Blues win boost for city's life
Travelling south on SH1 late Saturday night, there was our glorious sparkling city bathed in blue. Yes, we won the rugby final, and what a game! Congratulations to the Blues.
It was a pivotal moment, thinking of that diverse team, an inspiring representation of the
diversity we now celebrate in our city.
But do our policies reflect this diversity? Where does the spending of hundreds of millions on a cycle bridge fit for the benefit of our whole diverse population? Why aren't we listening to South Auckland leaders like Efeso Collins when he points out Pasifika needs for the city to address? Why do the tangata whenua still have to struggle to be heard? Where do recreational bridges fit into our serious failures in public health, public housing, and child poverty?
Can we make the Blues' win a turning and lasting point in the city's life?
Christine Keller Smith, Northcote Pt.
Dalton ignores opportunity
Nash, Goff and Dalton need their heads banged together. To claim that Team NZ will continue to benefit from Auckland's input to the waterfront facilities as being part of the Government/Auckland City financial offer is misleading. Those improvements are primarily to Auckland City's long-term benefit. The total Government/AC offer was miserable. Dalton says the "phone has not been ringing off the wall" with offers that would keep the Cup contest here. But potential local and overseas investors, interested in world-wide exposure from their own involvement in the forthcoming AC37 event, will be aware of the advantage that comes with local sailing knowledge, thereby significantly enhancing their own chances of being a supporting benefactor in a successful defence. The truth must be that Dalton is unwilling to encourage such potential local and overseas interest, for reasons of his own.
The unspoken elephant in the room is the damage to NZ Inc by admitting to the world we are so broke and disorganised as to have to take the event offshore. In effect, to have to sell the event to some country or billionaire with the cash and the guts to run it. If Dalton were to be asked to answer to the reputational damage he appears keen to inflict, I am sure his answer would glibly be that such consideration is just an irrelevant elephant. But, maybe, it is he.
Ian Grierson, Ōrākei.
Benefit rise won't fix problem
The Labour Government is aiming to raise benefits by $22-$53 a week. While this is commendable it will make little difference to those at the lower end of the economic ladder because by the time it is paid out inflation will have negated the rise.
The price of housing is way beyond reach, rents continue to rise to an astronomical level with little regulationary inspection of standards despite law changes or consequences for bad tenants. Prices at the supermarkets are creeping up. Items costing $8.50 a few months ago now cost $10. With beneficiaries and wage and salaried earners on a fixed budget, all the 50c, $1 and $2 price rises impact hugely on the total shop. To the wealthy, these piddling amounts will not even be considered as they continue to label the "dole bludgers" and "privileged superannuitants".
Throwing small increases to individuals will never enable people to rise out of poverty , reach a liveable target or even reduce the inequality. It will just take more from the tax take, put more money into moteliers', landlords' and supermarket pockets. An increase will lead to more smokers and alcohol use, with the poverty stricken able to gamble, buy more drugs and alcohol with which to try to alleviate their miserable lives.
Throwing money is no use. The only solution is to fix the problem and this requires more courage than any government has shown.
Marie Kaire, Whāngārei.
Calling on hidden estimators
When Covid-19 arrived, we were all amazed at the number of public-health experts that abruptly appeared. Suddenly, there were university professors galore who were experts on the spread of viruses, the efficacy of facemasks, and how to correlate the risk from other countries with traffic lights. Some became household names from regular radio and TV appearances. Some became newspaper correspondents. Some became instant Cabinet ministers.
If all these experts were hiding in plain sight, where are all the professional estimators we need now? Daily, we are beset with estimates that bridges for people on bikes, once costed at $50 million, will now cost a sniff under $800m. Phil Goff is shown to have not fessed up that we need another $6.7 billion for the CRL, taking the total to well over $10b. Even the smarty-pants in Grant Robertson's hood can't get the cost of a little road in Wellington close to correct. If we had so many virus experts working away feverishly (pun intended), surely there must be a secret army of estimators that can now speak up and give us the correct cost of our dreams before Mike Hosking dashes them to smithereens.
I think I know the answer, though. Jacinda will announce there will be an announcement of the date on which an announcement will be made that a working party will be set up to design the terms of reference for a taskforce to be established to conduct an inquiry into how more estimator experts can be urged to speak up to confirm the estimates produced by Waka Kotahi and Treasury. The Government will then consider their report. I can't wait.
Fred Wilson, Devonport.
