Letters: MPs deserve fair pay - so do nurses, teachers and cops; school can’t always be entertaining; dog’s death completely avoidable

"Why is it the most important groups in our society - doctors, nurses, teachers and police - have to threaten industrial action to receive a decent living wage?" Photo / Martin Sykes

OPINION

MPs deserve fair pay - so do nurses, teachers and cops

I have no beef with senior judges receiving the perks of office, or increases in government ministers’ salaries. Their work hours are tireless and, at times, unrewarding. We want the best in these positions, so pay (reward) is important.

I note, though, that both these important positions are set by the Remuneration Authority. Nice for them that neither group have to walk the streets with placards to win tiny increases in salaries. So why is it the most important groups in our society - doctors, nurses, teachers and police - have to threaten this action to receive a decent living wage? That doesn’t make sense.

These groups of professionals need to be placed under the Remuneration Authority’s control as well. No more protests, no more loss of valuable staff and no more insults thrown their way. That does make sense.

Emma Mackintosh, Birkenhead.

Lead by example

The Government has required public service departments to drastically reduce costs, which of course has resulted in hundreds of redundancies.

Who are, in fact, the senior public servants? MPs. So let them set an example by reducing their number from 120 back to 100.

Pay increase for MPs? Forget it.

Tony Sullivan, St Heliers.

Presidential pay?

Maybe someone could explain why the President of the United States gets a salary of US$400,000 ($680,200) while the Prime Minister of New Zealand is going to get $520,000.

The US is the largest economy in the world, but there has been no salary increase for the president’s position since 2001.

The economic policies of successive governments of all colours have got New Zealand nowhere in over 50 years. The incumbent leader in the US has an approval rating of 38 per cent in tough times. The approval rating of the incumbent in New Zealand is heading to the South Pole. Are we living in a parallel universe?

David Haysom, Campbells Bay.

Rates: Bad to worse

David Little in his letter (NZ Herald, May 1) draws attention to the proposed massive rates increases of many councils. It is much worse, as it is on top of the historically compounded rates rises of well above inflation for decades, not just “the past few years” - not infrequently at two to three times inflation.

This is simply accelerating out-of-control council expansion and waste. The councils managed on much less for decades with steady population growth.

The suggestion that central government should contribute more to councils is flawed and myopic. Who pays most of the taxes into government coffers? Ratepayers.

Rod McIntyre, St Heliers.

Teachers are not entertainers

Amongst the various reasons for high truancy rates in New Zealand schools outlined in “School truancy: Kids explain why they skip school” (NZ Herald, April 29) was boredom.

The fact is, teachers are not entertainers. Sometimes study is just hard grind, with the satisfaction coming from achieving a goal. If the reason not to attend school is boredom, many students are setting themselves up for a lifetime of boredom in mundane and unfulfilling jobs. Or maybe they could just go to clown school.

A solution to the problem of poor attendance was to quote international research which shows clear benefits to letting teens sleep longer in the morning. However, if this is the case, why has Singapore been touted as having one of the more successful education systems in the world with secondary schools starting their day at 7.30am?

Finally, there is the prospect of our perennial truant actually getting a job and the boss stating that they must start at 8am the next morning. How’s that going to work?

Bernard Walker, Mount Maunganui.

The price of boredom

Reading about school truancy and children saying they don’t find school interesting took me back to when my son was at intermediate school and I attended a parent-teacher meeting.

The teacher told me my son didn’t concentrate, didn’t take any notice of her, plus lots of other negative comments. I suggested that maybe he wasn’t interested. The teacher replied to me in a very angry voice that she wasn’t there to make it interesting. It appears nothing has changed.

Janet Bailey, Henderson.

Justice for Kippa

The mauling and death of Kippa the dog (NZ Herald, April 29) was completely avoidable. For a start, having several dogs from a “pack” unrestrained, and presumably unmuzzled, is dangerous and unpredictable.

Kippa did not stand a chance; even the walker was dragged along by the rest of the “pack” when the killing was taking place.

There need to be laws for dog-walkers of no more than four dogs at a time, on their own leashes in public places and greater walking areas, and muzzles if deemed necessary.

Why were the offending dogs not put down? Again, no consequences. A case of profit for the dog-walking company over the safety, and lives, of other animals.

Glenn Forsyth, Taupō.