Letters: Pet ownership requires responsibility; churlish reaction to Grant Robertson’s retirement from politics

Grant Robertson announces his retirement from politics. He will become vice chancellor at Otago University. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Step up to own a pet

Craig Hobbs, director of regulatory services at Auckland Council, has hit the nail on the head (NZ Herald, Feb 20). Irresponsible people who do not neuter their pets, fail to register dogs and keep them in poor conditions and unsocialised, need to step up.

Owning an animal brings with it a responsibility to feed, train, love and look after that animal - often for many years - and this can involve paying for medication in their older years.

To see what happens when certain sectors of the population own unsocialised large aggressive dogs you just have to read about the dog attacks and fatalities in Britain where Bully XL dogs are now banned. We have had fatalities here as well.

It’s that boring old word - responsibility - yet again. Step up, whether you own a pet, or have babies, it’s your responsibility to keep them safe.

If you don’t want to do that - then don’t have them. Simple really.

Jen Wallis, Blockhouse Bay.

Pleasing the majority

Reg Dempster’s letter (NZ Herald, Feb 20) complains that Chris Luxon’s address to the nation was pathetic. But I found it inspiring in that the real problems left by the previous Government were being identified, addressed and corrected.

Mr Dempster says it was a “no we can’t” speech and I saw it as a “yes we can” presentation, but it’s not the first time I have disagreed with his comments. He rails about fake news sweeping the National Government into power but the reality is Labour embarked on idealistic projects such as light rail, the walking bridge over Auckland Harbour, the confiscation (if not bribery) of councils’ water assets which the public were not briefed on and were solidly against.

Labour also spent unwisely and with little control and auditing of projects such as the $1.9 billion on mental health, light rail and the regional support programme, that even today, no one knows where the largest part of that money went to.

Additionally, the previous administration was not transparent concerning their co-governance objectives and understandably, we now find that many of the previous Government’s future policies were unfunded.

So we now have a Government that is communicating to us all. That is refreshing news. Although the new Government cannot please everybody, they are pleasing the majority of us, as evidenced in the 1News-Verian poll.

David Hallett, Mount Maunganui.

Churlish sneers

Grant Robertson is a thoughtful, socially committed politician who would have considered long and hard before making his decision to depart the Labour caucus he has served so well.

However, in contrast to Green MP James Shaw’s gracious valedictory, the churlish sneers about Robertson, his past and future roles from Act’s David Seymour and NZ First’s Winston Peters demonstrate that the so-called “politics of cruelty” is alive and well in their sorry coalition.

Peter Beyer, Sandringham.

Wrong target

Christopher Luxon’s supporters cheered when he announced he was going after unemployed people who he says are taking taxpayers’ hard-earned money.

What would their reaction have been if he’d said he was going to seriously target the $2 billion a year or more lost to taxpayers through white collar fraud and tax crime, money that could be used to pay nurses, fix infrastructure such as Wellington’s water leaks, pay for new ferries? Let me guess – a deathly silence.

Susan Grimsdell, Auckland Central.

Preferred PM poll

Those that feature in a preferred prime minister poll are simply front of mind in the media, not because they have done anything remarkable to earn it.

Once in opposition, the former PM plummets in approval: that’s because they are not part of the daily news.

Chloe Swarbrick featured, not because anyone sees her as a prime minister hopefully; she is running for a minor party leadership bid that is currently getting plenty of press. This is all part of the political cycle, incumbent versus the opposition, and who has the ear of the media.

John Ford, Napier.

Lost raison d’être

Auckland War Memorial Museum has lost sight of its raison d’être (NZ Herald, Feb 21).

It doesn’t exist as a platform for a small group of self-important officials to signal their virtue, it exists as a memorial to those who fought and died in wars - including those of the colonial era.

Further, it is an archive of historic and pre-historic objects that are intended to captivate visitors and hopefully give them some sense of how the world they live in may have once looked.

There is an inevitability to the outcome of the changes. We can expect revisionist ‘history’, and we can expect many decades of carefully curated artefacts being ‘repatriated’ in expensive offshore ceremonial junkets, never to be seen again.

Even after this current trend of virtue signalling has passed. And for what? Another interactive arcade of social engineering. Sack the board now and save our museum.

Craig Brown, Hamilton.

Driver training

If the authorities and Government really want to reduce the road toll, instead of tripling the number of speed cameras across the country costing hundreds of millions of dollars; Waka Kotahi should implement a programme of compulsory driver and rider training for all learner and restricted licence holders.

I recently spoke to a police officer in Taupō and asked him if he felt the Road to Zero initiative will work. He said, “No, because there is no emphasis on driver training or education.”

Peter Henson, Birkenhead.