Ah, yes. The "other things" sounds like more cobblers coming from the round table at HQ.
You'd think as a member of the Labour Party, a party for the working class, he would take a leaf out of his current leader's book (and presently the Prime Minister of New Zealand) to put a stop on the increases.
Bugger the rampant homelessness, poverty and the multitude of other social ailments, I'll pocket my 10 grand and run. After all is said and done, it's better in my pocket than theirs.
Recent publications have shown that public servants' pay in NZ and across the ditch is way, way, way above similar paid positions in other countries with larger populations and GDP.
So why the big difference? Anyone out there got a definitive answer? A few New Zealanders would like to know.
Otherwise, like our present PM problems, it will get swept under the carpet — hopefully to be forgotten or be the next fush & chups newspaper wrapping.
Anybody seen the price of fish lately? Just another cost on top of breathing to stay alive.
F. LAW
Springvale
My word
Thanks, H May, for your prompt and very informative answer to my query as to the origins of "I've got your back".
Reminds me of a word once common in New Zealand in my youth (many moons ago): "struth" — derived from the two words, "God's truth".
Of course, we also now see lots of signs with the words — "keep calm and carry on" or variations of that phrase. I understand that was originally on a United Kingdom World War II poster.
Fascinating stuff.
DOUG PRICE
Castlecliff
Ill-informed rant
Unfortunately, I missed the editorial of September 3, which provided the platform for FR Halpin's outraged response that raised President Trump to the saintly elect because of his anti-abortion stance despite a mass of inhumane behaviours and statements.
The editorial is traduced as "unprofessional" and "unbounded ideology", but the position adopted by FR Halpin (or is that Fr Halpin?) is itself unscholarly, unprofessional and rooted in doctrinal ideology, which deliberately ignores many areas of fact relevant to the abortion issue. And these areas of fact, I have no doubt, are well known to your correspondent.
1. Medical science concurs on a figure of 40 per cent natural abortion (miscarriage) within or close to the first trimester of pregnancy. God's hand?
2. It is deliberately misleading to refer to the majority of medical terminations, all those within the first trimester, as "destroying girls and boys in the womb".
3. Medical terminations beyond the first trimester will (by law) be conducted because of endangerment of the mother's condition, or failed/failing viability of the foetus.
4. There is no functioning brain in the developing foetus until approximately 26 weeks gestation, and certainly not in the first trimester.
The blanket "pro-life" position adopted by such writers as Ken Orr and FR Halpin takes no account of any countervailing considerations, is a misogynistic doctrine designed by men specifically to deny any element of choice to women that compassion might recommend, and is ultimately maintained to provide for a continued membership of the Church.
The long-running battle on this issue in the Irish Republic with the resounding victory there for democracy and compassion has been salutary, as has the global war of attrition fought by women to seize control of their ability to conceive via contraception.
As they have proclaimed in one South American state, "The factories have closed!"
RUSS HAY
Whanganui
