Air NZ must be held to account for being allowed to run a monopoly business, with the Government as major shareholder, without any regard for the abysmal lack of reliability and the subsequent negative impact on our regional communities and businesses.
Can Regional Development Minister Shane Jones please step up and make it quite clear what regional Aotearoa expects so that we can once again be confident that our airline will reliably get us where we want to get to, and without being price-gouged as we do.
Ross Butler, Nelson.
Lockdowns saved lives
I’ve been reading about the Royal Commission of Inquiry into New Zealand’s Covid-19 response (NZ Herald, November 29).
We were faced with the pandemic and I’m sure thousands of fellow New Zealanders share my gratitude for the swift, effective response of our then Government to this global emergency.
The lockdowns were difficult for everyone, and I know that businesses were of course badly affected. But the Government did its best in an entirely new situation and did a great job of carrying us with them, sharing information with us through media briefings, which we were able to watch on TV.
To those remembering those losses or suffering from them now, I’m sure they have the sympathy of the general public.
But I’m sure most people realise that our death toll would have been much higher under a different system. I’m grateful that those in authority put people’s safety first.
Lucy Lamb, Epsom.
Tax the wealthy
It is good news that Labour is finally giving serious consideration to a wealth tax.
It is estimated that if New Zealand were to enact Norway’s wealth tax regime, we could raise between $1.2 billion and $4.1b.
While Labour is at it, they must push harder to implement a digital services tax (DST). A DST would level the media playing field.
Combine a DST tax and an online gambling tax and New Zealand could raise an additional $1b. It is time for Labour, the Greens and the Māori Party to be bold at the next election and tax the wealthy.
John Caldwell, Howick.
Coalition progress
Twelve months in, some would argue that the current three-way coalition is fractious, making little progress and dysfunctional.
It is important to remember that we have been landed with unsurpassed debt and the Covid response has been found to have caused undue harm, both financially and emotionally.
Those of us in the health system managing the pandemic on the front line are still exhausted. The economy needs to grow. The current coalition appears to have the right ethos to achieve that, without a short-term socialist agenda.
John Ford, Taradale.
Who’s driving?
Are we as humans too reliant on technology? We watch recent horror stories of plane crashes and now two of our New Zealand ships have been beached or sank due to the failure to know how to turn off the autopilot.
What happened to pilots and sailors actually manually driving these vehicles? The damage caused by the Manawanui in Samoa has had massive consequences for these small cash-strapped Pacific islands, all because the navy was not trained for the autopilot switch.
With the advent of AI, we will become even less responsible and more reliant in using an autopilot style of functioning and less use of common sense brain power.
Marie Kaire, Whangārei.
Honest answers
How refreshing to be told the truth – and promptly. Congratulations to the Royal New Zealand Navy for releasing the first report on the grounding of the Manawanui.
If only Air New Zealand (Erebus), the Department of Labour (Pike River) and high-ranking officials (abuse of children in care) had acted the same way.
We are astounded that such an event could happen to one of our naval vessels, but grateful for the way the navy has let us know what went wrong without trying to cover things up.
This helps us immensely as we guide our children and grandchildren along the roads of honesty and truth.
Barry Denholm, Mission Bay.
