Eleven-month-old Eastyn Craig contracted measles because he was too young to be vaccinated. Photo / Supplied
We fine people who bring in an apple from Australia, biltong from South Africa, other foods from Asia and elsewhere. We killed hundreds of thousands of cattle including many healthy ones just to prevent the spread of one disease. MAF works tirelessly to protect our forests and plant
crops. We set traps to catch a single fruitfly. And publicise all of this with drumrolls and fanfare.
Yet we do nothing to force parents to vaccinate their children (NZ Herald, September 2). Do our plant and animals count for more than our children?
Every child should have a health passport issued at birth. All inoculations should be recorded therein. No child should be allowed in kindy or school without its inoculations being up to date. Non-complying parents should be prosecuted.
The state's first duty is to keep our people safe, not just our cows and crops.
Dr C G Marnewick, Bucklands Beach.
The paramount responsibility of any government is the security of its citizens. On this measure the current government of New Zealand is a failure, both short term and long term.
In the short term because of appalling inaction we have a serious measles epidemic in this country to such an extent our status of a measles-free country is in imminent risk of being withdrawn. When I moved to Rochester, Minnesota, in 1982 my daughter was refused admission to school before we could prove to their satisfaction she had been vaccinated. If this can be achieved in a litigious country like the US then surely it can be done in New Zealand? The cost of this failure in terms of dollars and medical resource has already been horrendous and can only get worse.
The Government's neglect in the long term may be even more serious. We have a superannuation system which virtually all financial pundits claim to be unsustainable and yet the Prime Minister has endorsed her predecessor's folly of inertia. It is easy to understand why politicians may not support Simon Bridges' call for the eligibility age to be raised from 65 to 67 over 20 years, as they are able to sit back on their extremely generous secured, "self-authorised" plans when it will be those lesser mortals who will suffer when the piggy bank runs dry.
Rod Lyons, Muriwai.
Lauren White's article on the need to refocus urban planning on trains (NZ Herald, August 30) gets it exactly right. However, it is an approach which Auckland's transport planners seem inherently averse to.
Apart from completion of the City Rail Link, the current 30-year transport strategy includes not a single metre of new passenger train route.
G W A Bush, Parnell.
Democracy originated in ancient Greece where the people were asked to vote on major issues of the day and those in power saw it as their duty to implement the people's wishes. The British parliament has chosen to ignore this basic duty. For the last three years those who chose to remain have tried every means they could devise to overthrow the people's decision including the last two prime ministers, both Remainers, one who ran away and one who tried to compromise with those for whom there is no compromise, only their own way. But predictions of doom and gloom, public anti Brexit demonstrations, the backstop, leaving with no deal, all are irrelevant when compared with the basic principle of democracy. At last, Britain has a prime minister who is prepared to fight back with as much determination as his opposition has shown (NZ Herald, September 2). I voted remain but I hope, with every pore in my body, that Johnson succeeds and the enemies of democracy are finally defeated.
Gerald Payman, Mt Albert.
The emotional pressure on the Government and Pharmac at the moment over the purchasing of expensive cancer drugs for their loved ones is understandable (NZ Herald, September 2). But the fact of the matter is, that both these bodies have a finite resource. That means when pressure is applied to buy expensive cancer drugs, then somewhere along the line another drug may have to be quietly unfunded. Those who may be receiving the less high-profile drug may not have the confidence nor the ability to stand up and assert their rights. It's a difficult position to be in for both the Government and Pharmac. And it's nauseating to listen to our Opposition Leader denouncing the lack of funding available and offering a plan with greater funding.
The best thing National Party members can do is to cajole their numbers into paying all taxes owed on business deals, industry expansions, housing profits etc and not use such things as tax havens, clever accountancy or lawyers who know how to hide assets within trust funds, because that's where our tax system is falling down. What should be paid in is not. There's no "out" for wage and salary earners and neither there should be. We should all be adding to the support we are going to need, especially when we are sick.
Emma Mackintosh, Birkenhead.
Eric Murray is to be congratulated on his decision to spend more time with his autistic son (NZ Herald, August 27).
Hopefully he will be a role model for other rich and/or famous people.
I am regularly bemused by older people, retiring from paid and public life, saying that they want to spend more time with their families.
In most cases, their families have long since grown up, or have learnt to deal with their absence.
Danna Glendining, Taupō.
Various correspondents have extolled Finland's education model. They believe it should be adopted here.
But the success of Finland's education model derives in no small part from the vastly different socio-economic environment of that country.
