Letters: Public deserves a say on Auckland Transport’s future; why Joe Biden should not pardon Donald Trump

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has proposed abolishing Auckland Transport and other CCOs as part of his last budget this term. Photo / Dean Purcell

Letters to the Editor

Public deserves a say on AT’s future

It is good to see Mayor Brown proposing options for improving Auckland by focusing on the misnamed council-controlled organisations (NZ Herald, Nov 13).

He is rightly sticking with Watercare which has a clear job, accountability, funding arrangements and a decent performance. On the other hand, Auckland Transport (AT) has an impossibly complex job, complex funding and impossible accountabilities.

For example, take urban rail services. The Government (with various hats on) and Auckland Council (ratepayers) are major funders. While delivering the rail service, KiwiRail (funded by government) is responsible for the track and signalling, and AT is responsible for timetabling and employing a company to actually run the trains.

With five outfits with a finger in the pie, no wonder it is a costly mess. The actual rail passengers and those who have no option but to use roads to get around but pay for the train service anyway must exercise extreme patience when things don’t (and won’t) go right.

At the other end of the scale, AT is responsible for the details of every street and road in Auckland. For example, for ensuring roads, kerbs and footpaths are built and maintained so that water runoff is directed to street drains and doesn’t rush on to and flood private property. But the work is all done by private contractors, some of whom don’t have the knowledge and necessary skill and AT don’t have sufficient skilful supervisors to ensure that contractors do as they should.

Presumably, the mayor will put all his proposals out for public comment. If so, it would be good to give sufficiently detailed information so that rational comments can be made rather than just getting people’s knee-jerk reactions.

Bruce Anderson, St Heliers.

Rail delays

Congratulations to Mayor Brown for his proposal to abolish Auckland Transport.

I’m a senior citizen who has lived in Pukekohe for many years and from time to time I have occasion to go to Auckland CBD, including evening and weekend visits. I used the train service to Papakura mostly, but of late it has became less reliable, and the bus service supposedly replacing it is not satisfactory.

I have been left with no alternative but to drive the car into the city. But that too has become progressively more difficult with ever-increasing traffic congestion, alterations to road layouts, parking more restricted and prohibitively expensive, and roads temporarily closed for construction work. One never knows what to expect.

I’ve been looking forward to the electrification of the railway coming to Pukekohe, hopefully early in the New Year, but now we are told that there will be frequent cancellations on weekends and public holidays through to some time in 2026.

My driver licence is due for renewal in January 2026 ...

Jack Watson, Pukekohe.

Pardon Paul?

Paul Henry’s call for Joe Biden to “prove himself the better man” and pardon Donald Trump is simultaneously alarming and ridiculous (NZ Herald, Nov 12).

Alarming, because Henry suggests that a pardon from Biden would enable Trump to get on with the business of running America unimpeded by legal proceedings. Prioritising expediency over the rule of law is deeply disturbing and is the stuff of dictators.

Given that Trump intends to pardon himself, why on earth would anyone suggest Biden should do it for him? Henry’s suggestion that in pardoning Trump, Biden would show himself to be a “better man” is laughable. There is no competition.

For starters, Biden is not a convicted felon and neither has he tried to upend the legitimately elected government by inciting a violent mob to storm the capitol. Furthermore, Biden’s years of public service to America and his personal qualities are light years ahead of Trump.

Henry’s opinion piece with his comments depicting Biden as an elderly man “sipping (pureed) food from a Tommee Tippee cup” and the misogynistic overtones to his references to Jill Biden as a “gung-ho wife” and Nancy Pelosi as a “battle axe” suggest that unfortunately Henry may have adopted Trump’s practice of making provocative, attention-grabbing statements peppered with unkind comments and ridiculous claims.

Liz Horgan, Mt Albert.

Universal rights

The Treaty Principles Bill consists of three simple positions.

1. The Crown has the right to govern. 2. New Zealanders’ rights will be protected – including the rights of iwi. 3. We all have equal rights.

I am not sure why anyone would protest against a bill that fundamentally espouses universal equal rights and a functioning government?

Kent Millar, Blockhouse Bay.

Let public decide

Why leave the fate of the Treaty Principles Bill up to politicians? Politicians are so tied up in party dogma they are incapable of making a balanced decision. Put the referendum out there for the public to vote on it. Power to the people. Welcome to democracy.

Andrew Tichbon, Green Bay.