Letters: Air Force 757 woes highlight infrastructure negligence; Hurricanes Poua haka reaction

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was forced to fly commercially to Australia after the Air Force's 757 broke down.

Letters to the Editor

Paying the price for failing to invest

The Prime Minister had to change from an RNZAF plane to a commercial scheduled flight to get to an important world leaders meeting. He arrived late.

This happened because the RNZAF plane is old and well past its use-by date.

As with Premier House, this is another example of how successive governments have failed to invest in infrastructure. They have neglected to invest in maintenance and replacement in order to give income tax reductions to the upper echelons of society.

In 2024, the Government has instructed all ministries to find savings so that they can give tax reductions. It’s pretty obvious that most of the large ministries (health, education, housing, defence and justice) will reduce spending on infrastructure maintenance and investment.

The infrastructure deficit will expand yet more to pay for minuscule tax reductions.

Peter D. Graham, Helensville.

Breakdown Betty

The brand new, shiny 757 aircraft arrived with great fanfare and the public was invited to welcome her to very special Open Day at Ardmore Airport on January 25, 2004.

I recall the excited crowd waving at her with hysterical glee as she performed a low-level flyover, followed by formation flying by five smaller aircraft to mark this great day of New Zealand aviation.

But then later a couple of stumbles occurred concerning transporting our Prime Minister at the time, Sir John Key, followed by a group from the previous Government ended up taking a commercial flight for their return trip from the US.

The 757 had earned the name of Breakdown Betty. But this latest episode is really a bit too much and not a joke anymore.

Now I’m wondering why they didn’t give the aircraft a test flight prior to this very important trip by our Prime Minister.

Considering her record wasn’t great, that would seem the logical thing to do.

Colleen Wright, Botany Downs.

Hurricanes haka

Appearances aren’t everything but it would seem that the Hurricanes board readying to grovel to the Government over their Poua’s haka stand to gain from the Government’s planned economic agenda.

On the other hand, the team members have whānau who stand to be harmed by the coalition’s policies.

Despite Winston Peters and David Seymour trying to beat it up as a matter of race, we have to face the reality that much of this kind of conflict is also about class.

Peter Beyer, Sandringham.

Keep politics out of rugby

It is indeed a sad day when the Hurricanes Super Rugby Aupiki team develop and perform a haka that denigrates the National coalition Government.

Where was the leadership from the Hurricanes and also, more importantly, New Zealand Rugby - another no-show.

Rugby should be totally divorced from politics and as a keen rugby follower, I am totally disgusted with this behaviour and shall not be watching or going to any Hurricane matches from now on.

Randal Lockie, Rothesay Bay.

City of slobs?

There seems to be a general malaise affecting people, and especially Auckland Council.

A little while ago, as a means of reducing costs, Mayor Wayne Brown suggested that residential rubbish could be collected once a fortnight, instead of once a week, as it is now.

Some rubbish bins have been removed from public places, when, in fact, there is often a need for more, not fewer, in many of those areas. Unfortunately, in this respect, Auckland is not Tokyo.

Then there are proposals to build a waterfront stadium costing mega billions, something that Auckland neither needs nor can afford.

Providing proper, regular rubbish collections, good waste disposal systems, which include upgrading 100-plus-year-old sewage and water pipes, clean, tidy beaches and streets, ie all the things that go into good housekeeping for a modern city, are what is necessary.

Councils are the organisations that are supposedly responsible for providing these amenities for the purposes of civic hygiene and pleasing aesthetics.

Prioritise what is essential, do what needs to be done properly and efficiently, lest Auckland becomes known as the “City of Slobs”.

Rosemary Simmons, Papatoetoe.

Rubbish ideas

Auckland Council dumping 30 per cent of the city’s rubbish bins shows how incompetent this organisation is.

They have introduced the costly green bins for waste food disposal, then eliminate garbage bins to have more litter scattered over our already dirty city.

Dump the pen-pushing bureaucrats who came up with this senseless cost-cutting plan and who add no value at all to the wellbeing of the city and have their salaries redirected into essential services such as public rubbish bins.

John Roberts, Remuera.

Child’s play

In the late 1930s when Michael Joseph Savage was Prime Minister he considered himself an ordinary New Zealander and he did not want to live in a mansion - Premier House.

He directed that it be converted into a large dental clinic for children and later it was used as a creche.

The present Government could consider these ideas for Premier House and it would not require an investment of tens of millions of dollars.

Susan Grimsdell, Auckland Central.