Letter of the week: Transport, drainage plan needed
The Minister of Transport/Auckland Issues Michael Wood, Auckland Transport CEO Dean Kimpton and Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown need an action plan to ensure Auckland’s public transport and drainage infrastructure is resilient to weather bomb events from climate change. KiwiRail must future-proof the Auckland rail network against extreme weather conditions on the tracks, drainage, signals & power supply. Auckland Transport needs more 24/7 bus lanes to allow the buses to keep moving at all times and have them weatherproof as possible. This will create reliability of public transport that will tempt people out of their cars and prevent traffic gridlock. Create green infrastructure in flood prone areas, making space for vegetation & native trees to soak up heavy rainfall. Construct porous concrete surfaces where possible for water to flow and be absorbed. This will significantly improve and back up Auckland’s stormwater infrastructure. The Government, Auckland Council and Auckland Transport must work together to invest in climate change resilience solutions to cope with increasing catastrophic weather events.
Patrick McFarlane, Onehunga
Teachers get a hard lesson in irony
The irony of Chris Hipkins’ recent announcement early this month of significant pay rises to the New Zealand Defence Force won’t be lost on teachers. The reasons he gave were the high esteem NZDF personnel were regarded while seeing them training Ukrainian troops in the UK, the hours they put in and that the high attrition rate needed attention. This announcement seems to be the product of a whim and knee jerk reaction typical of this government. Hipkins’ observations of the NZ Defence Force whilst overseas can also be applied to New Zealand teachers and he doesn’t have to go overseas to find this out. He just needs to wander down the road to some schools just outside Parliament. From my experience NZ teachers are held in high esteem overseas because they are innovative and adaptable. They gained these skills in NZ. They leave here as they get higher pay over there. That’s where they are respected, their skills are greatly appreciated and they are paid accordingly. A pity Hipkins doesn’t have the same attitude towards teachers in NZ as he holds the Defence Force and give them the pay they deserve.