Letters: Housing accord, home isolation, lockdown flouters and reopening schools

Housing Minister Megan Woods, left, National leader Judith Collins and Housing spokesperson Nicola Willis, announce a joint policy on new housing. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Opinion

Feckless response
While Portugal's team of ten million go about life as normal with 100 per cent vax rate, stating proudly they have "run out of people to vaccinate", our team of 5 million is held to ransom by screaming fans of "Bishop Tamaki", stupid rule-breaking parties and multiple protests on super vax day.
We've had multiple reckless idiots travelling round the country putting whole regions at risk and regular absconders out of MIQ.
The Government should have mandated a 100 per cent vax rate unless a valid medical discharge is signed by a GP, and offered a large tax deduction for anyone double-vaxxed by a certain date.
Then a major rural operation to get the vax to the hinterland followed by an escalating range of penalties for those who simply refuse to join our team - slowing down our freedom and putting everyone at risk.
This is not the flu and "opting out" of the vax is not a joke anymore. Businesses are going under and our children's education is suffering.
In the midst of this destructive virus, our two leading political parties crowing about their new joint housing rules seems akin to Nero fiddling while Rome burns.
John Clark, Glen Eden.

Speed up supply
The joint housing initiative announced by Labour and National is to be applauded. As long as demand exceeds supply, housing will continue to rise in price; it's the same with all commodities.
Allowing property owners to develop their land without getting bogged down by the need for consents will certainly speed up the supply of housing in all its forms and therefore act as a handbrake on rising prices, including rents.
I would like to think an unintended consequence of this initiative will also make it easier for a property owner to create a home and income within their existing single dwelling situation. If every private home had a "granny" flat it would boost the availability of accommodation and provide an extra stream of taxable income for property owners who might be freehold but on a fixed low income.
Larry Tompkins, Waiuku.

Dream houses
So Nats and Labour have both finally recognised there's a housing crisis; well I suppose better late than never.
But can they tell me in order to build the three-storey apartments where I can get a guaranteed and immediate supply of reasonably-priced and sufficient materials, chippies, tradies..?
John Waymouth, Belmont.

Destruction, unabated
We live in the heritage suburb of Onehunga. Our home, a traditional villa, is gradually being surrounded by concrete monstrosities.
For the past two years, we have had six-day work being done from 8am, with non-stop building noise. One multi-storey building has been completed; the second, larger, structure is still in progress.
Sydney managed to save, restore and maintain many of its heritage homes, even in inner-city suburbs, both wealthy and not so much. Onehunga lost this protection some time ago.
What kind of architectural aesthetic justifies the burgeoning spread of these ugly structures? Of course we need more housing stock, but why at the expense of harmony with the landscape or any validation of our architectural history?
Nearby Cornwall Park is a beautiful backdrop to Onehunga, Royal Oak and Greenlane.
Given the new apparent love-fest between Labour and National housing wizards will this regime continue to sanction the uglification of Auckland?
Barbara Matthews, Onehunga.

Home safe?
Sir Ian Taylor suggests (NZ Herald, October 20) replacing the 14-day MIQ stay for international arrivals with a three- to 5-day self-isolation at home.
There are currently 23 people in quarantine facilities who have tested positive in MIQ on either their day 3 or day 12 test. It is logical that those 23 are a mixture of day-3 positive cases and day-12 positives.
It is obvious, then, that letting people into New Zealand before having a day-12 test would release Covid-positive people into the community at a steady rate.
Jeremy Hall, Hauraki.

Aspect stern
Thinking about those who deliberately flout the Covid restrictions, I am reminded of Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado who sang: "My object all sublime, I shall achieve in time, to make the punishment fit the crime, the punishment fit the crime."
At present, I have little or no access to society, limited opportunity for exercise and am confined to my own personal accommodation, where I eat and sleep.
So offenders should be subject to the same restrictions and locked up until Auckland reaches level 1, and by that I do not mean home detention that they will almost certainly ignore, but imprisonment that they can't.
Gerald Payman, Mt Albert.

School's out
Most other countries with vaccination rates as high as Auckland have reopened their schools, with NSW and Victoria about to do so.
Many other countries have done this successfully with the use of filtration, ventilation, masks, vaccination mandates for staff, bubbles, staggered start times, etc.
Primary school children are the age group least at risk of experiencing severe Covid symptoms and death, with risks orders of magnitude below older adults.
However, it appears the Government is prepared to write off an entire term of class, at significant educational cost to children, purely because they have not done the necessary planning to open schools safely. They need only have copied the best practices from other countries.
Matthew Wansbone, Birkenhead.

Fossil fools
Following recent electricity outages, the Premier of China, Li Keqiang, declared fossil fuel "holds the key to solving all our problems... Given the predominant place of coal in the country's energy and resource endowment, it is important to optimise the layout for coal production capacity, build advanced coal-fired power plants as appropriate in line with development needs... Domestic oil and gas exploration will be intensified."
China is already responsible for 28 per cent of the world's CO2 emissions. The Keqiang speech suggests this percentage is likely to increase. China has evidently turned its back on aiming for green targets, let alone net zero emissions.
Our Climate Change Minister James Shaw will shortly be attending Glasgow (with 14 assistants) on our behalf. Given China's policy, the conference will be a farce; an Olympic competition of virtue-signalling, with no effect on the health of the planet. If Shaw were at all serious about saving the planet, he would be taking his rugby team to Beijing, seeking to change the mind of the Chinese Government. Will he do that? No; as Greta Thunberg noted last month, politicians seem mesmerised by the opportunity to "blah blah blah" at international conferences.
John Reardon, Ōrewa.

