Nelson St was a less-than-desirable destination for some Australian tourists. Photo / Michael Craig, File
Holiday lowlight
I have just returned to Australia after a holiday in your wonderful country. Wellington was wonderful, even though we couldn’t go to Napier. New Plymouth was excellent. Then on to Lake Taupō, Rotorua, the glow worm caves, all were great. The one thing that spoiled it was Auckland. On our way to Auckland, we sat in a traffic jam which turned a two-hour trip to five hours. These things happen and you have to accept it. We kind of got lost trying to find Nelson St and were harassed by youths on motorbikes not wearing helmets and wearing balaclavas. It was quite frightening. On returning our car to the hire car company, we were harassed twice when walking back to our hotel and, on each occasion, were asked for money. I certainly won’t be recommending people to spend time in Auckland. Where are your police and what are they doing?
Richard Henry, Daruka, NSW.
Letting on
Contrary to the claim that Labour has launched a war on landlords (NZ Herald, March 10), the Government has only partially decreased the financial advantages that residential property landlords had, and still partly have over people purchasing a home for themselves or their families. Christopher Luxon and Chris Bishop have reportedly stated they will allow residential property investors (and speculators) to deduct mortgage interest payments from their residential property income before income tax is calculated/payable. In addition, Luxon and Bishop have stated they will allow residential property investors (and speculators) to deduct all their residential property losses (if any) from their other income (ie abolish “ring-fencing”) before their income tax is calculated/payable. These policies will give residential property investors/speculators a financial advantage over all New Zealanders buying/purchasing a residential property for themselves or their families This will cause an increase in residential property prices and consequently increase rents and poverty and crime.
Robert L Taylor, Invercargill.
Extra-curricular
To alleviate the current problems besetting the education system, perhaps a total re-evaluation of the duties assigned to these frontline educators should be analysed and any peripheral activities be reassigned to other government departments to sort out and rectify. Then teachers can concentrate on their primary function and be fully focused on education. This incidentally does not include feeding, being a social mentor and being required to waste their time playing nursemaid to dysfunctional families and indulging in the social welfare of these errant groups. Then and only then can you evaluate their performance and thus be able to individually judge their worth and pay them accordingly.
K Ingram, Whakatāne.
Size matters
Two-thirds of students are failing to pass a basic literacy and numeracy test. There are multiple reasons contributing to this. One obvious reason is putting 70-90 children into one large room with two teachers. How can they know their students and cater to their learning needs? Not possible. The constant noise and movement is distracting for many children, others have learning difficulties or hearing problems, the quiet ones become lost amongst the crowd, plus the difficult student being disruptive cannot be catered for by two teachers. We are asking too much of our teachers and our students are being failed. The policy of putting large numbers of children in one big open space and expecting them to have an excellent learning experience and for teachers to have work satisfaction is madness. The only explanation I can see is that it is a cost-saving measure. The cost is to the detriment of our teachers and students.
S. MacDougall, Tauranga.
Power play
The opinions expressed by some politicians and the electricity industry (NZ Herald, March 17) on the need to have sustainable options for dry years to ensure decent electricity supply are just more of the same procrastination. There is a massive contradiction between National’s energy spokesperson, Stuart Smith saying “we are in danger of the bad old days of expensive government investment in a well-functioning electricity market” and Business NZ Energy Council saying “the dry year problem and demand peaks are a serious issue for the sector”. Well, who is right? And surely it doesn’t take a genius to see that there have been several years of profit-taking by the electricity companies from that “well-functioning electricity market” and massive underinvestment in solutions. It is looking as though it will, yet again, have to be the taxpayer forking out to invest in decent infrastructure, as judging by the industry comments in the Herald article, it seems unlikely that the industry will cough up with enough investment funds to deal with the issue.
Neil Anderson, Algies Bay.
