Letters: The National Party goes right back to where it was before

National Party leader Judith Collins. Photo / Mark Mitchell

New National leader Judith Collins has set the tone straight away, with her first statement. "National's goal is to get rid of this current Government."

Forget Sir Bill English, and moving National towards the more compassionate political centre.
The old National Party of 1991, the benefit cuts, and the Employment Contracts Act, is back with a vengeance!
John Watkins, Remuera

Liberal dose

With the promotion of liberal-thinker Judith Collins to Leader of the National Party, I now realise that all party leaders voted 'yes' to the End of Life Choice Act 2019. David Seymour of Act, Jacinda Ardern of Labour, Judith Collins of National, James Shaw and co-leader Marama Davidson of Greens. (Simon Bridges and Todd Muller voted against.)

And then there's Winston. He voted yes also, but possibly only so that NZ First could press its policy of requiring a referendum on the issue, as it requires on all major social changes. So we don't know what Winston thinks privately, and possibly even his long-time partner Jan Trotman doesn't know.

Anyhow, a good day dawns in my books when most of Parliament is liberal, not conservative. After all, we will have to live in the future, not the past.
Ann David, Waikanae

Muldoon memories

Does Judith Collins as National leader remind anyone of Rob Muldoon? Hopefully, only the mannerisms.
David Mills, New Lynn

Ace of spades

Labour continues to make nebulous promises in spades, but its most apparent "shovel ready" project is burial of the economy.
J Livingstone, Auckland

Cost of Covid

Returning Kiwis have so far consumed nearly the full cost of a Covid-tracking card; costing close to $100 million. This would allow rapid track and trace and facilitate rapid control of the inevitable community transmission.

Australia's border was breached and forewarns us that Covid is able to find any weaknesses in border defences and put us into lockdown once more. Our fuel tax pays for roads on a user pays basis and this Government without blinking raised it again.

National leader Judith Collins can tell us immediately whether she would stop this spending on free hotels and introduce a user-pays quarantine like Australia which National holds up as better at saving the economy than us. She wants to minimise spending so what is the holdup?

A student loan has to be repaid, why not a Covid hotel in the safest country in the world? Our borders are secure so far but sooner or later one of these "users" will make us all "pay". Evidence shows 0.2 per cent use the Covid app. Why would we, in the land of milk and money?
Steve Russell, Hillcrest

Rich pickings

There should be an equivalent to the (in)famous Godwin's Law of Nazi Analogies, relating to leftists and the Soviet Union — given enough time and leftists, someone will inevitably at some stage compare them to the Soviets. That's what I get from Tony Olissoff's letter, "Red and Green", (Herald on Sunday, July 12).

I can recall at Primary School in Canberra when we pupils were asked to go around the district asking for sponsors for some school project, and inevitably the most enthusiastic people would be the poorer — the richer businessfolk would inevitably beg off on account of their "poverty". It got old very quickly.

After doing several CTF positions in Christchurch computer-cataloguing school library books in the 1990s, and not finding anyone willing to take me on in spite of my proven willingness to work, I decided to learn about databases and try to find work in that field. Of course Kiwis won't employ the self-educated, and won't pay enough for tertiary education — that's now a rich person's playground. So I've had 30-odd years of character defamation for being "work-shy" from work-shy employers. It gets monotonous very quickly.
Wesley Parish, Tauranga