Graham Chaplow, Havelock North.
Fiscal 'hole'
Cameron Bagrie is indeed a respected economist as Grant Robertson asserts, so let's see what Mr Bagrie says, according to the Herald, about Labour's fiscal plan:
There will be obvious pressure areas such as law and order and core government services other than health and education. It would be a "massive challenge" for Labour to stick and deliver on the numbers as presented. There is "absolutely no wriggle room" in the 2019 Budget unless they "reprioritise spending, or maybe run a low operating balance or have a little more debt".
There are other options, including running a smaller surplus, cancelling some programmes, changing taxes or being "less aggressive" on repaying debt.
All this after borrowing an extra $7 billion, about which Grant Robertson has been unusually coy. So Labour want to sell the electorate a package which is reliant on a degree of fiscal responsibility which Labour has seldom demonstrated, may depend on increased borrowing, and may require cutting some programmes. Which programmes are at risk, Mr Robertson? What would you reprioritise?
Rather than Mr Joyce embarrassing himself, it seems Cameron Bagrie has embarrassed Mr Robertson.
Peter Newfield, Takapuna.
List member
Voters should bear in mind when Steven Joyce falsely attacks Labour's fiscals that he has never actually stood for election, never campaigned in an electorate, was parachuted into John Key's Cabinet to represent the one percenters. Like most of his colleagues, Joyce has never been in touch with the needs and aspirations of most New Zealanders.
Philip Temple, Dunedin.
Counting poverty
I am sick of hearing Bill English talking about measuring poverty. For nine years he and his cronies have ridiculed report after report, they have wasted money on endless investigations and talk fests. It is not hard; if you have no proper home, no shoes and raincoat, not enough food, you are sick from damp and mouldy homes, you have sores because your diet is no good and you do not go to school on a regular basis - that is poverty and it is not that hard to fix.
Heather Tanguay, Glen Eden.
Self reliance
The fundamental philosophy of the Labour Party is that everyone, more or less, should be reliant on some form of state support. The idea of personal responsibility is an anathema to them. Most "child poverty" is due to people having children they cannot afford to raise. Substandard housing is largely due to mismanagement and underfunding of Housing NZ. The state's core social focus should be health and education of our children, and care of senior citizens. Everyone in between can fend for themselves.
On Seven Sharp, Black Power talked about "personal responsibility". Perhaps a vote for them would be better than for any of the political parties.
Derek Paterson, Sunnyhills.
Key's fault
If National lose this election the blame should be put squarely on one man, John Key. Under his so-called leadership New Zealand had eight years of neglect. The country slipped backwards in almost all international measures: debt, health, environment, housing, financial equality, addiction, immigration control. New Zealand repeatedly elected a man with no experience of the world of work, who had for years earned his living by playing with other people's money.
Bill English was delivered a hospital pass - given responsibility for a country badly needing restoring to real health. As a man with experience of the real world and with a social conscience, he has had a few months to begin to try repairing some of the damage. But what was he doing as deputy for nine years?
Alister Williams, Waipu.
Super contributions
By paying into the NZ Super Fund we are creating the wealth to keep the entitlement sustainable from age 65. This benefits not only our descendants but also the immediate productivity of the whole nation by raising our capital ownership and investment rate per citizen, which is less likely to happen through freely consumable tax reductions.
Jens Meder, Pt. Chevalier.
Switching support
I am concerned the Maori Party are trying to position themselves as a parliamentary immovable object. In 2008 the aggrieved political leadership of Maoridom broke with Labour. They have been Nationalised for three governments. Ngaruawahia politicians made a clear National swing some time back. Now with a strong swell of Labour support, suddenly the president of the Maori Party, and others, decide they can work with Labour.
If Labour can indeed "do this", I hope it is without returning a party that needs to spend some time in the wilderness standing for its values. Democracy has no place for parties that are perpetually in office, regardless of change.
Jason Conway, Te Atatu.
Too many people
I agree with Don Braid that we need some visionaries at the top for New Zealand. However, he then says growth of population and tourism is all good for us. The question is how much? New Zealanders need to consider a vision of what they want the country to look like in 10, 20 or 30 years when the current crop of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will be young adults.
Do we want the same scenes we see every night on TV of millions of desperate people trying to live. We don't need to have a growth that speeds us towards this future and that places extreme pressure on infrastructure, increases homelessness and reduces quality of life.
Businesses like Mainfreight support more growth as this means growth in revenue and earnings. We need to look after our country and its people. We have an inflation band that the Reserve Bank is committed to stay within. Why don't we have a similar target for population? Goverments like National then cannot use immigration to prop up the economy.
Peter Pratt, Glenfield.
Water taxes
There has been a lot written about Labour's plan to tax water, and it all seems too complicated to be workable. I propose splitting it into separate parts. Firstly, the water bottlers for export appear to be a totally different animal to farmers as they don't appear to add much to the economy, unlike farmers who are the backbone. So it should be possible to pass legislation quickly to create a meaningful royalty per litre, which is how they sell it.
Irrigation could be a minuscule charge by comparison, with rebates for the likes of riparian fencing and planting and also for moving away from nitrogen and phosphate fertilisers as these are causing most of the leaching and stream degradation problems. They are two quite different cases and should be treated so.
John Bryham, Warkworth.
Drug decriminalisation
The idea of moving methamphetamine from a criminal to a health problem is truly stupid. Currently, our dysfunctional legal system permits mentally ill persons a defence of insanity. Christie Marceau was not murdered by Akshay Chand even though he killed her. In my opinion the right verdict should be guilty but insane.
The proposal to treat meth use as a health issue opens the possibility Tony Robertson could appeal his conviction for the murder of Blessie Gotinco because of his health issues. I believe one of the many reasons behind these proposals is to massage the crime figures to permit more "sick" people to stay out of prison.
Neville Cameron, Coromandel.
