The downed power pylon near Warkworth that cut power to Northland. Photo / Supplied
The danger of private monopolies
I have tried but I can’t let Steven Joyce’s opinion piece go unchallenged (Weekend Herald, June 29).
Three things have drawn comments lately; the ferry grounding, the pylon collapse and the NZDF 757 aeroplane malfunction. Fran O’Sullivan puts it down to our lingering No. 8 wire mentality. Others have variously blamed failing infrastructure or a she’ll-be-right attitude. I would suggest all of these.
However, Steven Joyce is blaming government companies. His argument is that these incidents would not have happened under the control of private, limited liability companies. But wait … the company responsible for the pylon collapse Omexom, is a NZ limited company, 100% foreign-owned.
Someone removed too many nuts from the base plates at once. It is also likely that the root cause of the other incidents is found to be something equally avoidable and nothing to do with the ownership of the entity doing the job.
Limited liability companies are indeed wonderful things for all the reasons Mr Joyce says, and more.
But, because their sole objective is the interest of the shareholder, they should never be allowed to hold a monopoly over nationally important public services.
Maurice Robertson, Torbay.
Ferries and freight
Wise Fran O’Sullivan is exactly right, the two large ferries that were ordered at a total cost of $550 million would have paid for themselves within three or four years.
Ignore the cost of upgrading and future-proofing ports against rising seas. That is the sole responsibility of the port authorities of Picton and Wellington and central government, hardly poor KiwiRail, which was asset-stripped by previous owners.
Dealing in facts, two large ferries would eliminate 90% of cancelled sailings due to inclement weather, they could handle pretty much anything wild Cook Strait had to offer (obviously a Wahine or Cyclone Bola storm would be exceptions).
That alone would eliminate millions of dollars of losses to KiwiRail, millions to the dozens of hotels and motels with cancelled bookings on just an annual basis, millions more to businesses having goods arrive on time etc.
Having the capability to carry rail wagons and their freight would save further millions annually by avoiding double-handling. Being brand new and built by a reputable company they would have the latest technology and readily available parts.
The $65 million maintenance costs that Fran O’Sullivan referred to would be gone, 90% of time lost while not operating and for servicing would also be gone as repairs and maintenance could be done as part of the daily operation.
The other huge saving over say over their 20-year life would be at least $20 billion that would not have to be spent repairing and maintaining State Highway 1 in the South Island from oversized, overweight trucks carrying all that freight.
Sidney Turner, Waipu.
Violence begets violence
I can’t understand correspondent Bill Gibson’s reasoning that smacking or caning a child will stop violence (Weekend Herald, June 29).
Violence will never stop violence. Children need a loving, caring and supportive environment to grow into good respectable citizens.
I agree with Mr Gibson that with family breakdowns we seem to be getting an increase in crime, as children witness yelling matches, bribery, sarcasm etc. That doesn’t help one iota.
Happy well-adjusted families don’t need punishment, they need reinforcement for their good behaviour and positive role models. Where the Bible says “Spare the rod and spoil the child”, the rod here is the same Hebrew word as in ‘My rod and my staff they comfort me”, elsewhere in the Bible. The rod was used to guide the sheep to safety, not to punish them.
Ailsa Martin-Buss, Glendowie.
Life lessons
Are we going backwards, forwards, sideways or just travelling on a rotating wheel in a pet mouse cage?
The “new” primary school testing policy puts me in mind of the last year of my own primary schooling in England. The 11+ exam saw me on my way to the local grammar school and subsequently my brother in his way to the local secondary modern.
I’ve recently retired from a working life in various parts of the maritime industry. My brother continues to work on building his second business after starting life as a qualified chef, moving into the movie business, owning a limousine hire company and being a company director elsewhere.
None of this is as much about schooling as it is about wrap-around family structures from our birth days until today. Our mother remains in full control of her faculties and remains always supportive. That’s where the gold lies in any and every family dynamic.
It’s not rocket science. Fences at the top of the cliff are so much more successful than ambulances at the bottom.
Nigel Meek, Raglan.
Smoke and mirrors
It seems to me we have a serious flaw in our democracy and it is due to a lack of truly honest debate.
MMP has driven us to a logjam of the centre in which we don’t really tackle the big issues. Both major parties are too fearful of the middle voters to be truly upfront. This in turn hobbles us with a business-as-usual mentality, even when faced with an existential crisis.
We currently have a centre-right coalition Government that is incrementally privatising public services and infrastructure by stealth while claiming it is not. It is simply doing this by defunding them by tax cuts so when people get fed up with these declining public services a privatised alternative is then the only alternative.
