Too many questions
Are MIQs releasing potentially infectious people before they are safe? Are masks not mandated for MIQ releasees? Wouldn't that be sensible?
Is the Pullman housing a high proportion of UK Covid strain returnees?
Is its ventilation system up to scratch for the new variants? By the time we find out will it be too late? Should returnees with the new variants be isolated in special facilities?
The easy answer to all these ridiculously obvious questions is to stop all returnees until we know the answer. The last question is: why isn't everyone scared into using the Covid tracer app and Bluetooth?
Wake up New Zealand. It's back.
Steve Russell, Hillcrest.
Needs must
Those who are demanding the Government roll out Covid-19 vaccines immediately might like to ponder a few things.
First, our Government placed orders some time ago for a product which has very probably not yet been produced.
Companies who produce these vaccines are being inundated, quite correctly, with orders to supply them to areas where they are needed most for now. Tens of thousands of people worldwide are dying every day in countries which aren't New Zealand. We hear daily via the media at large that producers are having difficulty keeping up with demand elsewhere, so how about we show a bit of kindness and sympathy towards these unfortunates while we are still being protected by the current, very effective measures our Government has in place.
Our time will come, our need is just not as great as others right now. This is not our Government's fault, it's a humanitarian demand that we treat those who need it the most, first.
Jeremy Coleman, Hillpark.
Without a trace
We don't have scanning on our phone and have always signed in on the sheet provided.
We find it really annoying to have to ask for the sign-in sheet at our library and large stores in Papakura.
The supermarkets are excellent with signing in available.
Don't rely on people scanning in, a large percentage don't bother any more.
As for giving them a reward for scanning, that's how we train our pets.
We are responsible for our own safety.
Denise Levien, Papakura.
Filling fast
For those in the Wellington corridors of power trying to fix the housing problem, it must be very frustrating. As fast as they facilitate new housing projects, across the hall the immigration folk issue another set of permanent resident visas effectively nullifying their efforts.
In the months of October, November and December, respectively, 3525, 4428, and 3285 new permanent resident visas were issued. Surely if we are serious about bringing an end to the housing shortage, we should be throttling back invitations to live in New Zealand. For the last 10 years, governments have been issuing between 40,000 and 50,000 new permanent entry visas each year.
That means we need as many as 25,000 new houses each year just to house new arrivals. Remember we only build 35,000 each year. It's time - with a stroke of the pen - to make a real dent in the housing shortage by taking an axe to the number of permanent entry visas issued. All we need is a new annual cap and a priority system.
If we said there were to be no new visas issued, other things being equal, you'd be housing at least 40,000 people in only six months.
S. Matheson, Mt Eden.
Home discomforts
Does anyone else find the Government's blame game on the housing crisis disingenuous? Everyone knows that the seeds of the current housing crisis lay with National's head-in-the-sand attitude, but this Government made it significantly worse by increasing costs and risks for private landlords. Did they imagine that would have zero impact on rental supply or rental prices? Unfortunately, with the huge increase in demand for social housing, landlord responsibility has now become a taxpayer burden.
Eric Wolters, Tauranga.
Name your price
The Government just needs to follow the example of the new Residential Tenancies
law, which outlaws auctions for rentals. Very few advertisements for property sales give any indication of the actual price. "Price by negotiation", or "Tender" (the
buyer suggests a price) or "Auction" is the norm. Requiring all sales advertisements to carry the price wanted, as rentals must now do, would eliminate the dog eat dog competition which exists and give all buyers an opportunity to pay the price wanted without being shafted by some wealthy cashed-up investor.
Trevor Elwin, Half Moon Bay.
Unkind cut
New World's offer of "free" Smeg knives in exchange for a number of vouchers (stickers) issued in exchange for every $20 spent in-store surely breaches, in spirit if perhaps not strictly according to the letter of, the Fair Trading Act.
Hiding behind the wording "while stocks last" is disingenuous and unethical, when New World continued to promote the scheme knowing full well that stocks had been exhausted for a number of days before the closing date.
The number of knives available should have matched the number of stickers issued.
