Letters: Anti-vaxxers, seasonal workers, trans actors and Rod Emmerson

A demonstrator holds the Portuguese message 'Vaccination saves lives' in front of a 'Bolsonaro Genocide' banner over Brazil's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo / Eraldo Peres, AP

Opinion

Letter of the week: Dr Harold Coop, Remuera

The article about the recent activity of anti-vaxxers (Weekend Herald, March 27), makes disturbing reading. We have always had these people, who deny one of the greatest medical advances, but we always need a sufficient percentage of immune people in the community to ensure against epidemics.
I am just old enough to remember the fear in my grandmother's eyes about the disfiguring disease of smallpox when my grandfather had to go on his annual inspection of Northland dairy factories. A smallpox epidemic was spreading there.
Now we have abolished it, and doubters should remember this.

Picking winners

In relation to Kate MacNamara's Opinion "Rotting fruit exposes stale Govt thinking" (Weekend Herald, March 27), I think it might be time to call NZ horticulture's experiment in relying almost exclusively on imported foreign workers a resounding failure.
In A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick refers to something called "aversion therapy".
As far as I can see, NZ horticulture has committed the cardinal sin of treating their fellow citizens to a decades-long round of aversion-to-working-with-them therapy. Now the pandemic has shown them up for the fools they are.
And in relation to Pacific Islands being Covid-free, could it be that New Zealand government policy is to keep them that way? NZ carelessness towards Samoa during the 1918 flu pandemic left bitterness in the relationship for quite some time.
NZ growers taking a good long hard look at themselves would do wonders, I agree, and discarding stale thinking would be even better, as is not blaming others for one's own stupid mistakes. Are New Zealand businesspeople that mature? Or do they in their thin-skinnedness make The Princess and The Pea look like Bear Grylls?
Wesley Parish, Tauranga.

Business buried

To put the blame for the closure of Perrys Berrys (Weekend Herald, March 27) on not being able to import labour due to Covid policy is a bit of a stretch. They have continued with a failing business model, as are a lot of people in horticulture.
The only sympathy I have is for their local staff.
Gordon Walker, Piopio.

Actors act

The Court Theatre in Christchurch has apparently apologised (Weekend Herald, March 27) for casting cisgender actor Simon Leary as a trans woman character and are now looking for a trans woman replacement.
The theatre organisers of the play, ironically titled Things I Know To Be True have capitulated after complaints from the gender-diverse community. The artistic director and his team caved in to this PC nonsense. Whoever these people are, they need to get over themselves and realise that actors actually act.
You see some things that I and most other people know to be true are that actors act and take on different roles. You don't have to be a scientist, a poet, a murderer, a gay man or woman etc. to play that particular role.
It is about time this so-called gender diverse community stopped making it all about their sexual identity and let the majority of us just get on with the business of living.
Shane Kennedy, Wattle Downs.

Push and pull

Emmerson's' cartoon (Weekend Herald, March 27) is a perfect commentary on Labour's attempts to fix the housing crisis.
On one side of a stranded vessel, a digger is scooping sand to free the bow while on the other side a tug is working to push it further in.
Jeffrey Langford, Belmont.

Changing lanes

The Onewa Rd drama (Weekend Herald, March 27) highlights the absurd inefficiencies of the whole transit lanes system. Pinging drivers for being in an empty lane is perverse and counter-productive.
What would really make sense is that transit lanes are available to private vehicles unless there is a bus approaching from behind. Cars would then be required to ease back into the main flow of traffic.
This protocol would increase traffic flows, with the added bonus of encouraging Auckland drivers to actually use their rear-view mirrors as well as develop some merge-courtesy.
It works for cars on tram rails in Amsterdam.
Petrus van der Schaaf, Te Arai Pt.

Automated future

An interesting article by Damien Venuto (Weekend Herald, March 27) on the impact of science upon humanity as we face the future. Two very important issues will require addressing as science and automation influence the future working conditions for many people.
Under the current system, people working for an income whether it be basic or exorbitant are ensuring the wide distribution of money throughout society. We work, we get paid, we spend which results in money being recirculated. Due to the impact of automation, robotics and other means of production there could well be a reduction in a regularly paid workforce which would reduce the ability of money to be distributed throughout the economy. This would result in a further widening of the haves and the have nots gap we see developing within our society.
Governments will need to develop new policies, which will enable money to be distributed across the broad spectrum of our population.
The other issue of concern is, if we have an increase in unemployed people receiving some form of liveable income funded through the government, how will that extra leisure time be usefully employed?
Dick Ayres, Auckland Central.

Investor envy

So John Roughan (Weekend Herald, March 27) is clapping hands at the Government's decision to remove tax deductions for interest on investment property loans. I don't know whether John has investment property, or has had, but it sounds more like some envy creeping in.
The facts are around 78 per cent of rental investment property owners have one or two properties.
A significant number of these people are mum and dad investors who are trying to create a little wealth for the senior years rather than default on the state dependency reliance, which doesn't throw life jackets and isn't great living week to week if that's the sole income.
Have you heard of unintended consequences with such a shortage of housing? That small tax relief should be left alone.
Mark Evans, Oratia.

A quick word

Duri e puri (hard and pure, as we say in Italy). Bravo! A hundred times Bravo! to the New Zealand Rugby Players' Association for saying no to selling out their brand. They teach a lesson to all greedy major soccer clubs in the world.
Nadia Bailo-Piglia, Hobsonville Pt.

When/if Covid passports are introduced, they will need to be as tamper-proof as normal passports. Pamela Russell, Ōrākei.

If overseas companies want our wood, then it should in a processed form, not in logs. If the companies exporting the logs are overseas companies, then we put an export tax on them. S P McMonagle, Greenhithe

We would go a long way towards stamping out racism if all parents educated and acted accordingly in front of their kids. Everyone is born free of this hate. Glenn Forsyth, Taupō.

Property speculation in NZ and other countries is still the world's best investment year on year, hence people fight to get into it and scream like stuck pigs when anyone dares threaten the golden goose. Jock Mac Vicar, Hauraki.

We have serious emergencies in our hospital system, a housing crisis and huge intergenerational debts resulting from the pandemic. Time for ETNZ to get more inventive with its fundraising ideas. Joe O'Brien, New Lynn.

We hereby bequeath Australia pavlova, Phar Lap and Russell Crowe (but not Crowded House), for we have Emmerson. Emma Mackintosh, Birkenhead.

I wonder how many RNZ listeners realised at the time that the moa birdsong heard on Morning Report was being broadcast on April Fool's Day? Jeanette Grant, Mt Eden.

Having recently moved to Snells Beach, I was surprised to learn the drinking water supply is not fluoridated. Why are the children living at Snell Beach missing out? John Harding, Snells Beach.

Unbelievably, in order to access the vaccine, the Waikato DHB has said Coromandel doctors must travel to Hamilton. What doctor has the time to do that? John L R Allum, Thames.

If ever a country like New Zealand needs an example of how it sells its soul then surely the hideous trade of live exports of sheep and cattle is it. Paul Beck, West Harbour.

The future is not taught in schools simply because politicians have made such a hash of it. Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.

The proposed National Erebus Memorial is a significant monument and needs a wide-open space with room for a carpark. It does not deserve to be crammed into a small space in a Parnell park. J Hummel, Forrest Hill.