Your views: Readers' letters

Over the abyss

Noam Chomsky once wrote: "... the standard technique of privatisation: Defund, make sure things don't work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital."

Since National took over, the first part ("make sure things don't work") has taken place in a slow crawl. Public housing, health, child poverty prevention and education have stalled.

In some cases, they barely work at all. Spending has crept lower. Outputs have followed. Although National has put forth a Budget that has to a certain extent alleviated a few of these problems for election purposes, they have pledged that spending will shrink to 25 per cent of the economy (by far the lowest in the developed world).

Therefore poor outputs in government services have naturally followed the decline in health, housing and education. People are angry.

The next step, "to hand the public good over to private big business", is on its way. Powerful right-wing think tanks and their media mavens are seeing that it does. These include The New Zealand Initiative, formerly the Business Roundtable, and the Taxpayers' Union, co-founded by National pollster David Farrar. The New Zealand Initiative's Manifesto 2017, which suggests "introducing social bonds as a new way to deliver social services", is another name for "privatising". They applaud the National-led Government's trials on this measure.

Why? Hand-down neoliberalism, according to most economists of note, has failed. Inequality is at record levels. A recent testimony to its abject failure by former National Prime Minister Jim Bolger recently confessed that we are running, lemming-like, over the abyss ... due to his own neoliberal polices.

When will enough be enough?

BRIT BUNKLEY
Whanganui

Gang culture

I have no choice but to take issue with the latest rave by Tom Pittams in the Chronicle (letters, May 27).

A very prejudiced and imaginative assessment of the Maori culture and character based on gang culture.

Gangs here in Aotearoa are a subculture with allegiance to no particular system except their own.

And especially not "tikanga Maori". My generation used to refer to them as "boobheads" (dumb and stupid and in the booby hatch). The majority of Maori are hard-working, family-oriented people.

But Mr Pittams seeks to tar us all with the same brush. He wrongly depicts the haka as only a war dance.

But a haka can also be about any other subject -- peace, love or the evils of booze or drugs.

And I know many people, both Maori and Pakeha, who don't need to go to church to learn how to be good.

All of Mr Pittams' utterances could be discredited as above and only a fool would believe it all.

POTONGA NEILSON
Castlecliff

Fake news

I would like to reply to Mandy Donne-Lee's letter (Chronicle, May 16) in which she states that "most people would have no idea what the Bible says God islike".

Let me rectify that. From my reading of the Old Testament I would conclude that the majority of enlightened minds would have no wish to be associated with a mythical God that endorses the following -- slavery, genocide, rape, human sacrifice, the demeaning of women, uncontrollable rage and other deviant practices. And yet fundamentalists maintain the fake news that somehow this is a God of love who is perfect? Oh, please!

Jesus, of course, is tarred by the same brush when he says somewhere, "My father and I are one."

I find myself agreeing with her concluding statement, where she writes, "We need laws that balance our desire for freedom with our need to behave respectfully and responsibly."

We are answerable to ourselves and our fellow man if we choose to hurt others and not to some imaginary "god" in the clouds.

PAUL EVANS
Parkdale

Warmer homes

There is no doubt the New Zealand housing stock is in desperate need of improvement and that the current building code falls far short of where it should be in terms of energy efficiency and thermal comfort.

That is the bad news. The good news is that good design and common-sense approaches to building and renovation can make huge improvements without breaking the bank.

We hear a lot in the Chronicle about the German brand of PassivHaus, which has been brought to New Zealand. It is a good way of building, but in most cases nothing more than a well-designed passive solar home with extra bells and whistles and a very large price tag.

To achieve a warm, dry, comfortable home there is no need to hire an architect or engineer or gain certification.

It concerns me that there are those in the PassivHaus movement who misrepresent the viable alternatives to PassivHaus either deliberately or not deliberately because they do not understand the basic principles of passive solar home design. Either way brings up questions.

The bottom line is that if you have heaps of money to spend and a certified seal of approval is important to you, then go ahead. But if you don't, it is possible to achieve performance levels close to PassivHaus while saving many tens of thousands of dollars in the process.

It's not rocket science. It's common sense.

NELSON LEBO
Independent Design Consultant, Okoia

Common sense

It is good to see common sense prevailing with dropping of the plan to charge for a sewer system that couldn't be hooked into.

I would like to see the proposal for the Wharf St slipway dropped as well.

By all means charge for the council-built slipways. Will they charge Q-West to use their slipway or the rowing or yachting clubs?

How can they charge for a ramp built by the fishing club? Repaying the hard work of the club members who built it by charging them to use it is immoral.

BRUCE EDWARDS
Whanganui