Readers debate NZ’s economy, with some calling bankruptcy claims overblown. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Govt’s debt emphasis wrong
Roger Douglas wrote that the Government was sending the country bankrupt and should be concentrating on achieving a government surplus.
What the Government should be doing is reviving employment and the economy by spending more and not leaving hospitals, schools and the homeless in despair.
Our Government debt to GDP is 39%, compared with Japan 255%, UK 98%, USA 122%, France 111% and so on.
The Government has allowed the economy to shrink by cutting support to essential services. If we are heading for bankruptcy, then we are well down in the queue.
Tony Sullivan, St Heliers.
Luxon should go
Calling for Nicola Willis to resign is like shutting the gate after the bull got out.
Tax cuts, severe retrenchments and other poor decisions have caused a downward trend in business viability. This, coupled with the high cost of living, has meant a general lack of confidence by the whole community.
Hardly a week passes without announcements of further business closures. If there is to be a resignation, it probably should be the Prime Minister, as he has permitted an incompetent person to hold a post that, to put it mildly, has stuffed up our economy.
Reg Dempster, Albany.
Catalyst for growth
On one hand, you have pundits lamenting Nicola Willis, and the drop in GDP; and on the other, the Reserve Bank is now being pressured to drop the OCR by half a per cent based on the GDP fall.
I would have thought dropping interest rates would stimulate the economy, and this minor GDP drama is a catalyst for growth. Is that not what we want?
John Ford, Taradale.
Protest noise
I wish I had known about David Seymour’s comments regarding Palestine on Radio New Zealand before attending a public meeting about housing intensification in Mt Eden last night.
I would have been much more sympathetic to the protesters outside noisily trying to drown out the important discussion on a lack of adequate infrastructure, particularly the wastewater pipe network across old established areas of Auckland.
The very perceptive September 19 Herald cartoon should have shown the sardine tin crammed full of people afloat in a sea of sewage-contaminated floodwater while those identified as supporting intensification blamed climate change.
Coralie van Camp, Remuera.
Moving state tenants
In response to Lorraine Kidd’s letter (September 18, 2025) and her concern about Kāinga Ora tenants being moved from their homes.
It is happening all over the country, and I doubt the majority of the public are aware of the number of Kāinga Ora tenants being moved from their homes.
In my own neighbourhood of Hayes Paddock in Hamilton East, several households have been moved on to other parts of the city. Some have gone willingly, others reluctantly, and others are simply digging their toes in.
Some do not want to leave their neighbourhood where their children and/or grandchildren are settled in the local schools, where the elderly have established good friends and support from neighbours over the years and are afraid of moving to an unfamiliar part of town.
We are told of the new homes being built by the state, but most would be unaware of the numbers being sold off. Our neighbourhood is a cluster of state and ex-state housing built in the 30s, 40s and 50s. All solid homes built of brick and native timbers. Still great houses for those needing a home.
I doubt the so-called new, affordable (cheap) houses these tenants are being moved into will still be standing and in good condition in 50 years’ time.
Is this how we want some of the most vulnerable in our communities to be treated?
Wendy Oates, Hamilton East.
Missing pieces in Palestine story
In his opinion piece about priests protesting the Gaza situation (NZ Herald, September 19), Rev Scottie Reeves noted that in the first two weeks of conflict, 1000 children had lost at least one limb.
The good Reverend did not note the October 7, 2023, raid made by Hamas and Palestinian militant groups that massacred some 2000 mostly Israeli civilian people, including 36 children.
He did not tell us where the same group of protesting priests had been since that incident.
P. Harlen, Mount Maunganui.
Allowing in turtle pests
How on earth have red-eared slider turtles been allowed to be sold in New Zealand? To think that Turtle Lake in Hamilton is full of wild turtles makes me shudder!
Auckland has banned them as one of the world’s hundred worst invasive species, but surely DoC (Department of Conservation) has also banned them nationwide? If these high-breeding pests (400 per female over a lifetime) are destroying our native diversity, what has the National Pest Pet Bio Security Accord been doing over the past decade to 0prevent sales and stamp out this destructive pest?
Has it passionately engaged in educating the public? Does its fancy name belie its actions? If the accord is worried about prosecutions, current owners could hand in their pets under an amnesty which sends turtles back to the country of origin.
Anything is preferable to owners slipping them into rivers and lakes! Further Trade Me advertisements would also be heavily prosecuted by DoC.
How complicated can this be? Surely this growing problem dwarfs bovine emissions in terms of long-term harm? Remember how casual we were about bringing in dear little stoats to kill rabbits? Turtles, by comparison, live for 100 years.
Mary Tallon, Hauraki.
Gaza and Trump
On Al Jazeera I watched the latest outrages in Gaza: starving men, women and children being bombed amid the ruins of what used to be their homes. And then on CNN I saw the sumptuous banquet being given in honour of the one man who could stop it tomorrow if he so wished simply by withholding financial and military aid to Israel.
But he doesn’t. Because this man doesn’t see people, only real estate and potential fortunes to be made.
Ron Hoares, Wellsford.
Amazing analogy
Amazing how fine a bow some will draw to make a point. Reverend Scottie Reeve (what exactly is a “social entrepreneur”?) attempts to correlate the infamous 1981 Springbok tour (now near ancient history at 44 years ago) with his anti-Israel, pro-Palestine worldview.
Well, Scottie, I’m one of the thousands that supported the tour but am also one of the probable thousands that is not anti-Palestine and has no truck with Israel’s military incursions. The real world is not as simplistic as would fit your views.
Mike Newland, Matakana.
Seen but not heard, please
The current crop of increasingly nauseating, pontificating ex-politicians should not need to be reminded that for them the sun has setmany years ago.
The proverb seen but not heard does spring to mind.
Bruce Tubb, Devonport.
Wellington woes
Wellington, where reputations go to die. All Blacks, All Blacks coaches, NZ Rugby, Christopher Luxon, Nicola Willis, New Zealand economy.
Mathew Hooton is right, change National’s leadership now to avoid defeat at the next election.
Fix the All Blacks and stop spending money we haven’t got.
Gary Carter, Gulf Harbour.
Blame game
Nicola Willis is blaming the slump in our economy on “international turmoil and uncertainty”.
I wonder if any of the previous Government’s financial issues could have had anything to do with a certain global pandemic?
Sarah Thompson, Papakura.
Something is growing
It would seem the only thing growing is poverty.
Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.