Letters: Emergency care, bank profits, police tactics, NorthPort, clothesmakers and fireworks

How is attracting more investors to New Zealand going to help someone presenting at an emergency department for urgent care? Photo / Supplied, File

Opinion

Hospital pass

Christopher Luxon waxes hot on the cost of living. The true cost of living if you’re unfortunate enough to end up in an emergency department requires trained, experienced specialists - doctors, and nurses - not investors profiting excessively from capital gains or the bank shares. While everyone likes the thought of less taxes, if the truth be known they also want an ambulance service with experienced highly qualified intensive care paramedics to get them through the golden hour. None of this is being provided adequately. Luxon’s model is a hope and prayer model. We get increasing inequality with him and feel wealthier but mind your back in the dark and hope you never get to experience ED. Warm blood trickling down is not fixed rapidly without taxes in one form or another to supply health expertise. An excessive profits tax could help. Can Luxon explain why investors’ families don’t bleed like the rest of us? Steve Russell, Hillcrest.

Brought to account

I see that Jacinda Ardern has been making comments (NZ Herald, November 9) about the recent profits that ANZ and Westpac have reported. While big numbers, if I am reading the reports correctly, as a percentage of profit to equity, (ie a basic guide to return on equity deployed), KiwiBank does better than ANZ at 8.36 per cent return on equity, versus 7.23 per cent return on equity for ANZ. Westpac is similar to Kiwibank at 8.8 per cent. So, I guess if Ardern is going to start questioning this, then she is going to have to start looking at the NZ Government’s now totally owned bank, and consider how it is gouging its customers. The other factor that has always been unusual, is that all New Zealand customers have a choice, and many would have switched to the NZ-owned banks like Kiwibank - but not the Government. It still banks via Westpac. John Gjaltema, Red Beach.

Show of force

It is of serious concern that one of the most - if not the most - rational of the National caucus, Mark Mitchell, has now become Labour-lite. His comment (NZ Herald, November 8) that the police are in charge of the law and its application defies daily evidence. At any time, the police respond after the event. Prevention has never been their strong suit. As criminality grows by the day and police are scarily ineffectual, we could have hoped for a more assertive comment from such a high-profile member. Graham Steenson, Whakatāne.

Riding the rails

The article on carbon emissions if car imports to New Zealand go into Northland (NZ Herald, November 8) set my calculator clicking. Every time there is an article such as this, the emissions of ships not having to steam the extra few hours to Auckland are ignored, as is the time taken. If all 240,000 imported cars in a year were loaded directly onto a fleet of double-deck railway wagons, we would need one train per day of 56 wagons. That one train would replace 83 car transporters. Let’s work out the emissions savings from that exercise. Additionally, those railway wagons could travel anywhere in New Zealand before being offloaded. I would have the port company own the rail wagons, and make them collapsible so they could travel piggyback on the return trip. The key would be careful planning of the wagon each car would need to go on but, as every car imported has a predetermined destination, that becomes a software exercise. The other key would be to have a new railway line between Marsden Pt and Wiri, not an upgraded one that meanders along and was built between 1868 and 1925. Done properly a car could be in a dealer’s showroom within 48 hours. That can’t happen today. A few years later all of POAL’s container imports could be handled in exactly the same way. Let’s do it, now. Murray Reid, Cambridge.

Material evidence

With COP27 taking place in Egypt, there is a lot of talk going on about emissions from agriculture, the oil industry and many other activities. Among all the blame, the one that I see missing is the clothing industry. Currently from a New Zealand perspective most of the clothing is manufactured either in China or some other Asian country, which results in a reduction in our emissions but an increase in the manufacturers’ emissions. A great percentage of current clothing is made from synthetic fabrics, the majority of which are made from basic fossil fuel resources. One needs only to wander through any of our shopping centres to see numerous clothing retailers, all of which have large racks of clothing, and this is doubled when one visits a secondhand clothing shop. There have been many videos showing vast amounts of non-recycled fabric being committed to landfill. Perhaps we must revert to the days of import licensing to restrict this wasteful industry flourishing at the planet’s expense. Dick Ayres, Auckland Central.

Is the rag trade an environmental villain? Photo / 123rf

Experience counts

John Capener in his comment (NZ Herald, November 8) defending Grant Robertson in highlighting the inexperience of any contender, deserves comment. I don’t think that either Robertson or Jacinda Ardern has worked in any serious capacity outside that of political organisations. Christopher Luxon has headed a highly regarded New Zealand company of 12,000 people and was appointed by the Prime Minister as chairman of her industry think-tank. I know what qualifications I would prefer for a person in running our country. David Hallett, Mt Maunganui.

Whim a way

The correspondents in The Premium Debate (NZ Herald, November 8) were unanimous in their condemnation of the wasteful and ideological-driven spending by Phil Goff in Auckland and Grant Robertson on a national level. One of these correspondents (Isabella C.) highlighted an immediate saving ($33 million) by not having to change the road speed signs next year. This decision to reduce the speed limit by a whopping 40 per cent was clearly taken without any reference to any solid information or real need – at least that is the case in Takapuna. The facts of the matter are that, in Takapuna over the past four years, there have been zero crashes involving a death, and only 17 crashes resulting in serious injury. This information was provided by Waka Kotahi. One can only surmise that the decision to decrease the speed limit from 50km/h to 30km/h on Takapuna roads was based on a whim – an expensive whim. Chris Parker, Campbells Bay.

Two wheels good?

