Letters: Small businesses, deaths, council rates, GST, Vietnam and North Korea

Finance Minister Grant Robertson's tax benefits granted to landlords are helpful but 'create no obligation to pass on the benefit', says a writer. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Small businesses

New Zealand faces a severe economic crisis as we are now starting to control the Covid-19 virus and must rebuild the economy. The leadership has been of the highest standard to fight the virus.
We need to urgently see leadership to help firstly support and then grow small and medium-sized enterprises (SME).
To date the Government has shown little commitment to SMEs in real terms. The decision not to support commercial rent as a significant cost to SME is going to create business failures and distress.
The tax benefits granted to landlords are helpful but create no obligation to pass on the benefit, and this fails to understand the immediate nature of the crisis.
There is a need for support for the next three months. The tax is a future benefit; effectively a long-term loan to be repaid upon sale.
Please, Minister Nash, listen to the Property Council and all the representatives of commercial tenants and provide support upfront. A cost of $1b is not unreasonable to protect tens of thousands of jobs and businesses.
Mike Single, Bayswater.

Open outlets

While overall I think the Government is doing a good job, I believe it is now time to open the butchers and greengrocers and probably the bakers. In small towns like ours, we do not have any drive-throughs, so there is nothing to take the pressure off our one supermarket. If the bakeries were opened, perhaps we would be able to buy a bag of flour.
Perhaps it is time to loosen the strings a little more.
J Longson, Kawerau.

Sacrifices

I am getting extremely frustrated with those people who seem to feel we should be willing to accept an indeterminate number of avoidable deaths to get the economy going more quickly.
These people should be honest and say how many people they would let die to allow the economy to start more quickly, so we can see how quickly we should discount their opinions.
From where I sit, as a moderately "at-risk" person, the only thing I see these people have in common is enough wealth to ensure that in the unlikely event they contract the virus, they will be able to ensure private treatment and a high probability of recovery.
Personally, I am glad that our current Government is willing to sacrifice the economy rather than the population.
Lyall Dawson, Sandringham.

Held to account

The fight against the coronavirus has been described as a war.
In pre-Covid-19 times, leaders who were responsible for the deaths of many people in a war setting have been held accountable at the International Court of Justice in the Hague.
I would have thought any leader who causes the widespread death and misery that we are seeing either through ignorance, incompetence or just plain neglect should be held to account.
Will the world court hold these leaders responsible for war crimes, not only against their own people but against all the world's peoples?
Geoff Nieuwelaar, Whangarei.

Drastic slashing

I am astounded that Mayor Phil Goff initially endeavoured to justify a 3.5 per cent rates increase. Then, in a faux change of heart, he felt it might be able to be limited to 2.5 per cent.
There are now thousands of Aucklanders struggling to pay for the basics for their families. Furthermore, most commercial leases these days require the lessee to pay the rates on top of their rent. All small business owners are already suffering badly and this will further impact on their severely depleted incomes.
It is now time to drastically slash council costs. Let us start with the budgets for AT and the proposed maunga deforestation. But there are many other areas where nice-to-have but unnecessary costs are being incurred.
It is time for some commercial reality.
Denis Drumm, Mt Albert.

More taxes

With all due respect to your correspondent Susan Grimsdell (NZ Herald, April 29), her idea to remove GST will never fly. With the billions of dollars that the Government has spent shoring up the economy, they will need to recover that.
In a nutshell, the Government will be implementing more taxes in the future to enable them to pay for these unforeseen Covid-19 related expenses.
Be prepared for new taxes on anything and everything. I would slam the likes of cigarettes and alcohol.
In fact I would go further and remove the pension from anyone worth in excess of $10m.
Dave Miller, Rotorua.

Retain GST

Several Herald contributors, together with columnist Tim Hazledine, advocate a removal of or an indefinite GST holiday in a raft of suggestions designed to reassess taxation structures in the wake of the predictable economic fallout from the effects of Covid-19.
It is no time to compromise government tax revenues.
The goods and service tax when introduced proved to be the ultimate solution in ensuring the tax net ensnared one and all; no one could hide. Prior to the advent of GST The farming of "loss-making assets" was rife, tax avoidance the name of the game, many contributed nothing. GST changed much of that, everyone "paid their dues" and vital government revenues were assured. The removal of or a GST holiday would prove to be shortsighted folly.
P J Edmondson, Tauranga.

