An ode to unity. Photo / 123RF
Aussie may have true tax answer
So many Kiwis are moving to Australia because the pay rates are higher.
Yet Australia has a large income tax-free threshold, a 45 per cent top income tax rate, a capital gains tax, fair pay agreements and the pension (super) is means-tested.
But here we’re told here that tax breaks must be the answer to our economic problems.
Huw Dann, Mt Eden.
Crime hysteria a two-faced Act
While one leader pollutes the atmosphere in a friend’s aeroplane as he gads about the country, he and his political partners indulge in crime hysteria with promises to lock more people up, while simultaneously making life very difficult for beneficiaries. Of course there is no mention of the billion dollars in tax fraud and the $5-$7 billion in white collar crime. It is also interesting to see the limits of self-expression freedoms regarding gang patches. This bit of social oppression will prove very hard to enforce. These policies are popular with many middle- and upper-income groups with a very siloed view of life. However, these policies need more empathy and nuance.
Sir Bill English said once that prisons were a social and fiscal failure, and he is right. The prison populations generally rise and fall related to politician’s decisions made when the prisoners were babies. That is why most prisoners are mentally unwell or have a drug addiction problem. These are vulnerable people.
The principles of personal responsibility, hard work and general freedom suit the well-off, but can be seriously challenging to keep to if you don’t have much hope for your future.
Remember. The majority of poor people are actually children.
Niall Robertson, Balmoral.
A cutting remark
On visiting a supermarket for the first time in a while to buy some razor blades, I now understand why so many men are growing beards.
John Norris, Whangamata.
Sign language
If/when National’s transport spokesman Simeon Brown becomes the new minister, he’d do well to forget dog whistling to people triggered by the prospect of English and Māori road signs.
Brown said dual language signs would be confusing, but what should concern him is why English signs seem to confuse so many Tamaki Makaurau motorists.
Compulsory stop and give way signs are often ignored. Red and amber lights too.
Dangerous driving, such as the five motorists in succession I saw ignoring a stop sign in Epsom last week, gets no traction when law and order’s on the political agenda though.
Nor do penalties, perhaps because the fine for running a red light is still $150, the same as turning too soon into a bus lane.
If fines were closer to Australia’s $300 to about $500, with three demerit points too, perhaps the truck driver who nearly hit me halfway across Balmoral Rd on a pedestrian crossing green light might’ve decided to stop, for the sake of his licence and wallet at least, if not my life.
Murray Williams, Mt Eden.
Red tape the problem
Mark Nixon, in the Weekend Herald, says that after carefully reading the Mood of the Boardroom, he concludes that business has to take responsibility for its own solutions to the problems businesses face. Sadly, the legal requirement to comply with the ever-increasing amount of government- or council-issued red tape makes that not just difficult but impossible.
Anyone involved in even the smallest business can attest to not only the amount of red tape but the horrendous cost of complying with it.
I truly doubt that any of the people responsible for this increasing burden have ever put their own money, time or effort on the line to create a business or productive job for anyone.
James Archibald, Birkenhead.
Columnist ignores Covid
So Bruce Cotterill wants New Zealand to resume oil and gas exploration and coal extraction for purely economic reasons (WH, September 30) — regardless of the accepted science that unequivocally puts the burning of fossil fuels at the top of the emissions list causing calamitous climate change everywhere now — flooding, wildfires, property damage and destruction, major erosion, slips, sinkholes — and deaths. Many, many deaths, right across the world. Cotterill ignores all that. To him, the economic benefits of trading in fossil fuels are far more important, and far outweigh any such environmental dangers — to us, or to the planet.
The Covid pandemic has also been constantly ignored by Cotterill as having no material effects or consequences on our lives. And he criticises the Government as having been much too slow, and over-protective of people, in not “opening up” sooner than they did. He cites the tourism industry suffering significantly as a result. Again, here is Cotterill judging economic concerns as being of much greater importance than the health and safety of New Zealand citizens. Cotterill’s uncompromising, right-wing, business-centric opinions are revealed here as irresponsible and dangerous misdirections.
Clyde Scott, Birkenhead.
Slash and burn to save cash
National said they would reduce the public service.
Chris Hipkins’ unbelievable answer is that it would result in job losses.The savings made would be over $1 billion — that’s a good reason. Also are these increased government departments value for money, when you look at education, crime, health etc?
Ian MacGregor, Greenhithe.
Politicians worse than kids
On Saturday morning I watched my last political debate. Why bother when opponents are so hell-bent on getting their points across that we end up not having a clue what point they were trying to articulate. Constant interruptions and talking over each other is an exercise in frustration for the viewer, and moderators perhaps need a talking stick to pass between the two errant “grown-ups”. I’ve seen 5-year-olds after too much sugar behave better than that, so I recommend that candidates find a new entrant’s class nearby and learn some badly-needed behaviour modification therapy.
Mary Hearn, Glendowie.
Hearts go out to Barnetts
Thank you so much for the wonderful but also devastatingly sad article on Jodi and Simon Barnett’s inevitable outcome. I have never cried so much reading this news content. My heart goes out to them. I too have lost my own mother to cancer, so can sympathise with what they are going through. Jodi should be proud of the four gorgeous daughters she and Simon have raised, much love to them. I can well imagine the whole of Aotearoa is holding you all in our hearts.
Cherie Smith, Unsworth Heights.
Rugby rules killing interest
Every rugby union scrum seems to end up with a penalty to one side or the other, which is a ridiculous waste of viewing time. Rugby scrums should follow rugby league scrums’ example in not wasting time. Together with the intervention of the TMO every five minutes, a 40-minute half of union is taking about an hour, which is absurd, turning off viewers and should be rectified.
Bruce Tubb, Devonport.
Super City not so Super
It is with great sadness that I read in the Weekend Herald that the Takapuna- Milford coastal walkway had been closed. It was one of my favourite walks, although I am now too old to walk it. This is unlikely to have happened under the so-called pre-Super City regime — the worst thing that has happened to the Auckland region. The other cities where this has been mooted have rejected it, having learned from Auckland’s mistake, which was imposed by Rodney Hide without consultation.
Peter Patten, Albany.
An ode to unity
Look what’s coming
What’s taking so long?
Why can’t we pull ourselves together
And all sing the same song
We’ve been badly let down by the system
We’re all aware something’s gone wrong
So
Why can’t we pull ourselves together
And all sing the same song?
Why can’t we all sing the same song?
John Veysey, Coromandel.
On phone ban
Recently Unesco called for smartphones to be banned from classrooms to “reduce cyber bullying, avoid negative effects on children’s emotional stability and academic performance”. So it’s great to see National leader Christopher Luxon has promised to ban cellphones at school from the beginning of the next school year.
Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.
On anthem’s prayer
This election campaign makes me feel even more strongly that we should be singing the second, not the first, verse of the National Anthem!
Fiona Downes, Hobsonville.
On Woollies rebrand
If Woollies really wanted to show their rebrand wasn’t a waste of money, they could do it by taking the same amount as the rebrand cost them and dividing it up equally as a nice Christmas bonus to all of their employees.
An equal dollar amount to all, from branch managers to trundler collectors — now that would be something that would not be shown to be a waste of money.
Jim McCormick, Gisborne.
On division
Divisive discourses of discontent. Diminishing democracy. Denying debate on diminishing democracy. How do these things lead any of us to thrive and be one people?
Chris Chrystall, Epsom.
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