King Charles gifted Prime Minister Chris Hipkins warm sausage rolls after their meeting at Buckingham Palace. Photo / Katie Scotcher, RNZ
Short of ideas
The sausage roll joke isn’t the only thing that’s stale leading up to the election (NZ Herald, May 30). Both major parties are bereft of any new or innovative ideas. The weekend Labour Congress had all the strained jocularity of a frat party minus the drunken antics, and National hoping that its revised housing policy could deflate a Labour balloon was wasted, as the balloon was already losing air. However, National’s housing intensification proposal raised more questions than it answered, most notably the use of greenfield sites for housing. Post-Cyclone Gabrielle, Federated Farmers has conservatively estimated a $ 1 billion bill for infrastructure repair, crop and orchard restoration and income disruption, and that doesn’t factor in food shortages and inflation. Is the Opposition comfortable utilising precious arable land, and if so, do they plan to give away $25 cabbages with each new house? Many New Zealanders are suffering and are frightened about the future. They need vibrant, creative policy development, not mundane and monotonous sniping about five-minute showers and bilingual road signs. As the song goes, “wake me up when it’s over”.
Mary Hearn, Glendowie.
Shower curtains
Twenty years ago, Jill Davies’ dad (NZ Herald, May 30) knew that the more hot water you used, the more power was used and the more it cost. Quite why the Government needs to have a say about what mums, dads and aunties do best, I don’t know. Rather than wringing their hands about how long we might spend in the shower, it may do better to ensure that the lights come on when it gets dark, and stay on when the wind picks up a bit.
Robert Alderson, Titirangi.
Gaslight savings
I agree with many of Jill Davies’ sentiments (NZ Herald, May 30) regarding short showers and power savings to households, and conserving resources. However, I recently received a letter from my electricity provider informing me that the low-user plan I am on will no longer be available. The incentive to be frugal has been removed and instead, I’ve been penalised for doing so. The same reasoning was given when power companies removed the early bill payment discount (it disadvantages other users). One has to wonder how much money is wasted on consultants to come up with these ideas, ie, make the consumer feel guilty. Is this known as gaslighting?
Ros Gee, Tauranga.
Nuclear familiarity
In response to Graham Fleetwood (NZ Herald, May 30), the CEO of Transpower recently warned that our electricity supply is in a parlous state. Large-scale wind and solar power aren’t a solution because they need a low-cost storage technology that currently does not exist. As environmentalists oppose large-scale hydropower, nuclear is now the only realistic option for providing a reliable, low-emissions supply of electricity. In response to Clyde Scott (NZ Herald, May 30), thousands of reactor years of operation show that nuclear power is by far the safest large-scale form of power generation. Four hundred reactors are operating around the world, 60 are under construction and 100 more are planned. New small modular reactors that are inherently safe will be available shortly. They cannot melt down and they cannot explode. Chernobyl was the technological equivalent of a Model T Ford. We don’t shun modern safe cars just because the Model T Ford didn’t have front brakes. Professor Wade Allison (author of Radiation and Reason), who is a world expert on the medical effects of nuclear radiation, has assured me that low levels of radiation are not dangerous. This makes it much easier to safely store nuclear waste.
Bryan Leyland, Pt Chevalier.
Cutting room
So Patricia Schnauer (NZ Herald, May 30) is all for a National-Act “Coalition of cuts”. She wants them to cut taxes, and cut hospital waiting lists, crime and truancy. Unfortunately, there is a major flaw in this plan. If you cut our relatively low tax rates even further you are going to have to substantially cut public spending. If you impose public spending austerity, as National governments always do, then how do you build new infrastructure, fund more police, and invest in public healthcare and education? Not to mention preparing resilience for climate change. We can’t have it both ways. It’s tax cuts now or investment for the future.
Jeff Hayward, Auckland Central.
Times New Roman?
It’s time to take a deep breath over bilingual road signage. A few facts to keep in mind: te reo is an official language in this country; English is a de facto official language; and an increasing number of countries use bilingual signage. A suggestion for Waka Kotahi, could a different font be used for te reo?
Jennifer Read, Aro Valley.
Gene pull
Act’s David Seymour is calling for gene editing to be deregulated and promising to bring trials of GE rye grass back to New Zealand. Similar calls have been made in Britain but have been met with consumer alarm that deregulation will stop safety testing and labelling of GE foods and take away the consumer’s right to choose. Growers of conventional and organic products are concerned that their capacity to meet the global demand for non-GMO food, which has been a boon for New Zealand exporters, will also be lost unless gene-edited products are controlled and tracked, and users held liable if something “goes wrong”. Act should remember its responsibilities as the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers, and defend the consumer’s right to choose. Regulation is not a dirty word when it comes to powerful technologies of genetic engineering, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence.
Jon Carapiet, Sandringham.
