Letters: Democracy in danger as laws rammed through; supermarket terror blame; TVNZ should rethink job cuts

"The $2.8 billion just donated to landlords would have saved the Cook Strait ferry." Image / artist's impression

Letters to the Editor

OPINION

The parliamentary system is not a dictatorship, there are selective committees where experts can present research on changes to legislation that affect us all, not just friends of the government.

The $2.8 billion just donated to landlords would have saved the Cook Strait ferry. The rush to pass legislation in 100 days has led to some bad decisions and bad law as the Prime Minister tries to make himself look like a leader who gets things done.

Still to come are these promises - cutting school lunches; reversing stopping smoking protocols; considering allowing semi-automatic guns; cutting benefits by relating them to inflation not wage level; cutting the rail link between the islands; allowing mining on conservation land and more.

Is it democratic for a government to bypass select committees on these issues many of us feel strongly against because of a PM’s ego?

Democracies are in danger around the world, is this cutting out select committees the way it happens in New Zealand?

Frankie Letford, Hamilton.

Wasteful spending

With so many projects recently cancelled we have seen a great waste of public money.

Political parties need to establish, before they start on any major project, they have the support of the New Zealand public and have support of the other major party in the House.

I felt with Labour in their last term in office they were committing suicide as they were not taking the majority of the public with them. National should never have promised tax cuts they couldn’t fund.

It is sad that the two smaller parties in the coalition have held the major party to ransom to form a government. We saw it a few years ago with NZ First and last year with Act.

Nobody wants gun reforms, a debate on the Treaty, or to lose school lunches. It is very sad to see the wastage by political parties on such a grand scale when there were so many better places the money could be spent.

Barry Birchall, Blockhouse Bay.

Supermarket terror

Instead of trying to find blame with the police response to the supermarket terror attack, I would think we have the two police officers to thank in dealing swiftly and definitively with the perpetrator (NZ Herald, March 12).

The real question that should be asked is why are we letting people like him into this country in the first place?

Politicians always like to look good on the world stage and admitting refugees is one way to do this, but in this volatile world not everyone shares our values as this person clearly demonstrated.

Unfortunately it then falls back on the police to deal with what is a confronting situation which was very well dealt with in this case by them. Well done.

Paul Beck, West Harbour.

Dig them up

I suggest all the speed humps and raised pedestrian crossings in Auckland be dug up and the resultant rubble donated to the Pothole Remediation Team.

This would result in a multitude of benefits. It would align with the concept of recycling, save mining scarce gravel resources, ease the traffic flow around the city, reduce transportation costs, prevent ambulances jolting their patients to death en route to hospital, expedite fire and emergency truck attendances, lessen the pumping of noxious gasses into the atmosphere by eliminating the constant slowing and accelerating of vehicles as they prepare to mount the humps and then descend them, reduce fuel consumption for the same reason - and thereby reduce the drain on our balance of payments by curbing costly fuel imports from overseas.

J.G. Olesen, Auckland.

TVNZ needs a rethink

Correspondent Rex Head is a man after my own heart (NZ Herald, March 12). I was waiting to see an outcry about the cutting of Fair Go, Sunday and the late news from TVNZ but none really came.

I had a quick look at what was on offer from TVNZ and found a load of crap: Australian Survivor, Love Triangle, Shortland Street, The Castaways etc. all of which I feel is an insult to our intelligence.

Give us a break! Fair Go went after the low-life and dodgy companies who were ripping off the everyday Kiwi, now where will the people go to for justice?

Sunday brought to our attention events that we should be told about. The late news was for workers who couldn’t get home in time to watch the early news and for working parents who were busy getting dinner and attending to their children at that time.

No thought was given to older people who don’t rely on their phones for everything and like to sit and watch it on their TVs. Come on TVNZ, how about a rethink?

Julie Pearce, Matamata.