Letter of the week: B Darragh, Auckland Central
A Fair Pay Agreement and higher minimum pay rates are opposed by parties on the right on the grounds of unaffordability for struggling businesses.
Higher pay often means greater loyalty, improved productivity, and more immediate spending in the economy - it's good for
business.
And how else will we keep our nurses, doctors and teachers here, already in short supply, if we don't increase their pay (and improve conditions)?
While NZ wages are so much lower than Australian we will continue to lose many to the lucky country, and elsewhere.
Do we not have some moral obligation to our citizens and families, to our workers and those looking for work but deficient in skills, before opening the gates to the millions of aspirational immigrants knocking on our door?
Transport solutions
Kudos to Simon Wilson (Weekend Herald, April 9) for actually daring to question the fitness of Auckland Light Rail's latest tunnelled solution for purpose, and equally for pointing out that during its 10-year construction, it will add substantially to our carbon footprint without doing anything to ease congestion.
Ten or more years ago, there was a report that suggested Auckland's population could reach 2.5 million within 25 to 35 years. How likely does that look following the global pandemic, people's changed working practices, and attitudes to air travel?
Before we spend $14.5 billion on an underground rail line to the airport, we need to be sure that it's the best way to spend so much public money. (Spoiler alert: It's not).
AT's financial crisis story on the front page of the same Weekend Herald makes it clear that the demand for buses is just not there, yet.
Shared mobility, as recommended by the OECD study of Auckland, offers true scalability, and instant results, without any major expenditure or changing the character of our city.
Auckland, with its wonderful vistas, and low-density population looks like the perfect city in which to pioneer Metrino or something like it.
Roger Adshead, Three Kings.
Concern ungrounded
Contrary to the assertions made by Bruce Tubb in his letter (Weekend Herald, April 9), the Cornwall Park Trust Board does not intend to "sell off part of the Auckland Showgrounds".
All of the site is owned by the trust board and has been for over 100 years. It is part of the endowment land Sir John Logan Campbell intended should be used to generate revenue to fund the continuing operation of Cornwall Park, his legacy to the people of New Zealand.
The showgrounds site has been leased to various entities during its history. When the most recent entity went into liquidation, the trust board worked with the liquidator and others to keep the showgrounds operating as an events centre. The pandemic continues to make this very challenging.
The trust board has a process under way which will result in revenue to fund the care of Cornwall Park. Whatever decision the trust board takes, it will be guided by what best serves the long-term future of Cornwall Park and ensures people can continue to enjoy the park, free of charge, forever.
Adrienne Young-Cooper, chair, CPTB.
A bit rich
It appears that those howling for the blood of the Russian oligarchs (Weekend Herald, April 9) have not studied their history.
Those oligarchs living in the "West" are refugees from the wrath of Vladimir Putin. They plundered Russia during the mayhem of the Yeltsin years and shot through when Putin took power. They are fully aware that, should they return to Russia, Putin would have their hides.
Indeed, there have been times when Western governments have considered moves against their Russian oligarchs such as deportation, and Putin has replied, "Keep them, but it would be nice to get the money back".
Put simply, the more that we hammer the Russian oligarchs, the more that we side with Putin.
G N Kendall, Rothesay Bay.
Missed the bus
Not long ago, there was a lot of farmland out east Auckland. Auckland Council decided high-density housing was needed. But, as Auckland Transport didn't read the newspapers at the time, it missed out on buying or specifying a train or bus corridor over cheap farmland to the new high-density area.
Instead, everyone works on their own grandiose personal projects, tunnels, car park removal, low-speed arterial roads and "sorry but we can't afford buses anymore" - that's why parking wardens need all those cars.
Seriously, doesn't anyone have the authority to sack the lot of them, or are they some form of Gods?
Randel Case, Bucklands Beach.