Share expedience
Congratulations for publishing an excellent article by Mike Lee (NZ Herald, May 31) which reveals that the Mayor of Auckland has been, at best, disingenuous in advocating for the sale of our city council’s holding of airport shares. As Lee clarifies, there was never any borrowing to pay for the city’s shares in the airport: Lee politely refers to the claim that the city’s debt is due to the drain on the city’s finances imposed by servicing airport debt as “expedient.” There are some wealthy people who seem to consider any public ownership of a source of income as a kind of deliberate insult to themselves.
Rose Lovell-Smith, Mt Roskill.
Spreading menace
Recent letters highlighted a few of the real growth problems for Auckland. The urban sprawl must stop. But is anyone in charge? The current mindset appears to endorse sprawl, particularly over best-quality, productive land on the outskirts of cities and towns. What a waste. There is obviously a serious disconnect when decision-makers have little understanding of important matters. To name a few, loss of relevant agriculture, hydrological alteration of catchments, earth sciences, infrastructure, environmental impacts, and increasing downstream flooding. Also, urban sprawl considerably hardens the earth’s surface. The ground becomes sealed with asphalt, concrete, and rooftops. This must contribute greatly to global warming, increased emissions, more vehicles, higher imports of hydrocarbons, pollution, and increased stormwater runoff resulting in the ruin of lower catchment areas as more storm runoff is pushed downstream. Auckland must rise up and become a more compact city.
Peter Nagels, Forrest Hill.
Cause and effect
The sheer laziness - or, dare one say, cowardice - of New Zealand Rugby (NZR) that let international Sevens be bullied away from New Zealand seems once again evident in the CEO’s mealy-mouthed excuses around “time” and “deadlines” being key to denying Ruby Tui’s desire to represent our threatened rainbow community on WeetBix cards. Deadlines are porous at best in our current political climate and there is no reason to doubt Sanitarium’s expressed readiness to discuss the matter and give due consideration to the people to whom they are marketing. It is an easy out to bring up the Seventh-day Adventist Church ownership; the door was obviously open for them to actually have a say but NZR once again shows its interests are far away from its players and indeed its spectators. As for Chris Rattue’s ostrich-like rant on the matter (NZ Herald, May 30), so what if there is an “avalanche” of causes he can’t cope with? In an unequal society, there is an avalanche of reasons for that.
Peter Beyer, Sandringham.
And counting
Fiona McAllister is correct (NZ Herald, May 30). We are setting dangerous precedents by offering bribes to complete the Census. It could easily become accepted practice for other things too. Completing the Census today is a simple process; 2023 years ago you had to return to your city of birth to be counted and one poor guy had to go to Bethlehem with his pregnant wife on a donkey.
Mike Brooke, New Plymouth.
On policies
Christopher Luxon is receiving criticism for reviewing some of National’s policies. Isn’t this exactly what Chris Hipkins has done, more extensively, since becoming Labour leader? Alan Milton, Cambridge.
Listening to your constituents when they don’t like what you are proposing is the sign of good politics. Wendy Tighe-Umbers, Parnell.
Can someone please tell me if there is a party that will do away with political correctness and reinstate common sense? I surely will vote for that party. D Hoekstra, Henderson.
On languages
Would somebody please table a bill in Parliament to confirm English is an official language of New Zealand? Gary Andrews, Mt Maunganui.
I welcome the move to introduce bilingual signage and take it as a great opportunity to learn te reo Māori words and phrases and their meanings in a very easy manner. It will boost my pride in being a citizen here, certainly. Sivaswamy Mohanakrishnan, Mt Roskill.
On crime
The additional $11 million for fog cannons would put another 130 police on to the streets. Dennis Knill, Parnell.
On winning
Congratulations to the NZ Herald team for their well-deserved success at the annual Voyager Media Awards. Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.
Prebble: Hipkins or Luxon? The choice is clear
Christopher Luxon clearly shows the qualities that will make him an excellent Prime Minister when the new National Government is sworn in later this year. Only seems to be the “left” who have any problem with National saying fix the essentials before we proceed to doing the nice-to-have. Our current superannuation settings are not sustainable; great to see a politician with the conviction to rise above cheap vote-buying. Contrast the National Party approach with Labour changing horses in midstream and throwing enormous, inflationary sums at the electorate to buy votes. People are not fooled. Christopher H.
Luxon’s issue is that he can’t get his story straight. His ruling out Te Pāti Māori is about the only thing I can think of that indicates a return to the classic pre-Key National Party one-law-for-all position. His performance at the Birkenhead bowls club the other week, difficulty getting the party story straight on something as simple as whether time and money should be wasted on complicated street signs when our roads are falling to bits, statements at Rātana about healthcare funding and apparent support for co-governance of places like Te Urewera and natural resources make me think that anyone concerned about the preservation of democracy is better off voting for Act who have made their position on the issue (all equal under the law, one person one equally valuable vote) crystal clear, and stuck to it. Johnathan S.
The choice is indeed clear: go to Australia. Tim B.
Haere ra, then, cobber. Jod M.
And enjoy paying 45 per cent on the top part of your income. John H.
Norm Rose, who is now based in Napier, is not surprised by Wood's stellar EPL form.