So-called private-public partnerships are being touted for a whole range of infrastructure and public services. KiwiRail will be next. Then our water infrastructure and major roads.
But this was not clearly laid in the last election. One side claimed we could have tax cuts and good public services too. Labour in turn fled to the centre and promised no tax reform but promised to expand public services. Neither was being honest.
Only Act and the Greens clearly lay out their agendas. One favours a wild west of deregulation, privatising and economic divide. The other higher taxes, major public investment and serious climate change action.
Unfortunately the middle is cloaked in smoke and mirrors so voters can avoid having to make hard choices. But the result is we are not really doing anything about the big issues.
Instead we are left with major infrastructure issues, declining public services and climate change indifference with no real plan of action.
What we desperately need is honest public debate about who we are, what we want and how we are going to get there.
Business as usual is a cop-out when we know it’s not sustainable. It’s time voters and politicians stopped fooling themselves by taking the easy option.
As the saying goes, we are not in the same waka, we are in the same storm. Some on luxury yachts, some paddling hard in canoes and some drowning.
Jeff Hayward, Auckland CBD.
Top Marx
Reading Matt Nippert’s article in the Weekend Herald about company directors claiming large remuneration for activities that are in a strictly functional sense superfluous, I was reminded of something Karl Marx said 150 years ago.
Observing the transition that occurred in his lifetime from an economy largely dominated by privately-owned and operated companies to one controlled by “public” companies listed on the stock exchange, he wrote: “On the basis of capitalist production, a new swindle with the wages of management develops in connection with joint-stock companies, in that over and above the actual managing director, a number of governing and supervisory boards arise, for which management and supervision are in fact a mere pretext for the robbery of shareholders and their own enrichment.”
Terry Coggan, Mt Wellington.
It seems more like a junket to see our PM heading off to a Nato conference in Washington DC while at the same time reducing the Defence Force spending here to below what are already rock-bottom limits. One thing though is for certain and that is if sufficient money isn’t spent to enable people to be able to live properly, they’ll take the best training that’s on offer from the military and then, as before, vote with their feet and leave to join the public sector. And, who can blame them. So look after them and pay them what they are worth.
Paul Beck, West Harbour.
There has been a fair bit of media coverage of boy racers lately. Perhaps we should cast our minds back a bit? Maybe Crusher Collins was right all along?
Phil Chitty, Albany.
Let’s not be too quick to point the finger of blame for the Wairoa flooding on the river mouth. What if the primary cause of the flooding was a storm surge? Low pressure, onshore gales and huge waves create storm surges. It is even possible that the river mouth bar minimised some of the storm surge effect. With global warming, storm surges are becoming more intense and more frequent. Storm surges are much like tidal waves. Nothing can stop the flooding caused by a storm surge.
John Caldwell, Howick.
Would it not be a simple answer to a major problem for all houses in flood-prone areas to be rebuilt on concrete or block basements. Problem solved for once and all time. It would probably cost a lot less than repairing the damage to existing houses.
Bob Wichman, Botany.
Well done TVNZ+ for the excellent coverage of the Wimbledon tennis event. Shame on you Sky Sport for the no coverage, especially when your charges are exorbitant to be able to watch sport.
Anita Coltman, Karaka.
A $550 million fixed-price contract was signed for the new Interislander ferries. The Herald reports a likely cancellation fee of between $200m-$300m. Add to this the deposit and any progress payments made and surely we will end up almost paying for them anyway, with nothing to show. We should have continued the contract and if we really couldn’t manage the cost of the new terminal and wharf upgrades, sold the ferries on the open market for a profit.
Allison Kelly, Mt Eden.
The penny has finally dropped. I now know why TVNZ has so many Australian programmes. It’s to make the hundreds of 501 deportees feel like NZ is home.
Graham Fleetwood, Bethlehem.
If the Democratic Party are serious about winning the Presidential election they’re going to need some lateral thinking. How about going against all political instinct and selecting a moderate Republican such as Mitt Romney? He has that much-needed profile and is known for his bipartisanship. Anti-Trump Republicans will vote for him, and surely Trump-fearing Democrats would too.
Harry Lusk, Remuera.
Biden and Trump! Is that all America has to offer to sit in the seat which is arguably the most powerful in the world.
Jean Goodall, Matamata.
The American Presidential election is getting closer. One has to wonder why, out of a country with a population of hundreds of millions, the only candidates in the running are two elderly men - one a crock and one a crook.
Janet Boyle, Ōrewa.
How a resilient Kiwi village hopes to bounce back from a big drop in visitors.