The title of "council-controlled organisations" is a total joke as these organisations appear to be totally outside the control of the council.
Certainly the Auckland Council would appear to have little or no say on any of these organisations' plans or day-to-day activities.
Surely bonuses should only be paid if the person has done his/her job in the past year exceptionally well. I sincerely doubt any of the executives in these council-controlled organisations have done anything better than their normal expected performance for the year. After all, surely this is what their annual salary is for. What outside organisations may be doing should not enter into the decision.
If the mayor does nothing else in this term, he and the rest of the council should bring all the CCOs back firmly under the control of the council.
Shaun Wilkinson, Mt Eden.
Food waste is certainly a big issue in our country today, however what we don't know won't hurt us, right?
In one of the news items was the statement that "Kiwis throw away 157,389 tonnes of food each year".
I don't know how many families that quantity will feed but I do know that if we were to stop the waste and instead use the extra to feed the homeless/poor, we'll have more positive, contented and achievement-oriented people, if reports from the school breakfast and lunch groups are anything to go by.
I find it astounding when I walk through the food courts in shopping malls to see the wasted food left on tables, especially when it's smorgasbord-style. Are Kiwis not taught to take only what they can eat and then go for seconds if they need more? In one of the Asian countries, whenever food taken is not eaten and left to be dumped, the person concerned either gets a fine or gets charged for the excess food. Perhaps NZ should apply the same rule?
Margaret Scott, Pakuranga.
Why is it there is money quickly available to put gunned-up police on our streets (too many armed civilians attacking police?) and no money to quickly put in place the protection for our nurses, doctors and teachers who face dangers on government premises?
And why are male-dominated professions, the armed forces and police, paid during their training and given free uniforms while nurses, doctors and teachers have to pay their own way, ending up with a massive loan to repay?
It doesn't seem fair to me.
Emma Mackintosh, Birkenhead.
Why does the NZ Government think, according to the Colmar Brunton poll, business confidence is so low, when the dollar is so weak against the US, Aussie dollar and English pound and the cost of petrol is so high?
The National Party suffered the same loss of business confidence midway through its term in office and for the same reasons.
The coalition should have learned from that and clearly, as the Colmar Brunton poll is telling them, didn't.
Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay
Statistics reveal gang numbers are on the rise. In response Police Association president Chris Cahill states, "our members see disconnected, angry, confused and unloved young people turning to gangs as a substitute for family". No surprise the stability of the traditional family has been eroded. Non family-friendly welfare policies may be to blame, sometimes abused and greatly expanded far beyond original intent, removing the need for personal responsibility and instrumental in the destruction of conventional family life.
Almost every social issue we encounter stems from compromised parenthood.
Little wonder so many seek the solace of gang culture.
P.J. Edmondson, Tauranga.
All Blacks
Our All Blacks are like a machine well serviced and lubricated and they, the world champions, will not get beaten.
I congratulate the person who placed $100,000 on the ABs to beat Ireland, you know your rugby.
Gary Stewart, Foxton Beach.
Harbour crossing
A simple way to reduce the congestion on the Auckland Harbour Bridge and city motorways would be to create another crossing from Takapuna and link into the Waterview connection.
Peter Barrow, Remuera.
Winston Peters installed this Government and the country seems to have gone downhill ever since.
Leadership needs to be about experience, not photo opportunities and magazine covers.
A.J. Petersen, Kawerau.
MediaWorks does not need to sell channel Three, it just needs to improve on its programming.
For example, get rid of the cheaply made New Zealand reality shows and replace them with the latest craze in the US.
It should rerun popular TV shows like Welcome Back Kotter, The Dukes of Hazzard, Home Improvement, etc.
And if all that does not work to make profit, buy the rights to show live All Black games.
Sento Mehlhopt, Albany.
According to Damien Venuto (NZ Herald October 19), MediaWorks is considering shutting down or disposing of its TV arm because it is reputedly losing $15 million a year.
Even if the stations are successfully sold to an overseas company, it seems unlikely that any of Three's distinctive and indigenous programmes will survive.
If these economics are correct, then maybe everyone in Aotearoa could donate $5 annually.
This should be sufficient to save the likes of the AM Show, The Project and 7 Days. Even Winston Peters might contribute. After all, he said on Saturday that only some of the staff at Three deserved to lose their jobs.
Nigel Shaw, Clover Park.
The recent revelation of disagreements and indecision by the Government and NZTA over the Auckland light rail project highlights the need for a serious rethink on this controversial project.
The latest indecision over whether the light rail line should be a high-speed line with fewer stops to provide a faster service to the airport, begs the question: Why isn't heavy rail being considered, as this will achieve this objective — and could be built far sooner?
It makes more sense to extend the Onehunga line to the airport and onwards to Puhinui, linking with the existing heavy rail network across Auckland, serving far more people than the proposed light rail line.
Light rail should be scaled back to where it is actually needed in the CBD, running out along the main arterial roads into the central isthmus suburbs and to Westgate.
R. Anderson, Pukekohe.
Heather du Plessis-Allan asks, "How on Earth is Labour going to sell itself in the next election?" (Herald on Sunday, October 20). I would have thought higher wages, low unemployment and an impressive Budget surplus wouldn't be a bad starting point.
The questions she should be asking are: where is Steve Joyce's $11.7 billion fiscal hole and, given Simon Bridges' obsession with law and order, was his mentor Bill English wrong when he called prisons "a moral and fiscal failure"?Ian Findlay, Napier.Ending povertyThe best way for a Labour election victory is to completely obliterate poverty.
Housing policies should be reset again, building only state houses.
It worked in the 1930s and shall work now.
Benefit payments must be raised and include monthly vouchers for food and electricity.
This voucher system would assist financially irresponsible beneficiaries who blow money on slot machines, drugs and alcohol.
Even vouchers for children's essential goods such as clothes and footwear would be appreciated.
Rex Head, Papatoetoe.
The utopian ideal of veganism looks good on paper and in pictures and in the hearts of the "righteous", but in the mean backstreets of carrot and soybean production etc "violence" is rife; huge ploughs and harvesters shredding earthworms, mulching up butterflies and hounding down mice.
Science is advancing at such a pace that studies now are saying, even without a brain, plants and their progeny have a "memory", so remember harvesting "violence".
Who quite knows yet?
As an ex-farmer of sheep and beef, I would rather stick to the knitting; knit one/purl one — a healthy mix of vego/meat diet but to each his (her) own.
Justine Adams, Whakatane.
