Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern looks around Sir Robert Falcon Scott's hut at Cape Evans in Antarctica. Photo / Mike Scott
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern looks around Sir Robert Falcon Scott's hut at Cape Evans in Antarctica. Photo / Mike Scott
Opinion
Letter of the week: Denis Edwards, Pāpāmoa Beach.
It is early, far too early, for the drumbeats of an upcoming general election to be disturbing the peace. But, there they are. Both major parties are busy “energising the base”, also known as shaking likely voters out of apathy anddisinterest – local body elections being a brutal reminder– lighting them up for the voting ahead. Labour’s PR mandarins have been working on getting Jacinda Ardern polishing the “at-one-with-the-people cred”, the sophisticated designer outfits disappearing and being pictured doing ordinary things. Against this are doubts the party will go too big on the “Proletarian Chic”; the Prime Minister in a high visibility jacket and workboots, clambering the scaffolding and wielding a nail gun. National has floated a list of hoped-for achievements; including easing the tax burden on the not-very-suffering rich, trimming anything resembling special treatment for minorities, and giving everything possible to farmers. Hopes are this will pick up traction in the salons of Auckland’s Northern Slopes, Fendalton, Karori, and deep into the heartland. With an election a year off, there is likely only one safe bet. By then all of this will be forgotten.
Investing wisely
Bruce Cotterill deplores the state of our health and education systems and criticises Government plans to restructure our society to reduce inequality and poverty. These are not simple problems but Cotterill appears to think that government by businessmen is the solution. He ignores the fact that it was government by rich businessmen (such as John Key) that has brought us our severely underfunded public services. This is known as austerity for the poor and was brought about as a result of tax cuts for the rich. We definitely don’t need any more of this. First, we need to reform our unfair tax system. As your other columnist Patrick Smellie writes, we need something like the New Deal, a complete change of focus away from austerity to massive investment in our “human capital”, otherwise known as people. The only way to build a better society is to have a government whose top priority is to invest in workers and their families.
In his letter, Peter Judge (Weekend Herald, October 22) notes that the median age of ram raiders, 15, is the same number of years since smacking was outlawed. Speculation as to the cause of youth crime, maybe. In Sweden, however, a policy introduced some time ago has produced hard evidence. Sweden’s policy of paying parents a reasonable income to look after their children for the first three years of life has not only benefited parents and children but also had a startling long-term result that benefits society as a whole. Twenty years after the policy was introduced, there was such a significant drop in crime that Sweden started closing down prisons. Of course, there are different social factors in New Zealand, but we often hear of families where both parents are having to work full-time to make ends meet, working day and night shifts that mean they barely see their children and are too exhausted to give them quality time. The solution to preventing youth crime is not hitting children, but enabling their parents, especially those in straitened circumstances, to spend time with them.
I endorse John Roughan’s argument (Weekend Herald, October 22) that the time has come for the new mayor and council to review the ownership structure of Ports of Auckland (POL). As noted by Roughan, POL has had issues of governance, safety and economic return to the city. We only need to look at the contrasting performance of Port of Tauranga to observe a well-proven example of good financial performance, good transparency and sound safety performance over many years. The local district council holds the majority of shares in the publicly-listed company. The company reports to all its shareholders twice yearly, and more frequently for significant financial matters which impact the share price. Northport (Marsden Maritime) has a similar structure, similar governance and is publicly-listed, as is Southport. There would be the added benefit of brokers and analysts scrutinising the company’s performance compared to the very opaque situation that Auckland ratepayers endure currently. The mayor has suggested POL should be paying rent on the very valuable land it occupies. If it provided a similar return to that of Port of Tauranga, it would be capable of paying a fair rent plus a dividend to its council owner. After all, it already owns a share in the listed company Auckland International Airport, which in normal years returns a dividend (Covid excepted), so does not seem to have a philosophical or ideological aversion to the mixed ownership model. Time to partially float POL on the NZX?
Don Howarth, Mellons Bay.
