View from afar
I am a Kiwi and a registered nurse who has lived and worked in many countries, and am currently residing in the US. I am proud of the intelligent way Jacinda Ardern has dealt with border control during Covid-19.
Here in the US, the death toll has reached nearly
a million. We have been on self-imposed lockdown for nearly two years. We mostly stay at home, ordering our groceries online for pickup outside the store.
I have read that Jacinda is receiving much condemnation for her Covid-19 policies. New Zealanders should be grateful to her for her integrity, honesty, and foresight.
New Zealanders have never had to live under Trumpism, Hitlerism, PolPotism, or other despotic regimes. Please be worthy of the soldiers, such as the Anzacs, who fought to keep the world safe for democracy. Did they die in vain?
Please give Jacinda Ardern the respect she deserves.
Patricia A. Kraybill, Mansfield, Pennsylvania, formerly of Auckland.
Big noters
The article on another drug bust (NZ Herald, February 8) carried the customary photograph of the large amount of cash seized.
The drug pandemic delivers more death and human misery than any Covid pandemic.
The NZ Police do a fantastic job in arresting the drug manufacturers and dealers, but they need more support than they currently receive.
One measure that will help is the withdrawal of $100 and $50 notes from circulation.
These large notes are used primarily by people involved in the drug trade and other illegal activities like tax avoidance.
Surely this is a no-brainer for our politicians to bring into force.
Chris Parker, Campbells Bay.
Grate divide
Re "Companies dodge $400 million tax by passing $9.4 billion in dividends to shareholders" (NZ Herald, January 31). Apparently at a rate equal to 291 per cent of normal annual dividends.
These would be the same companies that had their hands out to grab the wage subsidy from taxpayers instead of utilising surplus past profits to pay wages first.
No doubt these same companies will again demand further wage subsidies to help boost their profits now that Omicron Covid 19 is exploding countrywide.
This will just increase the massive divide in New Zealand's have/have-not society, adding to Labours' transfer of wealth to the already asset rich by their failure to institute a capital gains tax, plus creating artificially low interest rates which have pushed home prices up astronomically.
D F Little, Whangārei.
Rent asunder
The Government has ruled out rent control. However, they have a completely wrong notion of what rent control is. They think it refers to selecting certain housing units to have a fixed rent. This creates huge problems.
Rent control as practised in most countries refers to a legal limit placed on the amount rents are permitted to increase, and it applies across the board to all rental units. In Germany the increase is tied to inflation. In B.C. Canada it is determined by the increase in the Consumer Price Index. New York, Vienna, Madrid, Barcelona, Amsterdam and many other places also set limits.
In New Zealand, rent increases are determined by the economic law of supply and demand. That law has nothing to do with the human need for shelter.
By walking away from this terrible problem our Government is walking away from the desperate need of hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders who are and always will be, renters.
Susan Grimsdell, Auckland Central.
Appalling wage bill
I was an elected member of the Mt Eden Borough Council from 1986 to 1989.
These were the years that the Labour Government of the time told all the Auckland councils that they had to come up with a plan to amalgamate with another council or councils with the idea of amalgamating costs to get better deals for the ratepayers.
Considerable time, money and discussion was put into this idea but every proposal was turned down by the Government.
Councillors were paid by the number of meetings that they attended (from memory about $10 per meeting), definitely nowhere near what they are paid today. The wage bill now is appalling and the council is running at a loss and obviously not doing their job properly, especially when we have just learned that they are sitting on a few million dollars worth of money from the Auckland tax on petrol and should have been spent on roading.
I think that Aucklanders need to remember this when they come to vote at the next elections.
Noel Jackson, Royal Oak.
