in further wage negotiations. Bottom line, this will be inflationary and will mean making someone redundant easier. Grant Robertson stated inflation will be a lot lower by 2023; I bet you he is wrong like he has been wrong about just about anything else he has said. The Government's policies are a major contributor to this high inflation and they aren't changing. Guy M.

Again the lower income group that can ill-afford it are smacked by another "no new taxes" in disguise. Does this Government actually ever talk to anybody in the real working people world? Pim V.

Make it voluntary, treat Kiwis as adults. Geoff W.

Announcing $3 billion taxes when low-and-middle-income households struggle to pay rent, groceries and rent. Not only they're incompetent at running the country but on top of it, they are awful politicians. Poor New Zealand. Thierry M.

We already have unemployment benefit. Why duplicate another system - more cost, more bureaucracy, more jobs for the boys? We already have redundancy legislation and insurance is already available to those who want it. Also more unintended consequences down the line. This sets up a two-tier system with those on a benefit getting much less. How long before the advocates start calling for a level playing field and more funding? As for the $3 billion price tag, obviously peanuts to this Government. Anna S.