A meeting around the bridge in the NZME newsroom. Photo / Greg Bowker
Hello and welcome to New Zealand's Herald: Let's Talk, our new feature on the Herald site which offers you the chance to comment on today's news and views.
We want to hear your opinions - and help answer your questions - on anything from the big issues of the day.
Politics? Business? Taxes? We're happy to let you debate them all. All you have to do to offer a comment is to click into the live blog immediately below and follow the prompts. Alternatively, you can email letters@nzherald.co.nz
Our early headline news had Northland's largest log hauler Stan Semenoff Logging hitting back at criticism of its road safety record by the NZ Transport Agency, saying it had only had four speeding tickets in four years.
Shane Jones, Regional Economic Development and Associate Transport Minister has been mired in controversy after it was reported he was worried about NZTA action against the transporter.
In other news, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has pushed back on claims out of Australia that intelligence assessments pointed the finger at China's spy agency as being behind the burglaries of Anne-Marie Brady, a professor from Canterbury.
And in our Opinion section, Mike Hosking says it's time for the Government to wake up over Capital Gains Tax, Barry Soper argues that Euthanasia's an issue whose time has surely come, and Alton Jamieson says Aucklanders should not wait another 10 years for clean beaches.
To get you warmed up, here's a selection of letters to the editor from today's Herald. Do you agree with our correspondents? Or are your hackles raised? Well, have your say! (Please note comments will be moderated before publication. Comments may be edited, abridged or discarded.)
As someone whose life was forever changed by a severe teenage attack of muscle paralysing poliomyelitis, with a prolonged partial recovery, I have never before spoken about this, except reluctantly in private.
I am now motivated to do so publicly because of the disturbing anti-vaccination lobby that still seems to be gaining traction. This despite extended and respected research showing immunisation does not produce autism or other abnormalities, as claimed by the anti-vaccinators.
Imagine a world where poliomyelitis, smallpox, chickenpox, measles, mumps, whooping cough, diphtheria, and the associated death and often profound morbidly of these childhood illnesses was rife again. Almost unbelievable — but this is what the anti-vaccination lobby could achieve, with non-vaccination now being one of the 2019 most important world health threats.
Vaccinations against all these illnesses are free so, just as in some other countries, the parents of those children arrogantly not vaccinated should suffer some kind of social and financial disincentives until the children are fully immunised.
Unacceptable discrimination some might suggest, but not nearly as antisocial as the reprehensible actions of the parents of unimmunised children.
Hylton Le Grice, Remuera.
I would like to question the statement in the Business Herald that "Statistics show one in four Kiwi children live in poverty" — surely an exaggeration for headline-grabbing purposes?
Ross Harvey, Remuera.
Statistics NZ didn't "encourage respondents to complete the Census online" as your article reported. The 2018 Census was "digital first". Before the Census started Liz MacPherson and Denise McGregor were in the media stating this as the desired strategy.
McGregor was quoted saying, "the move to digital-first was necessary as the old census model was becoming increasingly unsustainable over time."
This meant Stats NZ had 4000 fewer field staff following up Census form completion. Management were aware in late March 2018 of an incident which was flagged and labelled "response rates too low". Cost increases were a reason for the move to "digital first" but given the mess and unreliability of the data for government use, I wonder what the true cost to New Zealand will be from this Stats NZ management decision?
There needs to be some accountability at Stats NZ around the strategy used and it's far from useful results.
Claire Teirney, Stanmore Bay.
The winter energy payment for pensioners last year cost taxpayers around $105 million. This payment should only be made to pensioners who need it, those who have a Community Services Card. L. H. Cleverly, Mt Roskill.
With the revelation from Transport Minister Phil Twyford that the proposed light rail line to Westgate and Kumeu could be a decade or more away, if built at all, residents in northwest Auckland can expect to continue sitting in ever-increasing traffic congestion for the foreseeable future.
The Government's blind focus on the proposed light rail line along Dominion Rd to the airport begs the question of the logic and sense of directing so much of the transport budget into this one controversial project when there are better and cheaper heavy rail options which would benefit far more people.
It would be much easier and considerably quicker to expand the existing heavy rail network across Auckland by extending the current rail line from Onehunga to the airport, and a diesel rail shuttle service from Henderson to Kumeu/Huapai using the existing underused line which could be upgraded, and until the line can be electrified.
G. Sinclair, Taupaki.
No one in their right mind would still be talking about light rail from Auckland's CBD to the airport if they had been in Sydney's CBD last week looking at the devastation it's causing in George St.
This once vibrant central street leading down to the harbour has been cut in half with road work blockages as tram lines are being installed (the overhead wires are yet to appear) causing road frontage businesses to go to the wall and a threat of class action against the state government for the millions of dollars people have lost.
Dragging on for four years already, way past promised time frame, it doesn't look like the completion date is any time soon, or a recovery for George St and Surry Hills, also affected.
It is bad enough that business owners in Albert St have suffered by the extended time frame for the City Rail Link construction. To even contemplate light rail up Queen St along Dominion Rd (funded by silly Super Fund people) is sheer madness. Transport Minister Twyford needs to remember it's election time next year.
Coralie van Camp, Remuera.
A columnist in an English magazine, reminiscing about the ambience of Paris and the introduction of scooters, said: "Thankfully, the French are fighting back. After a 23 per cent increase in scooter accidents last year, with 284 people injured and five killed, it's just been announced that scooters will be banned from pavements, even if they will still fill the roads. The old Paris of leisurely conversation, baguettes and arm-waving lives on. And let's hope the scooter start-up guys allez-vous back to California ASAP." I wish.
Lois Wilkinson, Kerikeri.
Given modern technology why the long delay in releasing Census stats? Surely it is just a matter of putting in the collected information and pushing a button on the computer. Marie Kaire, Whangarei.
Of course David Seymour is claiming his bill will pass. With almost zero support for his party he has pinned his political survival on the success of this dangerous bill. It is clear from his comments that he knows it will not pass without being substantially amended.
However those MPs who would not vote for the bill in its current form may not be so easily reassured by the changes he is planning.
Restricting the bill to terminal illness would only delay the slide to a much wider application. Everywhere euthanasia laws are enacted, the categories inevitably expand over time as the result of relentless challenges by groups who feel they are "missing out". And no longer is Oregon an exception to this, as Seymour has often claimed.
Pressure is building there to extend the "terminal only" provision to a much wider category similar to the one Seymour wants to get rid of here.
The only difference between passing the bill as it stands and passing an amended version is the time it would to take to get to the same point.
Robyn Jackson, Hamilton.
A thief bit off more than he could chew during a daylight supermarket theft.