Korean war

In an editorial (NZ Herald, April 28) advocating talks and countries working together to solve world issues, reference is made to "North Korea's antagonistic role in the world". This is an unfair representation of North Korea's position.
For decades, North Korea has been asking for a peace agreement to end the Korean war.
In 2018 Kim Jong Un, with support from South Korea's Moon Jae-in, attempted to reinvigorate peace negotiations with the United States. Unfortunately, Donald Trump could not restrain the belligerence of hawks such as John Bolton, and the US refused to reciprocate Kim's overtures with sanctions relief and security guarantees, so talks broke down.
Seven decades of isolation and sanctions have not been able to bring about peace.
The Korean War remains unresolved because of a lack of genuine dialogue, something, unfortunately, New Zealand is complicit in, having cut off all diplomatic relations with North Korea since 2015.
In the interests of peace, playing a part in talks and countries working together, New Zealand should restore full diplomatic relations with North Korea.
Peter Wilson, secretary, NZ DPRK Society.

Mothball Pathway

Surely now is the time to mothball the Northern Pathway project. The predicted cost of $360 million will undoubtedly blow out, if and when it does start. How many small businesses could that save in the current economic climate?
It's very much a "nice-to-have" rather than essential. Better to wait until the construction of the second harbour crossing.
Peter Brooks, Mairangi Bay.

Super Rugby

Patrick McKendry is right to confine Super Rugby to an item in the obituary column. However the appropriate certificate lacked detail. One of the symptoms was greed. The unending craving for more cash. That led to there being too much top-level rugby on display. Then there was the anonymity of the Super areas. There was no recognisable geographical area linked to the teams; even the names had to be explained. Surely the solution is to concentrate on a revamped Provincial Competition with logical well-known identities. The international team is a given; the All Blacks. The provinces speak for themselves. The Super teams were an artificial construction simply to generate more cash. RIP.
Warrick Snowball, Glen Eden.

Poignant

Hearing that the US has now reached a grim milestone with more people killed by Covid-19 in the past few months than died in the Vietnam War over eight years, there is a poignant difference. The 58,000 Americans who died in Vietnam were mostly youth with a lot of life ahead of them.
Rob Buchanan, Kerikeri.

Reflection day

B Watkin suggests "a public holiday - one day set aside when New Zealand as a nation can reflect on what we did" (NZ Herald, April 30). He then asks "what day?"
I suggest we move Queen's Birthday to the day in April that she actually was born on, after decades of using the wrong month and day. Then Reflection Day will be the first Monday in June, when hopefully we are on level 1 or right out of it then.
We can then reflect on that day for decades to come and remember the good and bad times of it.
Murray Hunter, Titirangi.

Short & sweet

On elimination

If we have eliminated the Covid-19 virus why are we still in lockdown? D MacCulloch, Remuera.

On National

Judith Collins, where are you? Margaret Wyatt, Tauranga.

On takeways

The queues of cars lining up outside McDonald's for a takeaway is unbelievable. It would have been more sensible to have the fruit and vege shops and bakeries open. P Salvador, Hobsonville.

Making hamburgers at home is so simple and easy, as is heating a frozen pizza in the oven. Standing in a line for a hamburger or a pizza is, to my mind, ridiculous. Sharon Marks, Te Aroha.

On impact

It is open to conjecture why the half-dozen largest Western, industrialised economies are suffering such disproportionate levels of deaths and business paralysis - beyond early precautionary measures? Kenneth Lees, Whangarei.

On distancing

I haven't had a cold for years. That's because I wash my hands and practice social distance. Also, I don't like people. John Ford, Taradale.

On healthcare

Let's hope the USA, UK and, indeed, every country in the world will learn to prioritise health above all else and be prepared for future events. Glen Stanton, Mairangi Bay.

On Ardern

Can we please borrow your Prime Minister for a few weeks? I promise we'll return her as soon as possible. Jake Jacobs, Kona, Hawaii.