Minimal salary increases during the past two years have coincided with rising food prices over the same period. Photo / Laurence Mouton, Getty Images
CPI fallacy
Each quarter Statistics NZ releases the Consumers Price Index (CPI) and highlights the annual change (percentage) from 12 months ago. In the September Quarter, just released, the rate was 7.2 per cent - marginally down from the rate of 7.3 per cent in the June quarter. However, this annual rate disguises the increasing CPI trend.
If we look at 24-month trends, the increases in CPI are alarming. As at the September quarter, the CPI increased 12.5 per cent from two years ago, at the June quarter the increase was 10.9 per cent, at the March quarter 8.6 per cent, at the December 2021 quarter 7.5 per cent.
This 24-month rate of increase has been increasing for eight successive quarters, which is really unacceptable. When will it decrease? When will the Government tame these rapid increases in the cost of living? The Reserve Bank of NZ has been tardy with its increases in interest rates as it has had mixed messages from the Government.
No wonder workers with minimal salary increases during the past two years are seeking significant increases just to maintain a comparable standard of living.
Jeffrey J Hunter, St Heliers.
Low-incomed fleeced
The massive increase in the cost of living is a serious social and economic problem that must be urgently addressed. Food prices are so high that many low-income families are at risk. Even food banks are being robbed.
At the same time, fiscal drag means that the Government is collecting much more in GST at the supermarket till, helping to explain the recently announced government surplus.
It is utterly wrong for the Government to profit to such a degree from the misery of low-income people. The Government is thus a significant part of the problem, but instead sits on its hands (or rubs them with glee).
It is high time that GST on food was removed - it was never right in principle to tax a family’s food. Now, this regressive tax must go.
Denis O’Rourke, Mt Pleasant.
Secrecy deplored
Te Whatu Ora–Health New Zealand has released a report, from an unidentified independent expert, reviewing the circumstances of a 50-year-old woman who presented at Middlemore ED with a severe headache, self-discharged and died of a brain haemorrhage the following day.
What is unusual is that Te Whatu Ora withheld the name of the independent expert, a Fellow of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine, who authored the independent report, and has not yet made the report publicly available on its website.
The lack of transparency is troubling. Public identification of experts is important for credibility and public confidence. Experts usually provide advice on the basis they will be identified and expect the scrutiny of their peers and the public.
Transparency matters in our health system – especially in relation to major reports on issues about patient safety. It is also required by law, upon request.
Forty years ago, the Official Information Act 1982 enshrined the principle of availability of information held by public agencies and sought to “increase progressively the availability of official information to the people of New Zealand”. The dark days of official secrets should be consigned to the past.
Ron Paterson, Emeritus Professor, University of Auckland.
Change has come
In 1849, French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr wrote, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” or “the more things change the more they stay the same”.
The recently screened television documentary recounting overt discrimination against Māori is a working example of this, only in reverse. The “same” part is knowing discrimination be it by virtue of race, social standing, or difference in some form or other, is always with us. History says hidden under that is a signpost to the “change” part. It guided the once-brutally taxed Chinese, and later 1950s Catholics seeing job ads addended with “Catholics need not apply”. Crime was one short-term escape. The more effective slide off the active discrimination radar is through pushing at the established gateways to the mainstream; academic achievement, sheer diligence, or entrepreneurial success. While this will not end mean-minded discrimination there are clear signs Māori are on the well-worn track trodden by the Chinese and Catholics before them.
At least 20 Maori district court judges are on the bench, a healthy muster of politicians, a significant presence in the professions, and a powerful involvement in the entertainment industry all make the point things might not stay the same.
Denis Edwards, Pāpāmoa Beach.
Post-Covid dependency
Businesses that open to make profits are now moaning to the Government to help them make this profit. When you open a business it is your responsibility to ensure you, your staff and customers have reasonable safety when in your place of retail. This includes security to meet the presenting risk which business insurance ultimately covers.
There is no need to moan to the Government for help. Nor should the Government acquiesce and placate business robbery concerns. Realistic measures ensure no cost to the retailer. Any security measure, ranging from CCTV to bollards, are clearly tax deductible under the current tax regime. This ensures that business owners are not compromised when making appropriate security improvements.
This could be a post-Covid psycho-social dependency, where both parties are inappropriately expecting and giving assistance when independent self-management is required.
There are a couple of shops on Ponsonby Rd that have concrete-filled bollards outside their windows, due to being victims of ram raids many many years ago, in the 1980s.
Remember when the ram raiders actually took the ATM machines? Those were the days.
Richard Ghent, Freemans Bay.
Paper credentials
I’d just like to tell Audrey Young (NZ Herald, October 19) and all the commentators who say that “Labour’s handling of Covid won Sharma his seat” that on paper he looked impressive and I was happy for him to be my MP.
If there had been a better Green Party candidate they would have got my vote.
Mine was not a swing “Covid” vote .
Belinda Freeman, Hamilton.
Wealthy benevolence
There is only one reason I can imagine National wants to establish a “Social Investment Fund” to replace the current welfare system, helping financially struggling people to make ends meet.
If, as has just happened in Britain, the “tax cuts for the wealthy” scheme backfires dramatically and embarrassingly for their hopes of election to Government, there is always plan B.