John Kothe, Torbay.
Name recognition
I can understand that Simon Wilson's tongue-in-cheek opinion piece (NZ Herald, January 22) will bring a smile to many. Unfortunately, it reinforces the belief that you have to be some sort of public personality to stand for mayor in local body politics.
Name recognition should not be the requirement, but governance ability. Recycled politicians and celebrities may be well known but do they have those required skills?
I was elected this term as a councillor and this experience further reinforces this belief.
We need change. Young people need to be encouraged to be on councils. An elected position for young representatives on council (say under 30 years) to be able to get into local body politics. We need new blood that can develop governance skills. We have 47 councils each with their own CEOs and fiefdoms; amalgamation of many is needed. Personality politics is not the way to elect our mayors.
Gary Gotlieb, councillor, Thames Coromandel.
A bit rich
One of the myths promulgated by the Republican party in the US over a number of years has been that anyone with a social conscience is an extreme left socialist, if not bordering in being a communist.
Jessica Anderson, executive director of Heritage Action, is claiming the far-left Biden administration is making America less safe, less free and less prosperous.
And what of these first 17 "extreme left" executive orders, memoranda and proclamations signed by the new President in his first day of office? These include rejoining the Paris climate accord, appointing an official Covid-19 response co-ordinator, restoring the directorate for global health, security and biodefence at the National Security Council, imposing a national mandate requiring the wearing of masks in all Federal buildings, and ditching efforts to leave the World Health Organisation by sending Dr Fauci to join the WHO annual executive board meeting. Of late, Dr Anthony Fauci has required bodyguards for himself and his family. Oh, I nearly forgot, construction of the Mexico border wall has been halted and Trump's diminished vehicle emission standards are being rolled back.
Not bad for a far-left, extreme socialist in his first day of office. The mega-rich hardly felt a thing.
W. R. H. Ramsay, Kerikeri.
Moving goalposts
Well, good afternoon everybody. I am here at Eden Park as we await the start
of today's important test match between the French Tri-colours and the All Blacks.
It's an overcast day with quite a strong wind gusting from the southwest. I know
that rain is expected and the resultant slippery conditions could be hazardous to players.
Kick-off is due in seven minutes, but wait, oh now a 10-minute postponement has
just been announced.
Match officials want to see a wind shift which will be fairer to both goalkickers.
Match officials are checking their wind meters and the windsock at the top of the goalposts. No, they are not happy and have now ordered a ground adjustment, meaning
that the east end goalposts will have to be moved two metres to the right. Unfortunately,
this will mean a two-hour delay to kick-off time. In the meantime, TVNZ, which is covering
this event for us, will provide you with another repeat selection of their top income-earning TV ads. Commentary will be resumed as soon as we have further information.
Thank you for your patience,
Graham Astley, Epsom.
Short & sweet
On Covid
We are being more cautious about Mycoplasma bovis than we are about people entering New Zealand from a world in chaos. Mary Tallon, Takapuna.
Just as Auckland was locked down, Northland needs to be locked down immediately to prevent possible Covid cases making their way down country. B Hornblow, Kohimarama.
Can someone tell me why, anyone in their right mind, would decide to go to Europe for a four-month holiday, or for any other reason, and not think they could get infected?
J Davison, Manurewa.
A little less instructing us on kindness and a little more sorting out MIQ, please.
P Raine, Devonport.
On nostalgia
Gary Hollis painted a rather rosy picture of the 1950s and 60s family unit in New Zealand (NZ Herald, January 22). To say the fathers could be relied on to be home at 5pm is a bit of a stretch. Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.
On America
Thursday's cartoon (NZ Herald, January 21) showed a rat-like Trump leaving a ship. Let's hope it is not a sinking ship, the USA needs to put "United" front and centre.
Derek Paterson, Sunnyhills.
On education
If the reading comprehension of our young people was so high in the '70s, why don't we go back to how it was taught then? Unless, of course, devices, screen time and phone-addicted parents have had an adverse effect. Chris Blenkinsopp, Beach Haven.