I await, with trepidation, the increase in Covid cases because of these gatherings - the increased pressure on our medical facilities, and the general disruption their actions are going to cause - in my view putting us all in more danger, annulling the work that has already been done, and ignoring the rights and freedoms of the majority of the population.
Hilary Zapata
Tauranga
Prosecute Covid rule breakers
Yet another potential super spreader event was held in Tauranga at Memorial Park on Saturday.
The police report that most of these people were not wearing masks or social distancing, in breach of Covid-19 alert level 2 rules.
And so now what actions are the police taking? We read "Prosecution action may be taken against individuals..."
Reads like another wet bus ticket.
A G Stewart
Pyes Pā
Housing
Just as rumours that Elvis and The Notorious B.I.G are still very much alive, you'll sometimes catch a whisper of the evanescent quarter-acre property coming onto the market.
Just as those fabled entertainers are long since gone, however, so has the hopes of ever owning a property big enough for a cricket pitch and a vege garden.
Blame it on British colonial planners who in the 1850s were designing New Zealand to have properties of "fruitful gardens on quarter-acre paradises" or ex-British MP Austin Mitchell who referred to NZ as the Half Gallon, Quarter-Acre, Pavlova Paradise.
Unbeknown to our colonial planners, the way in which we live our lives today couldn't be more different to the way they planned. However, their planning has left us with an expensive hangover in the way of sprawling cities requiring an over-reliance on vehicles, roads and vast distances of ailing water infrastructure.
Last week's announcements by both the governing and opposition parties that they endorse increased housing density via the Housing Supply Bill should be taken to like a hip shake (or a booty shake) to our fallen entertainers by councils by redrawing city plans to empower developers to build high-density homes to house people closer to work, shops and amenities. (News, November 3)
Compact cities with ample green space to bring communities together only makes sense, let's act now to ensure future generations do not have to suffer through the housing crisis which has come to define our current time.
Ryan Gray
Rotorua
Euthanasia piece appreciated
I very much appreciate the thoughtful opinion piece by Merepeka Raukawa-Tait "Euthanasia decision one of my hardest" (Opinion, Nov 3), especially as she is the former executive director of a hospice.
The Ministry of Health has done a good job of setting in place all the statutory bodies required by the End of Life Choice Act.
The law requires the request for assisted dying to be initiated only by the patient; no one else on their behalf. The doctor is not allowed to suggest or recommend assisted dying to the patient.
If your own doctor is unwilling to accept your request for assessment, the Ministry of Health has set up a help service, which can offer guidance to eligible patients and doctors alike.
Ann David
Vice President, End-of-Life Choice Society
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