Present arms
It’s good for New Zealand not to be a member of Aukus. Do people really think that hugely upping the spend on military equipment will make for a safer world? The total cost of the submarine programme is estimated to be A$268 billion to A$368 billion. We know America has more handguns and private weapons than any other country and also tops the list of murders and incarceration rates. There seems to be an inverse relationship between peace and security and the number of arms around. Why would the UK find it urgent to sail its warships to the Straits of Taiwan? How is that a sensible use of UK taxpayers’ money? Paul Keating said that for Australia to send eight new nuclear-propelled giant submarines to impress China is like throwing eight toothpicks at a mountain and waiting for the effect. The world is moving in a very dangerous direction where military conflict is looked upon as something acceptable and normal. Standing up for trade, peace, co-operation and diplomatic solutions to disagreements has never been more urgent.
Frank Olsson, Freemans Bay.
Our free land
In response to the letters (NZ Herald, March 17) in defence of nuclear sub visits by members of Aukus, it isn’t feasible for New Zealand to be a “little bit” nuclear free. It’s rather like being a “little bit” dead or a " little bit pregnant”, and it’s certainly not a fast food menu where you can pick your combo. The issue of safety of nuclear vessels isn’t at the heart of this issue, nor is national security. What is at the heart of this issue is New Zealand’s absolute right to sovereignty and independence regarding a nuclear-free country. If we opened the ports to nuclear-powered ships and subs, we then cede the right to ask if nuclear weapons are on board. Our Anzus agreement with Australia is still in force, and in 2012 NZ and the U.S. signed the Washington Declaration which strengthened the defence arrangement, and opened the door to security co-operation and defence dialogue. New Zealand continues to maintain strong economic and societal ties to both the US and Australia and our significance in scientific areas, especially research in Antarctica, is invaluable to the US. New Zealand’s nuclear-free stance is admired around the world, and we shouldn’t compromise our autonomy to become a dubious adjunct to the Aukus pact. We may not be the biggest kid in the schoolyard but we’re the most self-reliant.
Mary Hearn, Glendowie.
Expensive alliance
Your correspondent Murray Dear (NZ Herald, March 17) backs the 1992 Special Committee on Nuclear Propulsion’s view on the safety of US and UK nuclear submarines. The authors of that report were so confident that nuclear warship visits posed a minimal risk that they suggested that riding a bicycle or drinking coffee had a similar risk level. The report’s authors had no privileged access to information about reactor design and did not consider the safety of Chinese, French or Russian warships. My impression at the time was that few were convinced. Even if the risk of radioactive contamination was low, there was no compensating benefit. Back then, New Zealanders chose not to take part in nuclear sabre-rattling, a stand that gave us the edge in negotiations for a nuclear-free South Pacific, an end to French nuclear testing and other important international disarmament initiatives. The Aukus alliance is just another nuclear bandwagon with an aggressive confrontation strategy at its heart. This time China is framed as the enemy but the stakes are the same. Alliances don’t offer “protection”, they force us to abandon all pretence of an independent voice in international affairs, while costing us the earth.
Maire Leadbeater, Mt Albert.
Overriding concern
We do not need an 18-month-long, expensive inquiry to determine that it was reckless and inexcusable for all four engines on a Cook Strait ferry to have automatically shut down from overheating to prevent further damage. That action took away control of the vessel from the ship’s master and placed all on board at risk. It is only down to luck that a disaster did not eventuate. Aircraft manufacturers don’t design control systems that shut down all engines at once. Such an obvious design flaw, on a vessel that on every voyage passes a monument to what can, and did in April 1968 go wrong, beggars belief. A ship’s master should always retain the ability to override a control “system” decision and to run a vessel’s engine - to destruction if necessary, if that’s what it takes to keep the souls on board safe.
Robin Hill, Mairangi Bay.
City bound
Your correspondent, Bruce Tubb (NZ Herald, March 17),has apparently not noticed that people travel into Auckland City for reasons other than shopping. At present, there are around 140,000 people working in the CBD, as well as almost 40,000 students. To transport all these people into the CBD over the three-hour morning period by single-occupancy vehicle would require at least 40 motorway lanes. We have just 10, and no room to expand, given the immense cost of purchasing properties to widen current motorways or build new ones. The City Rail Link will double the capacity of the current rail network to 27,000 people per hour, so will divert significant traffic from existing roads and motorways. This, coupled with the Northern Busway, capable of moving up to 30,000 people per hour, goes a long way towards future-proofing our transport network for the next decade or so, complemented by the proposed light rail after that.
Errol Anderson, Ponsonby.