Raising ourselves
A smart youth from a slum area in Kenya or Uganda can go to a boarding school for just $600 a year, to learn in a safe place and without a rumbling stomach.
With the keys of education, they can then aim higher and help break their family's poverty cycle, embedded for generations.
If only every family or individual with adequate income or means could support one neglected youth in a developing country to be educated, our world might start to rebalance itself 'tween "the haves and have-nots".
Seeing the Forbes Rich List with 336 billionaires in the US alone one must wonder if acquiring vast fortunes is really a "lifetime achievement". Or is it just greed on a colossal scale?
By extending our global family to uplift young people through education in such places as the home of earth's original humans, we lighten our own load.
Rob Buchanan, Kerikeri.

Last siting
I see further protests (NZ Herald, October 20) to the construction of the memorial to those tragically lost in the Erebus disaster, and must ask when will it end?
While the Rose Gardens have merit, clearly the Sir Dove Myer Robinson Park is not a popular site and to be looking over the POAL container terminal is equally unattractive and has no relevance to those lost.
To save all those involved further grief, why not shift the site to the upper public observation parking site at the Auckland airport? You could still utilise the same design looking out over the runways, plus there is space and land available to even plant an appropriate garden as well.
After all, the lost DC10 departed Auckland for the ice, never to return. This site would be far more suitable for the families who wish to visit and remember.
Keith Ingram, Half Moon Bay.

Bicycle clips
Regarding the well-written and impassioned plea regarding doing what you can to reduce your climate change emissions (NZ Herald, October 19): Now is the time for Auckland Transport to work out how to accommodate bicycles on buses, whether inside or on outside clips.
This should have been done yesterday, particularly with regard to buses replacing trains due to maintenance or breakdowns. Being stuck 20km from home with a bicycle at night and having to cycle home is not fun. I would write to AT about this but in my experience, they never listen to public suggestions.
Sam Cunningham, Henderson.

Sunny side up
I'd really love to know what is so hard about mandating solar panels for every new build.
Comparative to other building costs they are a cheap extra. We run our electric smart car off our nine panels.
Juliet Leigh, Pt Chevalier.

Short & sweet

On professions
There is a certain poetic justice to teachers who don't believe in science and healthcare workers who don't believe in medicine self-selecting themselves out of these professions. Doug Hannan, Mt Maunganui.

On leadership
When leaders knowingly break laws, it shows deliberate guilty intent; therefore, punishment should be much more severe than for the naive. Bill Gibson, Kawerau.

On vaccinations
People are not being "left behind". They are "choosing to stay behind". R Harris, Kohimarama.

On parties
It is easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. C.M. Thompson, Rothesay Bay.

On lockdown
Dear Prime Minister, please can I have a haircut? It is nearly three months since my last one. Bruce Owen, Bombay.

We can go to the supermarket wearing masks and distancing so why can't we do the same for retail? The economy is sadly ignored. Leonie Lawson, Remuera.

Okay lockdown, you win. I've held out for 64 days, but today I have succumbed; I'm making my own sourdough starter. Huw Dann, Mt Eden.

The Premium Debate

National's plan

Well done National. Thinking of struggling businesses and putting them first. Labour Government, take note - this is what a plan looks like. Brian P.

If National can work with Labour over housing strategy, then surely Labour can take up the National Party's policy on tax cuts on small businesses and $100 incentives to get the customers spending, plus their suggestion to move the tax threshold to $17,000 temporarily. Sara M.

Never mind the detail of the dates mentioned or the vax thresholds National's plan is built on, what the comments reported in this article show is we value certainty and clarity enormously and are very willing to adapt to a new playing field if we simply know what it looks like. Christopher Tama M.

I'd prefer a tax rebate through my PAYE (or for a business owner, through their tax payments). That way I could spend my "incentive" on what I wanted, not what somebody wanted me to spend it on. Let's face it, any payment out to people is from tax that has been gathered by the government; I'd rather have my own money back for what I want, which would be more likely a book or CD from a local business. Leigh H.

Too stingy. There should be a permanent tax holiday for everyone up to $18,000. That would permanently put money back into the pockets of the lowest-paid people in society and would reduce the high rate of poverty in the community. A $1500 Covid stimulus payment for everyone normally earning less than $100k would give people a chance to pay back some of the money owed in rent, bills and debt that is of no fault of their own, but is directly the result of these constant lockdowns. Overseas studies show most people when given a stimulus payment, use it wisely and pay back bills. David B.

I am not an accountant or businessman so cannot comment on this plan. I am however a taxpayer and voter, and I feel strongly against giving bludgers a $100 reward for hanging back from doing their civic duty. Alexander M.