We cannot buy our way out of our responsibility for damaging emissions.
Which party is promising to set aside a designated fund to mitigate the disasters ahead, to replace or repair huge damage to infrastructure, whether by floods or drought? What will be the use of tax cuts if our businesses or farms are washed away? If we lose our stock, nurseries and forests due to drought?
What is the use of throwing more money at education if there is no one left to educate?
The present election campaign is no better than a giant lolly scramble. One party says "We'll give you this" and another party says "We'll give you more."
None of it is of any value unless we (meaning the Government representing us all) pull out all stops to save the planet.
It is almost too late. It is time to face the truth.
Inconvenience today may mean survival tomorrow.
JEAN McDAVITT
Whanganui
Double standards
I have no attachments to either the Green Party or Metiria Turei, but the furore and indignation over her admission she "told a lie or lies" to subsidise her income raises yet another example of the "holier than thou" and double standards seen in this country all the time.
Let us leave the race and party cards aside and consider this.
There have been lawyers, bankers, top sports professionals, policemen, doctors, real estate people and Cabinet ministers who have conned, swindled, cheated, defrauded, at times on a grand scale and continually lied through their teeth to do so. Even a Prime Minister. There are no "white lies". A lie is a lie and a liar is a liar.
Most of these people have ridden roughshod over the backs of ordinary New Zealanders to get where they are. All too often getting away with it.
Some, when apprehended, have been offered leniency and name suppression, having been told by the judiciary that conviction and naming may damage their career. Really?
Yet, it would seem that when a beneficiary or non-notable person has been caught out on an offence or, as in this case, admits to having told a lie, all hell breaks loose. What about the corporate welfare and thousands of "cash under the table" operations that are going on all day, every day?
Not only that. When the accepted history of our country as to its original inhabitants and archaeological findings is based on a litany of lies ... Well?
LYNNE DOUGLAS
Castlecliff
Get with it
Why do I watch ladies' golf? I like golf and I like fashion, and fashion draws the viewers, so tell those old fuddy-duddies to pull their heads out of the sand and smell the coffee.
It's the 21st century. Go have a cold shower.
GARY STEWART
Foxton Beach