Your article (NZ Herald, November 3) about measures to help cyclists while part of the Grafton Gully Cycleway is shut failed to mention that they have resulted in the closure of the footpath on the southern side of Grafton Rd and also of two bus stops. Why are cyclists being privileged over these other “virtuous” commuters: pedestrians and public transport users? Andrea van Himst, Grafton.

History revised

Kerry Craig’s history lesson (NZ Herald, November 11) is poorly informed. Captain Cook was far more tactical in influencing his “people” to eat their greens. He didn’t flog them. Rather, Cook served his officers the greens as a perceived delicacy. The sailors responded by eating the fresh food with gusto. Ian Brady, Titirangi.

Extended sentence

So often we hear of cases where a new sentence is allowed to run concurrently with one already being served. To many people who have been victims of crime it’s hard to see why this happens. So it was refreshing to see Justice Pheroze Jagose sentence a Killer Beez gang member to serve a sentence of four years and three months in prison for drive-by shootings stacked on top of the eight years and eight months he’s already serving for previous crimes. To the victims of his latest offending justice would have been seen to be done. Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.

Enough is enough

At next year’s election, for the very first time, I will vote for the Green Party as they are the only party that wants the sensible solution to ban sales of fireworks. This is what’s needed to save our trees, as in Christchurch, and save houses from kids tossing fireworks through windows late at night, as in Auckland. Plus, stop noisy nights for thousands of people. We need the law change well before next November. Murray Hunter, Titirangi.

Poor show, AT

On Saturday evening we attended the Tim Beveridge / APO 007 event at the Aotea Centre. It was terrific with great music as always and backed up by talented singers, and great to see all the smiling faces as we exited the show. That was the best part of the evening, the flipside was the shambles that now constitutes Queen St and trying to get around the CBD. Those at Auckland Transport should be flogged for the monster they have created. If you haven’t seen Queen St recently or tried to negotiate it, don’t. It is an unmitigated shambles and a disgrace. If the intent is to drive retail and visitors out of Queen St, take a bow, you have achieved that goal. Brian Corbett, Matakana.

Free for all

It is no surprise to any of us that the interest in the Black Ferns is surpassing the ABs. It is something to do with their passion, their gratitude for the love they are getting, not to mention a skill level that grows with every game. But there is something else just as important: the fact that their games during this World Cup have been free and live. Slowly, bit by bit, the average person has lost access to almost all top sports games through the need to sell off to the highest bidder. Gone are the days when we could all sit around the TV and enjoy our rugby, league or cricket free and live. First, it was Sky, now it is Sky and Spark with the result that fewer and fewer people get to watch their sport. And along comes an exciting bunch of women showing more passion than the top men’s teams and we don’t have to pay for it. This trend towards the wahine will go on until once again the sports authorities find a way to kick the addiction to big money for TV rights and bring it back to the average working family. I only hope the women’s game doesn’t go the same way. Geoff Minchin, Kawakawa.

Short and sweet

On banks

When the political polls are telling a story, who better to attack than the profitable banks to divert attention from what really matters? Is our PM saying that she wants businesses to be less profitable and therefore more vulnerable in difficult times? Mike Baker, Tauranga.

On sharks

Having been involved with deep-sea fishing and witnessed mako sharks jumping, it was good to see that on the rare occasion of it landing on the vessel (NZH, Nov. 8) the skipper was well prepared by having a roll of toilet paper on the console of the boat. Norm Green, Ōrewa.

On MPs

Our parliamentarians want their workload eased, we have been told, with fewer hours in parliament. That must be a vote winner, eh, and “let the peasants eat cake” must be a new policy? Rodger Hedley, Awatoto.

On rent

Your landlord’s rental property may have dropped in value (NZH, Nov. 8) but his/ her rates, maintenance, and all the multitude of expenses to keep a property up to standard have increased hugely. No, your rent will not drop. Linda Lang, Henderson.

On AT

The Auckland Council funding pothole can easily be filled in by reducing the budget allocation to Auckland Transport by a similar amount. This would “kill two birds with one stone” by curbing AT’s enthusiasm for anti-vehicular projects. J G Olesen, St Heliers Bay.

On rugby

Never has England suffered so long under such a shocking coach with such bad results. He has the players roaming the field lost with no idea how to get to winning. As for the World Cup, forget it, England. Ken Shelvey, Whitianga.

The Premium Debate

Sky News host calls out Six60 for te reo on poster

Depends on if they want to sell tickets. I don’t read te reo so, if I saw this, I wouldn’t even bother trying to translate the months. I’d just ignore the sign. Mark W.

“So called iwi... new language... not a word of English” Hmmm. The last quote suggests he can’t read. The middle suggests if his ignorance means he’s unaware of something it’s “new”. So-called iwi? Not “so-called”, is called. Who gave this guy a show? Seriously dim. Brings to mind the Muldoon quote regarding Kiwis moving to Australia and raising the average IQ of both countries. But when I lived in Australia I (unlike this guy) actually learned something. Most Australians are intelligent and clued up. He’s an embarrassment to his nation. Simon S.

I wouldn’t know what any of that meant. Isn’t communication about getting your message across to as many people as possible? Not that I like Six60, but this doesn’t endear them to me. Mark C.

I don’t see a problem with either side voicing their opinions. Free speech is not illegal. Peter S.

It’s not about free speech, it’s about effectively communicating with the 90+ per cent of the population of New Zealand who speak English. So, if no English is featured in communications of this kind then their real purpose is what? It’s not about advertising/selling tickets, is it? Simon N.

Oh dear, Mister Australian. I would keep a very low profile and a very quiet voice. Australia and its treatment of First Nation people is a disgrace. Midnight Oil and their “Sorry” t-shirts kinda sum it up. Tim T.