As we well know, donations to charities are all tax deductible. What better way to work the system than ostensibly showing how much we care for our less fortunate fellow men, women and children, by “investing” in their welfare with one hand, while claiming massive returns from IRD for our selfless generosity with the other?
Let’s keep the taxes as they are. It will benefit the majority far more evenly. I’m sure there are enough tax dodges available already out in the marketplace. We don’t need another handed to us.
Jeremy Coleman, Hillpark.
Offshore bids
Andrew Harmos was so right, in his letter (NZ Herald, October 19). In most countries, the significant role that government/public sector procurement can plan in boosting the local economy is recognised and encouraged.
There was a positive move in New Zealand under the last coalition Government, with a well-intentioned updated version of the Government Procurement Rules.
It even looked like the Government recognised that, in areas like the tech sector, there were opportunities to boost productivity and lead the charge toward a high-wage economy. A Cabinet Directive seemed to be a very constructive “signal” to the bureaucrats.
But unfortunately, there have been so many recent examples of government agencies’ propensity to “buy foreign”, even when local suppliers have the capability and could supply at a comparable or lower price.
It’s an outrage; I assume these “civil servants” will be happy to see their children, along with many others, join “the brain drain” in the future due to a lack of adequate and challenging opportunities in their home country.
Noel Reid, Albany.
Mind your language
Michael Smythe of Northcote Point (NZ Herald, October 19) on those who find more inclusion of Māori culture threatening, I agree completely.
I find many older New Zealanders (I’m 70+) are extremely hostile about the increasing use of te reo. I am forever telling people that, back in the 1960s, Wales had bilingual street signs, some are fluent speakers of Welsh, some are not. In Quebec the residents speak French mostly and revert to English when necessary.
In both cases, the sky has not fallen in.
J Wallis, Blockhouse Bay.
Choke’s on us
Now that there is no free left turn off the motorway and into Te Atatū South, Auckland Transport has created the largest parking space in New Zealand.
Sadly, this parking space now takes up three or four lanes of the North-Western Motorway and as I have just witnessed, creates a deadlocked four-lane traffic jam literally all the way back to Spaghetti Junction.
In addition, it has built raised “speed calming” tables in the off-ramp lanes at Te Atatū.
All traffic must slow for the intersections in any event and these mindless “speed calming” measures are not only an unnecessary cost, but they achieve absolutely nothing of value to the community or to drivers.
They do however certainly help the vehicle repairs businesses. I have witnessed multiple vehicles who have been unaware the speed “bumps” are there and who subsequently leap into the air, with companioning sound effects, before heading off to the crash repair shops.
How do we stop Auckland Transport deliberately ruining our lives through this sort of stupidity?
Surely its job is to safely speed Auckland traffic up – rather than deliberately (and at great expense) slow our traffic down in the name of “safety”?
Roger Hawkins, Ponsonby.
On Marutūāhu
The new housing development involving 3000-plus units sounds great, but where will the children go to school? The local schools are already bursting at the seams. Allison Kelly, Mt Eden.
On emissions
Primary producers complain the plan for emission reductions is too tough, and Greenpeace and the Green Party complain it’s not tough enough, so the Government has got it about right. Gerry Beckingsale, Stanmore Bay.
On by-election
Labour doesn’t want an election, because it will set the barometer for next year. The spin, post-result will be irrelevant. Hamiltonians seem to swing to the mood of the day, the result is very important for Labour and will determine its future. John Ford, Taradale.
On crime
Long ago there were consequences for criminals and they knew it. Now there are only consequences for the victims; more crime. Rod Milne, Taupō.
On vaping
Vape smoking is now illegal in Australia without a prescription. This is one thing we can copy from the Australians. Wendy Galloway, Ōmokoroa.
On consultants
Travelling on the spectacular TranzAlpine train from Christchurch to Greymouth, which winds through tunnels and holes in mountains and over viaducts spanning cathedral-depth chasms, I wondered how much was spent on consultants to “scope” and “cost” this project. Anne Martin, Hellensville.
Wayne Brown reiterates push for Auckland Transport change
A mayor for Aucklanders, not a puppet for Wellington. Geoff N.
Unused cycleways strangle the city, making it impossible for tradies to work effectively. No parking. The city has become a nightmare to be avoided at all costs. Sharon C.
How is it even possible for the democratically elected Mayor of Auckland to not have the ability to change the membership of the board of a CCO when it is deemed necessary to do so? Isn’t the hint there in the name? A council-controlled organisation? If the mayor or a vote by the council cannot dismiss the chair and/or the board of a CCO then how on earth can it be argued that it is council-controlled? I think Mayor Brown is right. Rodney Hide, who is responsible for giving us this fiasco of a so-called Super City, should have stuck to ballroom dancing. David B.
I was sceptical about Brown as mayor. Now I’m hopeful, but only time will tell. It’s easy to spray aspirations but a hell of a lot harder to get everyone to share the vision. You take control away from the CCOs at your peril. Philip B.
Thank you, Mr Brown, for at least trying to bring AT to heel, and to get it to stop making some absolutely ludicrous decisions about projects that have such a massive negative impact on the way Aucklanders get around this city. Yes, things have to change - but it needs to be done with some proper planning, thinking, and acknowledgement of the limitations of our current public transport system. You can’t force people to take trains and buses and ride bikes, when it just simply does not work for them. Fiona K.
Police say they are following lines of inquiry to catch the offender.