New housing subdivisions in Huapai, northwest Auckland, contribute to traffic congestion as the main road remains a two-lane corridor. Photo / Sylvie Whinray, File
Forgotten people
The Transmission Gully project cost $1.25 billion and now serves 35,000 vehicles per day. The Waikato expressway cost $1.28 billion and serves 20,000 vehicles per day. Nothing has been spent on the two-lane road from Kumeu to Brigham Creek, but that road caters for 36,000 vehicles per day. The locals are wondering why they appear to be so badly ignored by Auckland Transport and the Government when others get lavish highways. For the last eight years, the people of Kumeu/Huapai have been asking for a rail service. A study shows that it is possible to run five peak-time trains between 5.30am and 8.05am and hourly thereafter, with the current infrastructure. Railcars currently in storage in Auckland could perform this task. Failing that, KiwiRail could re-enliven the many SA/SD carriages in storage in Taumarunui. This would reduce congestion, reduce greenhouse gases, reduce road wear and tear and would treat the people of this area with respect rather than the contempt AT has shown toward them for the last eight years. Perhaps our new mayor and council would like to look at the plight of the people of the northwest.
Niall Robertson, chair, Public Transport Users Association.
Bottom lines
Mark Lewis-Wilson’s idea of prosperity via a knowledge of economics is not mine. The last few decades should have taught us that monetary “bottom lines” only measure a nebulous value we call dollars. Bottom lines certainly do not ensure work-life balance. These days most adults are expected to work at least eight hours a day, often six days a week for many families to obtain basic needs. Most employers are constantly battling to make ends meet too. The last 30 years have clearly shown Friedmanite economics merely increases the gap between the few rich, and those who just get by, plus those who do not even manage that. Global warming is going to prolong tough times. We need to ditch our far-right capitalist system and get back to fairer divisions of our national wealth, including time: for our children’s sake. They need adults at home, and not just to wash the mud from their duvets. Change can only begin with a rejigged taxation system including sliding scales on salaries and taxes on unearned income. It is not “the economy, stupid” that is of utmost importance, it is sustainable balances of everything that exists on our globe.
Juliet Leigh, Pt Chevalier.
Building apace
The Government is supporting a need for the Natural and Built Environment Bill, blaming the rigour and processing costs of the RMA for slowing up the housing supply. But politicians seem to have forgotten that, in Auckland for much of the past decade, housing intensification was enabled under the Unitary Plan Act (UPA) under urgency. Then the Enabling Housing Supply Amendment Act (EHSA) came under urgency in December 2021. Had the RMA remained in place, together with the right of appeal to the Environment Court, removed under these replacement Acts, we may have been spared much of the terrible damage from the recent flooding in Auckland. It is deeply concerning that the EHSA has been given effect without any assessment of the potential effects in each area to be intensified and accumulatively. This is just licensing development, not proper planning to ensure the provision of quality housing in safe, healthy, functional, and attractive environments.
Victoria Lowe, Shamrock Park.
Rising rents
I was appalled but not surprised by Auckland Property Investor’s Association President Kristin Sutherland (NZ Herald, February 3) saying rent rises were “not landlords using the severe flooding events to make even more profit but simply market forces at work”. To hike rents for incredibly stressed people at a time like this is beyond belief and just shows how incredibly callous some people are. The humane thing to do would be to lower rents for a period of time to allow people to get back on their feet.
Gil Laurenson, Eastern Beach.
Clearly obstructive
Oh, how I wish that the “drongos” employed by the Auckland Council would take note of the causes of most of the flood damages around Auckland due to a lack of maintenance in streams, drains, and culverts. Most of us are sick of being ignored when we report drains, etc, blocked with debris. I still have an email that I saved from Auckland City when I requested that 10 shopping trollies be removed from a stream in Pukekohe. The reply was that it was the supermarkets’ responsibility. I replied that when flooding occurs from the blocked stream it will certainly be Auckland Council’s responsibility. The council must have thought it was so clever, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars by not doing regular maintenance and ignoring requests from the public pointing out foreseeable problems. In the end, it is going to cost tens of millions of dollars for the clean-up.
J Turner, Pukekohe.
Northern exposure
I see that there is a small faction calling for restraint in the barrage of criticism of the mayor. Not many people showed up to vote in the mayoral elections. I was one such because I had familiarised myself with Wayne Brown’s track record when he was mayor of the Far North. It is a great pity that those who cast a vote for Brown did not first ascertain what sort of a fist he made of leading the Far North District. The Far North has never been famous for its unanimity, but you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone up there who isn’t still rejoicing that Auckland has taken him on.
Bruce Rogan, Mangawhai.
Bridging gaps
Simon Wilson (NZ Herald, February 6) writes of iwi and non-Māori New Zealanders “crossing the bridge of hope” together. In the same edition, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer writes of “the obligation to not just resist but neutralise colonisation and reclaim iwi rights to live with dignity to self-determination”. She makes clear that “this is not the watered-down co-governance but about our right to self-governance”. Ngarimu Blair recently spoke similarly that “co-governance is an obstruction to self-determination and sovereignty.” So there is a wide disconnect between Chris Hipkins wanting to clarify what co-governance means and that it seems Māori leaders don’t want a bar of it. Perhaps the place to start is how iwi leaders see “neutralising colonisation, self-determination and sovereignty” actually operating in a multicultural, modern liberal democracy. While politicians and iwi leaders are talking past each other, neither is able to articulate a workable solution. That seems a bridge too far.
June Kearney, West Harbour.
