Twenty-five tickets a year worth thousands for one councillor doesn’t inspire confidence – especially as the council is currently looking at what options for stadiums are being considered.
Ian MacGregor, Greenhithe.
Peters' sidestep
Winston Peters says “the vast majority of New Zealanders just want a functioning health system, a top-class education for their kids, first-world wages, and an affordable home” (March 23).
Yet nowhere in his state of the nation speech does he say how his Government is achieving any of that.
He wants to be the party for the everyman, but his policy wins are “removing DEI from public service” (while boasting that his Government can’t be racist because of how many Māori are in it), removing co-governance and removing the “relationships and sexual education” guidelines from schools.
How do any of these help give us a functioning health system, top-class education, first-world wages or affordable homes?
Peters doesn’t say. He just wants to shift the blame to someone else. As he said, “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do, but what you’ve already done”. So where are his great deeds for everyday New Zealanders?
Caleb Rakete, Papakura.
Red Bull riddle
Is it a coincidence that Liam Lawson is experiencing the same problems as his predecessor at Red Bull, Sergio Perez? Why has Lawson suddenly forgotten how to drive?
Why is his car having all sorts of mechanical and set-up problems? Why are his pit crew making the wrong tactical calls? At pre-season practice, sharing the same car as Max Verstappen, he was competitive. Maybe Perez wasn’t the problem? Even Verstappen is off the pace.
There is a lot of talk about replacing him with Yuki Tsunoda. Please note, he was right behind him before he broke his front spoiler, even though he had started from the pit lane and was driving a clearly underperforming car.
Jock Mac Vicar, Hauraki.
Climate signs
Correspondent Gary Carter makes a good point that our only hope may be to adapt to the obvious changes to our climate (March 21).
Over a lifetime of farming, I’ve seen many changes, but only in recent years have we had such phenomenal growth of pasture. In fact, only now are we falling back on supplements made as much as three years ago. We rely on conifers, traditionally from the Northern Hemisphere, such as radiata pine, cryptomeria japonica and redwoods, but they are suffering, possibly due to our warming climate.
We are yet to see how our native conifers such as kauri get on, but broadleaf trees such as tawari seem to be dying in big numbers as well.
Alan Penney, Silverdale.
Bittersweet smile
Jamie Morton’s well-researched article (March 24) does nothing to help my angst about the lack of action on mitigation of the most important issue of our time.
However, Professor Jim Salinger’s comment that New Zealand could be called Aoteapoto – land of the short white cloud – in the future as climate heating kicks in at least made me smile.
For those of us who have been living through this global crisis since the 1970s, when we first learned about global warming by reading The Limits to Growth, sarcasm is what we are reduced to, and at least it makes us feel better.
I am wondering if I should suggest we write to overseas publications suggesting tourists stay home and watch documentaries on Aotearoa rather than destroying what is left of our glaciers, or would that be unpatriotic?
Dennis Worley, Birkenhead.
Health spin
The opinion piece by Health Minister Simeon Brown (March 24) was nothing more than a spin of old, to the point I fell asleep reading it.
Of course patients come first; we need more GP hours and the new system that replaced district health boards isn’t the answer. The cost of changing the facade of health by calling it Te Whatu Ora was totally unnecessary.
Shane Reti only failed in his delivery of the message; he is clinically focused at his core, which is a good thing. Simeon Brown can deliver the message better, but that message needs to be tangible and he needs to do that with fast action.
John Ford, Napier.