Carried away
Nice to see that someone (NZ Herald, March 17) agrees with me that the CRL is a complete waste of money. The original budget was $2.9 billion, and now has blown out to well over $6 billion and will eventually be over $10 billion. And for what? It will not take cars off the road. Shops in Queen St will be deserted when workers pass under the city instead of shopping when they would have passed by, and rate/taxpayers will be paying the bill for years to come. All they had to do to take pressure off the system was to make a terminus at Newmarket, for the south and western lines and run a continuous shuttle to and from Britomart. Problem is that was just too simple.
Bob Wichman, Botany.
Sights unseen
With the greatest respect, I believe Sir Roger Hall (NZ Herald, March 17) is out of line. Would he support the idea that his plays should no longer be in print, let alone be performed, because times have changed and they are no longer relevant? Art museums preserve art for future generations. No serious established art museum can ever be large enough to show more than a small percentage of its collection at any one time. Art museums collect in-depth, not only to document the art produced at the time but art that reflects that time. If you visit one of our finest, the Christchurch Art Gallery, every few months, you will observe how its intelligently and entertainingly curated changing collection-based displays reveal a wide and diverse range of works of art from all the eras and cultures that it collects within a clearly defined aesthetic, art historical or social context. Public art museums must never be forced to deaccession anything in their primary collections. Rather, in extreme circumstances, expensive loan exhibitions can be cut back and exciting, stimulating and cost-effective displays drawn from the collection presented in their place or, indeed, the much missed regular surveys of local and national contemporary art.
C Johnstone, Grey Lynn.
On Brown
At last a mayor with the courage to challenge the people in the council whose salaries do not correlate with an organisation in extraordinary debt. One hopes this leads to more realistic financial savings. Alec Hill, Devonport.
Wayne Brown’s problem is that he doesn’t go to the library often enough. Robyn Smith, Paraparaumu.
On Aukus
My country, New Zealand, is nuclear-free and I hope it remains that way forever. If other nations don’t like that, they can play in their own sandpit with their other nuclear mates. J McCormick, Gisborne.
The US increasingly cannot compete against the growing Chinese economic expansion, so is now trying to bolster its sagging economy by boosting the export of military arms. Ultimately, it is the Australian taxpayers who are going to be bled dry. David Mairs, Glendowie.
On Luxon
Many Government policies criticised by the Opposition have now been shelved until after the election as these have been extremely unpopular with the general public. This means Christopher Luxon was right to target them. Ian Hancock, Ōhaupō.
On youths
Youthful offenders are repeatedly carrying out crimes in the knowledge that they could again be sentenced to go back to the comfort of supervised custody facilities. Perhaps the only answer is to sentence them to home detention. Peter Judge, Taupō.
On Nash
National and Act want Stuart Nash sacked for talking tough on crime. Go figure? Roger Laybourn, Hamilton.
Liam Dann: Why banking crisis means cheaper petrol (maybe)
The problem is politicians are usually no more qualified to solve the problems than your next-door neighbour. Marcus A.
Especially “these” politicians. Till October anyway. Steven H.
But who will we replace them with? National is still to stump up with coherent policy. Act’s leadership is also inexperienced outside Parliament, David Seymour did only a year as an “engineer” and the rest of his time in policy/politics. And his 2IC is about the same. And they want the “free market” to fix everything, yeah right. TOP has some good policies but is mainly a one-man-band. Kathy A.
I’m pretty apathetic to both Labour and National but who from National is going to do a better job? Goldsmith? David M.
Interest rates going down? I doubt it. The Government is still going full throttle cranking up benefits, minimum wage and consultant spending, etc. Nurses, police, teachers and everyone else will need massive increases next. It’s snowballing. This only leaves the Reserve Bank with one option; to keep cranking up interest rates. Daniel S.
It’s surprising the price of fuel has not dropped. Brent crude is now under $80 a barrel and is the benchmark for our pricing at the pump. Compared to Australia, we are still getting ripped off. David S.
Any banking crisis will end up being inflationary as weak central bankers intervene to protect them with cheap money. This is what caused the problem in the first place. David H.
OPINION: New Zealander reflects on delivering speech at St James' Palace.