Letters: Ukrainian refugees, protests, house prices, tax cuts, and women in sport

Displaced persons are once more on the move in Europe, pictured here at a border crossing in Medyka, Poland. Photo / Markus Schreiber, AP

Ukrainian refugees
The unfolding horror of the Ukrainian refugee situation in Europe is a stark reminder of my plight 70-odd years ago in Germany when my Ukrainian parents were desperate to avoid being repatriated to certain death in the Russian-controlled Soviet Union.
Our family wandered from one "displaced persons" camp to another before New Zealand gave my family a safe haven, for which I am eternally grateful.
Growing up, I would listen to the horrific tales Ukrainian refugees related, their sufferings during the Holodomor of 1933, and the forced labour in the Siberian gulag.
These horrors by these so-called Russian liberators have touched every family in Ukraine. For that reason, they fight for their freedom and sovereignty. Death is preferable to abject slavery in Putin's barbaric Russian peace.
My parents taught me the Ukrainian language and to be proud of my Ukrainian heritage, as well as a love for New Zealand and its people, who showed us such generosity on our arrival in 1950.
I am now too old to physically make a contribution to the cause. Instead, I offer a modified quote from Winston Churchill: "Mr Putin, you do your worst and the Ukrainian people will do our best."
Alec Oleh Krechowec, Glendene.

Fair hearing
Now that the debris has been swept away and the protesters at Parliament are scattered, what have we learned? Apart from the obvious - that violence is ugly and soul-destroying, is the knowledge that people don't talk anymore. They scream, they ridicule and they throw projectiles, but communication seems to be a forgotten concept.
Not all the protesters were tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy theorists. Some may have lost their jobs because of mandates and were feeling marginalised and ignored. A pandemic in its third year can wear the spirit down; fear and anxiety can erode our best instincts. We need to talk, but more crucially listen respectfully and calmly. It might be frustrating but not fatal, and it is the cornerstone of a civilised society.
New Zealand is a civilised society, but we're going to have to work harder to maintain and enhance open dialogue.
To do less could culminate in what happened on January 6, 2021, at the US Capitol. As an American, I still find it shameful and heart-wrenching.
New Zealand is better than that.
Mary Hearn, Glendowie.

Subsequent houses
If I decided on Government policy, I would require all the banks to impose much higher lending requirements on any second or subsequent house purchase by a customer so that the housing policy of having as many families as possible owning homes could be realised.
Housing has become the go-to smart investment by rewarding housing with guaranteed tax-free capital gains. The Government controls the Reserve Bank and can legislate the changes required. The banks are also making record profits despite the pandemic. They can stand a profit haircut and deserve one immediately.
Dennis Pahl, Tauranga.

Retrograde policy
National Party leader Christopher Luxon's focus on lower taxes and therefore more money for the "haves" makes it clear that his party is deeply committed to looking after people like himself, who are wealthy and own a lot of property.
This is not progress. It's a huge step backwards. We have massive inequality and a climate crisis to attend to.
Surely we deserve something better than this if we are ever going to make our country a better place.
Vivien Fergusson, Mt Eden.

Economic stimulus
While neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Christopher Luxon's tax rate plans, what I can contribute is that reducing the tax rate does not necessarily mean that hospitals etc cannot be funded, as is asserted by some.
The most important thing is the amount of tax dollars collected that enables necessary services to be provided by the Government. High tax rates do not necessarily mean providing the biggest amount of tax dollars as high tax rates can constrain economic activity. The less activity, the less there is to tax, the fewer tax dollars available to provide the necessary services. Conversely, if tax rates are lower, greater economic activity may result from which a greater amount of tax may be collected. It's a fine balance.
Ross McCarthy, Glendowie.

Free-market artifice
Your correspondent from the Electricity Retailers Association (NZ Herald, March 7) stretches the limits of credulity in her defence of electricity prices. New Zealand consumers should now be benefiting from some of the lowest electricity prices in the world, given that much of the current infrastructure was paid for by generations of New Zealanders and was managed by professional engineers who were only paid modest civil service salaries.
The free-market reforms of the 1980s transformed a unified national system into an artificial market with energy companies, each with their own armies of highly paid CEOs, company boards, marketing, legal, billing departments, and legions of private and institutional investors.
As anyone who endures their current asinine marketing knows, electricity companies only compete on branding rather than price. It is interesting to note that none of the architects of the current market seem prepared to defend their creation.
William O'Donnell, Sandringham.

Address inequality
Your kaituhi reta, Susan Grimsdale (NZ Herald, March 7), writes that Christopher Luxon's speech ignored inequality.
She goes on to kōrero about those who truly work hard - caregivers and others earning not much above the minimum wage and paying tax on every dollar.
Only the incumbent Labour Kāwanatanga can fix that, by removing income tax from the minimum wage so the working poor can keep every dollar they earn and not always rely on increases to the minimum wage to scrape by.
Then we'd be making progress.
Larry Tompkins, Waiuku.

