Letters: Good news for those wondering about roading - MP

Traffic queues up on State Highway 2. Photo / File

News about the Government's recent New Zealand Upgrade Programme has rightly got a lot of people excited.

Since becoming an MP, we've heard about our region's growth and positive outlook for the future, and the need for investment.

We listened, and thanks to the good management of the economy, our government is able to deliver.

I am thrilled that more than $800 million will be invested into the Bay of Plenty's roading network, with roads designed for the future, to allow all forms of transport to help free up congestion in our area and improvement safety on the roads.

I have seen letters to the editor about our record investment, in particular recently where Western Bay of Plenty District Councillor Margaret Murray-Benge (Letters, February 4) was worried she hasn't seen if a decision about the Omokoroa Intersection had been taken – but I have more good news for Councillor Murray-Benge, which is that last month NZTA confirmed that an interchange overbridge with ramps in each direction, will be built at the intersection with Ōmokoroa Rd. Other overbridges will take local traffic over the highway helping improve safety.

The previous Government made large fanfare announcing a number of unfunded roads, which they never started, while leaving the rest of our infrastructure chronically lacking in investment.

We're getting the job done: Faster, better, and – most importantly – paid for.

It makes sense to build now, to benefit generations to come.
You can find more information about the New Zealand Upgrade Programme at labour.org.nz/nzup

Angie Warren-Clark
Labour Party List MP Based in Bay of Plenty

Give them choice

As a nurse of considerable experience, death has been a long-awaited friend for some of the people I have cared for.

A terminal illness is a time of uncertainty, involves enduring pain in its many forms. This life as it continues may have lost its quality entirely.

It's horrid to experience a constant struggle to breathe, and other debilitating, ghastly symptoms too cruel to mention.

Death is a major event in our lives and as such deserves to be as the individual would wish. It is not always the person who is ill, who decides the next step in the process.

In 1985 when my father was very ill, to show the doctor he did not want his life prolonged, he had to pull the intravenous needle out of his arm!

It is 2020, when we may vote to have an assisted death.

Put yourself in a dying person's shoes if you can. Can you deny them a peaceful, orchestrated end to a life that may already be hell?

New Zealanders can vote at the End of Life Choice Referendum at the General Election in September.

Arm yourself with the facts at referendum.govt.nz so you may be ready to vote in September to improve our end of life choice.

Tess Nesdale
Matua

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