The Government has talked a lot about renewable energy sources such as solar, so why is it now keen to go down the gas discovery path, a reader asks.
Luxon wanted electricity charging stations to reduce EV range anxiety and was encouraging renewable energy sources like solar farms, relatively cheap, quick to install near electricity grids and guaranteed to work.
So why are they now taking the long, risky, gas discovery path when history has forewarned?
If we need energy now, not in 10 years, why do something almost incomprehensibly stupid; it will cause more business failures and job losses as electricity prices soar.
Why send an email (that reaches the NZ Herald before Hipkins can see it) demanding support for an incredibly rank idea?
Evidently, Luxon is getting desperate. His ”growth" economy relying on housing, immigration and tourism is in the doldrums and the trickle-down theory is in tatters; farmers are ratcheting up essential food prices paying to pay off debt to “overseas” banks; the public struggle while he says he’s sorted.
Anyone 15th in rank for effectiveness as judged by his peers might be looking over his shoulder. Luxon is going to need a killer punch soon but Hipkins is in stealth mode, letting Luxon swing wildly at thin air.
Throwing punches that miss must be taking their toll.
Steve Russell, Hillcrest.
What tax break?
Rodger Alchin (September 28) mentions a somewhat mythical tax break of $2.9 billion that has been given to landlords by the Government. I for one have never seen part of any such tax break from the Government in all my time being a landlord (since 1986).
The simple fact is I pay Inland Revenue $7500 in income tax and $10,650 in council tax, on a total gross revenue before other expenses of $91,541.
Also, Rodger fails to take into account other expenses of $27,383 that also have to be deducted from my gross income to arrive at my total net income after tax. There are no tricks here, these expenses are part of the normal costs of running such a business.
Not a single dollar of this mysterious $2.9b that Rodger seems to think I get from the Government has yet to arrive.
So if Rodger knows how I can get my part of the $2.9b that he tells me is given to me by the Government, can he please advise how I get some of this wonderful gift?
Michael Walker, Blockhouse Bay.
Recognition meaningless
As long as Hamas controls Gaza, and the Palestinian people in Gaza continue to support Hamas, Israel will not stop what it is currently doing.
Therefore the recognition of the state of Palestine, or the non-recognition as the case may be, are both pretty much meaningless at this time.
Phil Chitty, Albany.
Defence spending
Our Defence Department should be renamed the Licence to Print Money Department, After splashing out $3b on five sonar-seeking submarine attack helicopters and two Airbus planes plus spare parts and maintenance, it is now spending the balance of its loose change of $35 million on refitting a ship that was mothballed three years ago. Surely the families of patients in the corridors of the Christchurch and Nelson hospitals awaiting attention won’t be very impressed with this sensitive coalition Government’s list for priority spending?
Bruce Tubb, Devonport.
Politicians and house prices
Politicians constantly talk about the benefit of rising house prices, how we will all feel rich when prices take off again and somehow this will fix our economy.
What they really mean is that all the investment properties they own will be making them even richer.
What about first-home buyers desperate to get on the property ladder – do they not matter to these greedy politicians? National already voted with urgency as soon as they were elected to award landlords $2.9b in mortgage relief.
My house is my home, not an investment; whether it goes up or down, I will sell and buy in the same market.
Vince West, Milford.
Questioning climate change
Your correspondent AJ Petersen asks, “Would it be fair to suggest that the whole climate change thing is a massive worldwide scam?”
It obviously isn’t. The source of the “climate change thing” is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This consists of 196 countries using thousands of scientists and researchers working on this for the last 37 years. There are far too many people involved for this to have been a “scam”.
Unsurprisingly, there is no evidence of any such conspiracy.
The IPCC’s reliability was recently considered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). All 15 judges from various nations, including Australia and the US, accepted the IPCC’s conclusion that changes in the climate are real, damaging and caused by human activity. None of the participants in the case, including New Zealand, argued to the contrary.
The ICJ’s conclusion means it is now an internationally accepted fact that humanity faces an imminent crisis. It is no use pretending we can opt out of the Paris Agreement or the other relevant treaties without consequences. New Zealand must pull its weight in the global effort to reduce emissions and urge other countries to do the same.
Robert Morfee, Maraetai.