Closing the gap
Susan Grimsdale expresses disdain for those not seeking to reduce inequality (NZ Herald, March 7). New Zealand needs a capital gains tax, but neither major party seems likely to introduce one. A wealth tax would also not go amiss.
A cause of increasing inequality is the practice of giving employees a percentage of wage increases. For example, if a firm comprised two employees on $1m and $50,000 respectively, 1 per cent wage increases would amount to $10,000 for one and $500 for the other, and immediately the gap between their incomes would widen by $9500.
Repeat that year after year, and it is no surprise that the gap between the haves and the have-nots is enormous.
If employers were to divide the wage-increase pot equally between all staff, the gap would close. In the example above (admittedly extreme), each would receive half of the $10,500 pot, or $5250 each.
If the Government were to start the ball rolling, private enterprise would be shamed into following suit.
Of course, the higher-paid would grumble, but it would be hard to argue that they
deserved more because they are already getting more.
C Brian Smith, Kelburn.

Zaporizhzhia plant
I refer to your editorial (NZ Herald, March 7). At a press conference following its investigation of the alleged incident, the International Atomic Energy Agency stated that there was a fire in a workshop that occurred during a fight between the Russian soldiers who had already occupied the plant and maintained operation and Ukrainian soldiers who were trying to take it back.
The alleged shelling was a series of star shells fired to illuminate the combat area.
The IAEA was at pains to state that there was no damage to any of the operational plant and that all reactors were operating normally.
G. N. Kendall, Rothesay Bay.

Six year limit
Phil Goff is standing down as Auckland Mayor after two terms (NZ Herald, March 7).
The rule in the US is that the US President must stand down after two terms - it makes perfect sense to get a fresh outlook for the leader and stop long-term power from being abused in many areas.
We should do the same with the Auckland Mayor, who must stand down after two terms exactly as Phil has done.
Murray Hunter, Titirangi.

Relative success
Last night I watched a TV interview with two young ladies who had made it into the New Zealand hockey team. A wonderful achievement and congratulations to them both.
However, the reporter spent more time talking about a father, uncle and brother who played rugby than the women's own achievements.
This is not the first time a woman being interviewed has their time to shine hijacked by a male relative who once played rugby.
Can we not allow women athletes their own moment of glory?
Beth Graham, Mangawhai Heads.

Short & sweet

On National
Christopher Luxon has said he will repeal every tax or levy Labour has introduced since 2017. Perhaps he should step back a bit further and reduce GST back to 12.5 per cent, ensuring most households will increase their spending capability. Alan Johnson, Papatoetoe.

On mandates
If the anti-mandate few are so right, why are thousands of people returning to New Zealand, and apparently no one is abandoning the country? Clark James, New Lynn.

On Ukraine
Maybe Russia deserves to be removed from the UN Security Council until it can prove it shares in universal values of humanity, dignity and non-violence? Rob Buchanan, Kerikeri.

Just as New Zealanders showed support for the battle against Covid with teddies in our windows, we can show support for Ukraine by displaying their national flower, the sunflower, in the same way. Yvonne Amery, Clendon Park.

On Covid
A research study has shown that catching Covid can lead to an average of 6 per cent brain shrinkage. This is a massive problem for anti-vaxxers, given their average IQ to start with. Dave Clark, Glendowie.

On Shane Warne
If I can take 700 wickets in backyard cricket I'll have had a fun life. We'll miss you, Warnie. Huw Dann, Mt Eden.

Warnie did for cricket what Andre Agassi did for tennis, they made it cool and immensely popular. Dave Miller, Matua.

The Premium Debate

Three Waters publicity campaign

It was a terrible campaign. The strategy of "fear" was misplaced, the execution of the creative was childish and insulting to any adult who watched it and, most importantly, the messaging was dishonest. All of these themes, unfortunately, reflect how this government communicates most things. Jason L.

An unarguable point is that this Government has mettle. It has guts. It has seen the mess left behind from the National administration and is going to do something about it. The 2016 Havelock North gastro outbreak caused four deaths and led to the 2017 drinking water inquiry - which clearly showed that 20 per cent of our water supply is not up to standard. Timothy T.

The Government did not and does not want the people of NZ to be given all of the facts about Three Waters - so it engaged a company to provide "inspirational, emotive marketing". For goodness sake, tell all of us what you are up to, what the costs/benefits are, and why the other less convoluted options were dismissed without consultation. Margaret M.

The councils have made a mess of managing pipes. I would rather it was centralised. Can't see it getting through, though. Steve D.

Another piece of legislation that Labour didn't campaign on, hoping we just wouldn't care. As soon as people oppose it, they spend $4 million on a "transparency" campaign. Stuart W.

I wonder how many people voted yes to this at the last election? Should this be an election issue? I feel my local council in Kapiti has done a good job over the last 15 years regarding improving water quality. Do we trust this Labour Government to do a great job with Three Waters? Clay M.

Luckily the resulting advert was so bad that it wouldn't have won the hearts and minds of anyone. It did expose that the Government thinks we are all five years old. Anna S

This just isn't surprising anymore. My limit for outrage at frivolous spending has well and truly been reached and I no longer care as there's nothing I can do but vote when I time comes. Olivia F