Our most minor coalition party to divide us all? I didn’t vote for this - few New Zealanders did, in fact.
Clyde Scott, Birkenhead.
Seymour has a point
The day I agree with everything David Seymour says is the day I voluntarily put myself in rehab.
However, one would have to say he has a point about the Treaty. Basically, there is nothing wrong with it, but there is in the way it is interpreted, often for pecuniary gain or special treatment.
Seymour is right about the fact that once you are a New Zealand citizen, all rights are equal. It won’t matter if the principles are changed or not - there will always be different opinions about the interpretation.
Where the problem seems to be is successive governments are diffident about enforcing those rights.
Reg Dempster, Albany.
Nimby anguish
Herne Bay residents don’t want sewage on their beaches, but seem clearly short-sighted in opposing the temporary loss of a park to achieve that goal (NZ Herald, Jan 30).
A clear case of “not in my backyard”. They really do need to get over themselves and divert their anguish somewhere else.
John Ford, Napier.
Lake Pupuke precedent
What a self-serving, selfish, moaning lot the residents of Herne Bay are in claiming their mental health will be affected by the proposed temporary closure of part of the Salisbury Reserve to allow a tunnel to be built to stop sewage flooding into the city’s beaches after heavy rain.
Like the residents adjoining Lake Pupuke on Auckland’s North Shore successfully, subtly blocking for over 50 years an Auckland City Council proposal for a public walkway around that lake, they should finally accept and realise that the world does not revolve around them.
Bruce Tubb, Devonport.
PM, not president
Most New Zealand voters have a shallow understanding of how our Parliamentary system works, and know even less about local body activities.
People will often state that “they voted for Christopher Luxon”, but the reality is they didn’t. He was elected by a majority of voters in the Botany electorate, but he was appointed by the National caucus to be their leader.
Tomorrow, next week or next year, that caucus may decide to replace him without any input from any of us.
In reality, his role is virtually the same as that of a chairman of a board and in Luxon’s case, that’s complicated by the fact there are now three parties under his chairmanship.
By himself, he cannot make any laws without Cabinet approval. He may, as both Key and Ardern did, make a “captain’s call”, but that will always be prefaced by the phrase “on my watch” or similar.
Luxon is not a president, he is our Prime Minister, and given the opportunity may turn out to be an effective chairman of the board we know as Cabinet.
Murray Reid, Cambridge.
Selfish drivers
I drove around 500km over the long weekend and was annoyed to see many drivers ignoring the New Zealand transport rule that stipulates drivers must stay to the left unless passing, and if they are impeding the flow of traffic, they must pull over and allow traffic to pass.
It is incredibly frustrating, when driving on two and three-lane highways or motorways, when some drivers insist on driving in the right lane, restricting the flow of traffic.
This behaviour creates an unsafe driving environment in which drivers will undertake vehicles due to not being able to legally pass them.
The law is clear - stay left unless you’re overtaking.
Ray Calver, Grey Lynn.
Pull finger on light rail
It is utterly ridiculous for the Government to “scrap” the light rail project, thus throwing away the many millions of dollars spent so far.
It would be much better to “mothball” the project to some later date once finances allow and in the meantime have the design work completed and the city-to-airport route confirmed and adopted but now utilised for a busway. This would enhance transportation over that route and set the foundations for light rail, which is an essential transportation mode if the country is not to be considered part of the Third World.
This country must make infrastructure plans on a multi-party basis so commitments are made to avoid the waste of hard-earned taxpayer monies. So, pull the finger and get on with the work.
Mike Arthur, Matamata.
Fair-weather forecasts
In your editorial “The delicate art of weather forecasting” (NZ Herald, January 30), one sentence caught my attention: “Within days, it was the North Islanders being put on notice, with an ‘upper tropospheric cyclonic vortex’ on the way.”
For goodness’ sake. In simple language, do you mean some heavy rain or a storm on the way, maybe?
Bruce Turner, Cambridge.