Finland is a tiny, homogeneous, highly egalitarian, high-income nation with an extraordinarily high level of social cohesion forged through adverse historical experience and compulsory national service.
New Zealand is a nation of recent settlement with an undisciplined, dysfunctional, multicultural population without sense of national purpose or common interest except sport and consumption.
Finland's teachers can focus on teaching. Our schools are expected to be world-class educational institutions and societal transformational agencies tasked with solving intractable social problems wrought by grotesque inequality and low wages.
The uncritical adoption of apparently successful foreign models can result in very different outcomes in an uncongenial environment.
John Gascoigne, Cambridge.
As a heavy vehicle driver, in a fast-growing urban area I make a plea to all parents and caregivers of infant children.
You load your young ones into the car behind the drivers seat, doubtless because when you step out of the house the car is easier to access from that side.
When you park the car you are opening the rear door in the path of oncoming vehicles.
You open that door, reach in, release the infant, take a step back to give yourself room to close the car door, take an extra step back and where are you? Right in the way of oncoming traffic.
It takes some time to stop a 10-tonne vehicle, it does not have the manoeuvrability of a car.
I do not want the death of an infant and or caregiver, despite my innocence, on my conscience for the rest of my life.
Don't be selfish. Please think.
A D Kirby, Papamoa.
I totally agree with Linda Robert (NZ Herald, August 30), I too did my hospital based training in psychiatric and general nursing. I feel that nurses trained in a hospital setting are more caring and better educated, as they have more understanding of human nature. They can as Linda suggests can go on and specialise in any of their chosen fields, once they have completed their basic training. We would have better trained nurses and as Linda says maybe they could take some of the load off doctors.
Sally Shaw, Orewa.
The design of the Auckland Harbour Bridge was not an exercise in "engineer-led, imagination free, hideously perfunctory, colonial number 8 wire mentality of ugly function over aesthetics" as Phil O'Reilly asserts (NZ Herald, August 29). The design team was led by Oleg Kerensky, a partner in the renowned British engineering firm Fox & Partners. Kerensky's father, Alexander, was the Prime Minister of Russia prior to the October 1917 Bolshevik revolution; in 1921, aged 16, Oleg fled to England with his mother and brother. Sir Percy Thomas, Past President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, was retained to advise on the aesthetics of the bridge and approve the design.
Replacing the three bridge structures there now with one 10-lane bridge of the same design as the four-lane original, with a second deck within the steelwork, will return to the Waitemata Harbour the 1950s design classic that was only visible for 10 years and provide maximum transport connectivity through the existing corridor.
The $2 billion bridge replacement can be funded by from the $5.1 billion that central government and Auckland Council have budgeted for roads and greenfield infrastructure in the next decade and the connecting rail lines can be funded from the $8.4 billion budgeted for rapid transit.
Will McKenzie, policy advisor, John Tamihere for Mayor Campaign.
On National
One wonders whether National's cry "too little, too late", is the smartest response to policy initiatives (such as feeding starving school-children, and establishing a dedicated cancer agency), this soon after nine years in power during which it did nothing to alleviate these problems. Doug Hannan, Mount Maunganui.
On China
The brutality dealt by police to the people of Hong Kong as they courageously and tenaciously demonstrate for their freedom has exposed the terror, cruelty and male violence (as well as all-pervasive surveillance and politically motivated arrests) that underpins the Xi dictatorship. Genevieve Forde, Manly.
On measles
I appreciate Gerry Hill's concern for the elderly. I believe, however, that the elderly are not at risk. Pretty much anyone over 60 has natural immunisation due to the fact we all had measles as children. John Buchan, Browns Bay.
Many years ago my school-friend died: I only just made it. The misinformed anti-vaxxers need to step up and help stop the increasing threat of a huge epidemic. Pamela Russell, Orakei.
On metaphors
New All Black Luke Jacobson will have to brush up his metaphors. You are not on top of the moon - you are on top of the world or over the moon. David Tolmie, Mt Eden.
On e-scooters
So e-scooter companies pay no ACC, yet are costing us untold in hospital bills? I sit in an office and pay ACC levies ... yeh nah ... when are the elections? S P McMonagle, Greenhithe.
Let's make this simple: Footpath – a path for people on foot. Susan Grimsdell, Auckland Central.
On pronunciation
It is obvious most radio and TV announcers were not brought up on phonics. We constantly hear janree, febree, secetry, miwk .. I could go on! L Lawson, Remuera.
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