Conciliatory leader
I smiled when I heard the mayor of the Far North, Moko Tepania refer to himself as a “hori”. It was so pleasant to hear this young politician speak with such friendliness and extend a warm welcome to all New Zealanders to experience Waitangi and the Far North. Moko, in my view, would be an outstanding Māori ambassador to promote more harmonious race relations without all the historical baggage, while conceding that British settlement with its faults has contributed so much good for all New Zealand.
Wayne McNeil, Henderson.
Sub-contract cover
When there is a failure in the construction industry, it is usually the smaller subcontractor that is hit the hardest. Under the Construction Contracts Act, a head contractor is able to retain an amount due to a subbie to ensure performance of the subbie’s work. But the amount retained is part of the contractor’s working capital (cash flow). If the contractor fails, the retention is not protected. The subbie joins other unsecured creditors who wait in line behind secured creditors and Inland Revenue. There is change afoot. Legislation giving (hopefully) greater protection is before Parliament. Retention money is to be held in a separate account with reporting obligations on the contractor and penalties for non-compliance. But the funds are still held with the contractor, with the temptation to access when things start to go awry. The legislation does not seem to give the retention monies any preferential status (like wages due to contractors employees and resultant PAYE due to the tax office). Why can’t these retention monies be held in trust with a legal firm, similar to deposits paid on a property purchase? That would give subbies the security they need.
Des Trigg, Rothesay Bay.
Smoked out
I once owned a small takeaways shop where I also sold cigarettes. Cigarettes were just a pain; very little profit margin for the prices we had to charge. I only sold them as a customer service, and they certainly added to the turnover figures, but a huge proportion of any profit on them went to government taxes. I honestly can’t see it decimating the industry if they were to be banned altogether.
Len Hill, Whangārei.
What’s up, dock?
Russell Mayn’s opinion as Auckland secretary of the Maritime Union of New Zealand (NZ Herald, February 6) on keeping the Port of Auckland operating as a working port makes perfect sense. It made sense before the floods took some main roads out of our essential supply routes and it makes even more sense in hindsight. His comments about councils using ports as cash cows and decades of letting the market decide or rather a few vested interests rings so true as I’ve observed in the years of threat hanging over Auckland’s port. And closing the Marsden Pt refinery may have been more a political manoeuvre by the government and Marsden Pt board, then sold to the oil companies, rather than the other way around - an impression I gleaned from attending the special meeting of shareholders to get approval for the foolish decision I spoke against. If Mayor Wayne Brown were to persist with his agenda to close the port down after recent weather events, then some scrutiny of whose interests may be behind the move should be undertaken.
Coralie van Camp, Remuera.
High road
Rather than wasting time assessing the damage to SH25A, we should invoke emergency powers and cut 2km of new road through the hill north of the slip. Forget the resource consent process. This is an emergency. Cut a new road and save the towns on the East Coast of the Coromandel. We did it for the Kaikoura Earthquake and we can do it now to save the Coromandel. Find some really old highway engineers and get them out of retirement. Show the young fellas how it should be done. Enough hand-wringing already. Just push the spoil into the new gully created by the rain.
John Caldwell, Howick.
On Luxon
National’s appointment of Mr Luxon as party leader is, maybe, a failing experiment? Paul Blakeney, Waihi.
On Brown
One has to wonder how big a burr under the Prime Minister’s saddle Mayor Brown must be that he would have to appoint a minister to oversee him. Kerry Wickman, Kawakawa.
Congratulations to Wayne Brown. The naysayers thought he couldn’t do anything but, look, he’s announced another inquiry. That’s Mr Fix-it. Mark Nixon, Remuera.
On Tiriti
Waitangi Day is the day Pākehā and Māori try to come closer in the political, governing, and cultural arenas. It is a work in progress. The operative word is progress. Sivaswamy Mohanakrishnan, Mt Roskill.
On thieves
Why do some people think they have the right to steal anything, let alone a whole trolley of groceries? To me this is not the result of poverty, it’s just a lack of morals and decency. Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.
On cigarettes
If the dairies can’t make money by selling goods that don’t harm the community, they shouldn’t be in business. Andrew Parsons, Ōrākei.
Simon Wilson: Climate will be the election issue
Simon Wilson says climate change will play a part in the upcoming elections. So Three Waters, co-governance, a government forcing its ideologies upon us, poverty, crime, hospitals on the verge of collapse, surgical waitlists blowing out, inflation, and food prices won’t play a part in how people vote but climate change will? Get real. People will be voting on the cost of living and how Labour has pushed through divisive policies and spent billions of taxpayer dollars with no tangible benefits or outcomes. Climate change won’t get a look in. The article also says there are over 500 family violence callouts a day in NZ. The major contributing factors for family violence in New Zealand are social and economic disadvantage regarding education, employment, health, housing, and income, things all made worse under Labour. Here’s an election prediction; Labour will be on the receiving end of the largest defeat seen in NZ by a sitting government that once had over 50 per cent support. Mark Y.
Polls scaring the heck out of you then Mark? Alfred T.
Not at all. It’s the “dead cat bounce”. Explain how if you think Labour is doing such a good job their support has plummeted from 51 per cent to where it is now in 18 months. Also, can you tell us all why the trends have consistently shown a downward slide for Labour and an upward trajectory for National? Mark Y.
You have it explained to you every week, Mark. Fifty-one per cent was never going to be sustainable. Every incumbent government the world over has lost support as global inflation takes hold. Dan M.
Not to mention that whatever NZ does regarding climate change, it will not make any significant difference at all. Mark R.
Quite possibly the most out-of-touch article I’ve read in some time. You need to get out a press the flesh a bit more Simon. Gareth B.
Fantastic article, I totally agree. Vicki C.
The 19-year-old disappeared without her wallet or mobile phone.