Will strikes return?
Cabinet intends to proceed with Labour's Fair Pay Agreement which would replace the Employment Contracts Act 1991 that allowed for individual performance contracts as opposed to collective bargaining. Disagreement would be decided by political appointees to the Employment Relations Authority.
Will confrontation, stoppages, rolling strikes return to haunt us?
Already changes have devastated the oil and gas sector, the house rental market compromised and impositions to employment law have impacted small business. Is the announced initiative retrograde, a return to the past and payback for union loyalty?
P.J. Edmondson, Tauranga.
Mind your language
It is becoming increasingly obvious that one has to be extremely careful as to how one chooses one's words as so many are now deemed unacceptable that it is difficult to keep up.
Swear words are used frequently and are more acceptable than numberplates these days. And yet words that were in common usage are now deemed racist, offensive and illegal depending on which sector of society one belongs to.
Very soon someone will need to rewrite the dictionary as extreme PC is erasing so many and many new ones are added. This is PC gone mad.
Marie Kaire, Whangarei.
Prompt payment rewards
My electricity provider has been forced to end the 20 per cent discount for prompt payment. There are two issues here. Firstly, all electricity bills need to be paid every month. A simple direct debit will put cash in everyone's pocket, rich or not.
Now there is a $14 fine for late payment which will affect poorer people for sure. I also thought in a free market economy if one company wants to offer an incentive it is not up to the Government to control this.
Dr Alan Papert, Queenstown.
Unhealthy attitude
"Doctors pushed to the edge" (NZ Herald, May 8) is indicative of a profound change in people's attitude to life and health. Doctors in the old days could confidently look forward to satisfying, well-paid careers where patients and their families would show gratefulness and admiration.
These days it is altogether different. Patients and their families are now convinced they have a right to treatment whenever they need it — and that it is the doctors' duty to be there to treat them at their bidding. This is partly because successive NZ governments have legislated that they have those rights.
We now realise it is so easy for governments to issue decrees but these always come with a cost. And we citizens are relearning that we really do not have any rights in life other than those our society can afford to and able to grant us.
Andy Espersen, Nelson.
Suffocating opinions
A interview with Professor Peter Singer on Q+A regarding free speech was most interesting. He obviously was concerned at the ramifications for those that either wrote or spoke about contentious issues.
Call it what you like — political correctness or any other name — there are subjects that don't make the news as they are thought to offend.
On many subjects we have become too precious and groups use this to suffocate opinions.
This does not mean one can use hate speech or other forms of hurtful rhetoric but constructive criticism on any subject should be given licence on all forms of the media. Open discussion often resolves misgivings whereas non consultation generally brings discontent.
Reg Dempster, Albany.
Cash in the couch
When a company returns unused wage subsidy relief because the pandemic didn't hit the country or its economy as hard as expected, barely a murmur is raised, and annoyance is directed at the companies that don't.
But when a government department does exactly the same thing for exactly the same reason, suddenly the response is "Oh, this Government is so irresponsible with money it's finding the stuff down the back of the couch".
Morgan L. Owens, Manurewa.
Recycle at sea
I am completely baffled as to why DoC would become involved in burying a marine animal on land. Marine ecosystems, when left alone, are incredibly efficient recyclers of nutrients.
Things die in the sea. That's the way it has always been and whatever sinks or gets washed up on to beaches gets eaten by other marine creatures or scavenging birds and the nutrient content is returned back into the marine environment.
For an organisation which should base their decisions and actions on science, to bury a marine animal on land ought to be a complete anathema, and to spend large amounts of precious resources to do so an abomination.
John Christiansen, Mt Albert.
Announcing, not delivering
The Government — having already announced proposed massive health, educational, both secondary and tertiary, along with railway, local government and now industrial relations reforms — seems to just be announcing but still not delivering.
Perhaps they should practise something that they do not appear to be doing or achieving until it is delivering — before they commence yet another change which almost seems to be just for the sake of change and to divert our attention from some other calamity they have created.
Mike Baker, Tauranga.
Silencing military hawks
Thank you Matthew Hooton for your contribution to sanitising the debate about the prospect of global conflict.
Stop the story being pushed, mainly by military hawks in the United States and Australia, about imminent large scale war. This talk is unsettling, irresponsible and unproductive.
Full credit to the New Zealand Government for trying to steer away from this highly unlikely scenario which assumes that top leaders have totally lost their minds.
Frank Olsson, Freemans Bay.
Short & sweet
On bonuses
Our society only functions because of the efforts of the medical, teaching and policing sectors. A three-year wage freeze proposal is disgraceful and unthinking. Contrast that with ACC penpushers getting $1 million in bonuses. Come on Labour — help the critical labourers. Tony Sullivan, St Heliers.
On vaccines
Could our passports be endorsed with a verifiable stamp to state that we have been vaccinated against Covid-19? Peter Thomas, Hillcrest.
On conman
Reading about convicted fraudster Wayne Eaglesome was enough in itself, but why isn't the passport of someone like that or any criminal withdrawn to prevent them fleeing the country? The converse though may also be true in that by fleeing he has done this country a significant favour, provided that he is prevented from returning. Paul Beck, West Harbour.
On rugby
Not sure how many more yearly reminders Razor Robertson needs to send the New Zealand Rugby Union but let's hope they notice soon. Glenn Forsyth, Taupo.
On rollout
Regarding Covid-19 vaccination dates, "it is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma". Derek Cunningham, Gulf Harbour.
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