Show time
For about five years in the late 1980′s, I was the chief executive of the Auckland Showgrounds and got to know how the place functioned, along with the legal arrangements and constraints imposed by landowner the Cornwall Park Trust Board (CPTB). Like leaseholders in residential properties adjacent to Cornwall Park. the Showgrounds board had to contend with substantially increasing commercially-based rent which caused residential leaseholders much distress and some having to abandon their homes. The trust was set up by Sir John Logan Campbell 150 years ago. Nowadays, commercial, economic and social conditions are totally different. To resolve the current impasse, the trust should be dissolved, which will require an Act of Parliament, and a new or revised trust established allowing its residential properties to be offered to the leaseholders or on the open market for sale and the Showgrounds offered to the government or the city to purchase. The CPTB can then invest the proceeds for the continuing benefit of Cornwall Park without further distress to its leaseholders and disruption to the commercial operations of many Auckland companies.
Allan M Spence, Waiuku.
Events and exhibitions at the Auckland Showgrounds have in the past hosted a million visitors a year. Photo / Supplied, File
And so it begins. Twelve months out from the election and, already, Mike Munro (Weekend Herald, October 22) is plumbing depths, suggesting that abortion rights will be under threat from Christopher Luxon calling him “a fundamentalist Christian and pro-lifer” and introducing the comment “abortion is tantamount to murder” as though Luxon said it, which he did not. Despite Luxon categorically stating that “the government he leads will not revisit abortion laws”, Labour clearly sees a personal attack strategy as their last, best hope. Given their failures on other fronts, we can expect a lot more of it over the coming year.
John Denton, Eskdale,
Who’s right?
We had John Roughan (Weekend Herald, October 22), who usually bags the current Government, admitting “New Zealand has a highly efficient‚ resilient economy today”. Meanwhile, Bruce Cotterill sees no good at all in New Zealand and Ross McEwan, chief executive of National Australia Bank - parent of BNZ - sees a bright future for New Zealand and Australia. During the worst of Covid, Mike Hosking predicted that “you ain’t seen nothing yet” meaning that by now we would all be walking around the streets begging for a job.
Geoff Bull, Red Beach
Regeneration woes
My heart goes out to the elderly residents in Metlifecare villages facing disruptive “regeneration” plans. I’m reminded of a plaintive letter to the newspaper during the introduction of decimal currency and metrification in the 1960s: “Why don’t they just wait until all us old people have died?”
Doug Hannan, Mt Maunganui.
A quick word
It beggars belief the plum jobs parliamentary people, such as Goff and Mallard, get after doing their previous one with such little merit.
Glenn Forsyth, Taupō.
I think Foster and co have shown disrespect for the Japanese rugby team with the team they have picked. Remember what happened to the South African team.
Jock Mac Vicar, Hauraki.
The structure of the Security Council makes the entire United Nations an empty, ineffectual farce. Graham Steenson, Whakatāne.
For anyone wanting to get an update on the state of the nation, they cannot go past Bruce Cotterill (WH, Oct. 2).
W R H Ramsay, Kerikeri.
I enjoy reading Bruce’s articles. He is able to articulate exactly what I think. David Brown, Waiuku.
Michael Walker (WH, Oct.22) needs to understand the whole water circulation system in Auckland is failing, although maybe not as badly as Wellington. You have two choices as to how this is funded: rates or taxes. If it’s rates, they are going up by a hefty amount.
J McCormick, Gisborne.
For those of us educated at a slightly different level to Topher Richwhite and Bridget Thackwray can someone please explain how tooling around less developed countries in a gas-guzzling Jeep aligns with “promoting environmental issues”?
L Gourlie, Christchurch.
Why, oh why, didn’t someone more grown-up “influence” them to not do something so stupid? James Archibald, Birkenhead.
What is an influencer? I would have thought that at best, anyone who writes an opinion to the editor, on occasion, influences.
John Ford, Taradale.
Could we swap the two influencers for a couple of ICU nurses?
Steve Russell, Hillcrest.
Planting trees to offset continued pollution may be all well and good, but only until the next wildfire comes along and those carbon credits literally go up in smoke.
Morgan L. Owens, Manurewa.
Maybe ANZ could share some of their fat with us who took the hit our Kiwisaver funds due to their poor investments?
Rob Buchanan, Kerikeri.
Steve Braunias in The Secret Diary of...Jacinda Ardern (WH, Oct. 22) was on sparkling form. Thanks for the wonderful humour.
Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.
To your editorial on Shakespeare funding (WH, Oct. 22) I say: Bah, humbug!
