Surely we can come up with a less-toxic system of governance, a correspondent says. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Every three years we hire 120-odd people to run our country for us.
Just over 60 of these then form a Government who endeavour to bring about the changes that they promised during their election campaign. Meanwhile, the remaining (just under 60) do their level best to stop
the Government implementing those changes. Remember that these are changes the public effectively requested be made.
How does this make any sense at all? A business run like this would surely never achieve anything and the culture for the workers would be toxic. No wonder we have so many MPs with serious behavioural issues.
Wouldn't it make sense to have all 120 MPs working together to make NZ even better than it already is?
It would require us to grow up and move away from seeing politics as some sort of binary system. Are you "left" or are you "right"? Policy choices are really not that simplistic.
We would be better served by a system where we vote on policy separate to our vote of representatives. We could choose passionate competent people, and then tell them broadly what it is we want them to achieve.
Jason Ludbrook, Castor Bay.
Your correspondent Max Wagstaff (NZ Herald, July 22) is just the latest in a tediously long line of misguided critics of wealth and capital gains taxes. They all claim that such taxes are unjust because money will be taken away from hard-working moneyed people and given to lazy poor people.
First of all, that is what income tax already does.
Second, these critics imply that we all deserve our positions on the financial ladder and so redistributive taxation is unfair. Their idea is that hard work invariably leads to wealth and laziness leads to poverty. This is of course manifestly false - we've all heard of the idle rich and the working poor.
Intergenerational wealth and poverty give the lie to the idea that wealth distribution is meritocratic. Fixing this is one of the reasons progressive taxes are a good idea.
The different kinds of tax - income, consumption, wealth, capital gains, and others - all have their good and bad points. Selfishness is not a good enough reason to dismiss them.
Bennett McElwee, Mt Eden.
This Covid-19 pandemic now has us turning on our own.
Returning Kiwis are just as much "us" as are those already here with resident's permits. Now we are trying to squeeze a "Covid isolation tax" out of them on the assumption that none of them will be struggling financially when they arrive.
Yes, by all means tax those with huge bank balances when they get back, but don't reinforce that social truism, "the rich remain rich because it is always the poor who end up paying".
This Government has been doing well so far, but if they get in next election it is more likely they will be with the Greens than Winston's lot, who are showing little loyalty to the coalition and will be remembered by the "new poor" for having axed "helicopter payments" and ditching any form of capital gains tax.
Dennis Pennefather, Te Awamutu.
Let's keep moving? Keep suggests a continuation. However, the question is how we can "keep" moving, when the country has been brought to a standstill due to endless consultation, committees and reports.
In 2017, the GDP was a rockstar 4.3 per cent. Just before Covid-19 hit, it had slumped to 2.7 per cent. The light rail will not reach Mt Roskill in 2021 as promised (probably never). Less than 10 per cent of promised KiwiBuild homes have been built. Child poverty stats have worsened under this Government's reign. Global warming – the PM's nuclear moment – has seen no action, only talk.
In the words of Jacinda Adern (2017), maybe it is time to "hand over to someone with a plan".
Lucas Bonné, Unsworth Heights.
The Prime Minister received a direct complaint of misconduct against Andrew Falloon and obtained the permission of the complainant to inform the Leader of the Opposition.
The Leader of the Opposition received an accusation of misconduct against Iain Lees-Galloway from a third party and did not obtain the permission of the woman involved to divulge the information. Should she not have done so?
One is potentially a criminal matter and the other is not.
One is above board, the other smacks of dirty politics.
Chris Daisley, Mt Roskill.
I do not understand why National list MP Michael Woodhouse has lost one portfolio but was then given two "important" portfolios by Judith Collins when he held information of private Covid positive patients but deleted it when "clearly there was nothing that I could benefit from and I did not use it".
Far worse, in June he deliberately held back risk-to-life information for 19-plus hours from the Health Minister involving two women meeting with others while (one Covid positive, later both) travelling from Auckland to Wellington.
He put my family's lives and that of every other New Zealander at risk of community transmission, in order to make a publicised political hit in Parliament against the Health Minister, who also holds the electorate seat in Dunedin that Woodhouse has wanted for several elections.
While political hits do happen, I don't remember one that put our lives at risk purely for personal gain.
Hamish Walker and Michelle Boag have gone, Andrew Falloon and Iain Lees-Galloway have gone, but Woodhouse continues receiving his government benefit, paid by taxpayers.
I do not understand how National or any New Zealander thinks that is okay.
J Spencer, Pukekohe.
While the Government was competently managing the worst public health emergency in a century, at least one Opposition MP and party official were trying to discredit the Government by digging to find dirt and attempting to leak it to the media. Unfortunately for them, they were outed and quit in shame.
And what was it that they were trying to leak?
That some Covid-infected New Zealanders returning from overseas had Indian or Korean surnames. The inference being that if you didn't have an Anglo Saxon surname you were not a real New Zealander.
The further inference being that if you were named Singh or Kim you were more likely to be contagious than other returnees.
Not only were those who were caught out for leaking sensitive medical records corrupt, they are racist.
That these individuals thought there was political capital to be gained by publicly spreading this slanted and illegally gained data speaks to a wider issue.
In my opinion, it is that racism in this country goes deeper and further than the couple of Opposition members who were caught out conspiring to leak the names of Covid sufferers.
Patrick J. O'Dea, Papakura.
Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran has demurred at opening our borders to travel to and from the Cook Islands (NZ Herald, July 21).
He suggests that transit passengers (from the US) are the problem and a reason for not opening NZ's borders at the moment.
His example is one of his aircraft operating from the US to Auckland and carrying a sizeable number of passengers who will be in transit here en route to other countries.
That must happen on many arriving flights right now. However, passengers disembarking at Auckland to enter New Zealand are required to go into quarantine for 14 days before they are allowed into this country. Hopefully, this process will continue to obviate further importation of Covid.
Thus the answer to Foran's objection is that only passengers whose travel originates in New Zealand should be allowed to travel to the Cook Is from Auckland (and return). This restriction will obviate the risk of passengers who intermingled on an in-bound Air NZ flight being able to transit to another service to the Cook Is at Auckland
Passengers intending to merely transit at Auckland en route to the Cooks should not be accepted on Foran's aircraft at their point of departure.
Intermingling of passengers on Air NZ international flights will continue to present a risk, however.
Tony Mercer, Howick.
National has promised huge infrastructure to connect Whangārei, Auckland and Tauranga, yet the Auckland Business Chamber is advocating the port be built on the shallow Firth of Thames, which will require billions of dollars in constant dredging to accommodate ever-growing larger cargo and cruise ships.
What then is the purpose of spending $31 billion on road and rail if we are not going to utilise the natural deep water port at Marsden Point?
The Auckland Business Chamber along with the Auckland Council under Phil Goff are putting their selfish needs for keeping profits within Auckland and are not concerned with long-term planning, which will create huge expense for future generations in the maintenance of a port construction within a shallow harbour.
Marie Kaire, Whangārei.
A chicken farm owner mis-represented about 3 million eggs from caged hens as free-range and burned his company's financial records over a two-year period.
Yet, after receiving $870,000 by this dishonest manner, a court sentenced him to only a year of home detention and a $50,000 donation to the SPCA.
I am flabbergasted.
Margaret Bongard, Grey Lynn.
On politics
The question needs to be asked. Come September 19, will there be anyone left to vote for? Kent Millar, Blockhouse Bay.
Seems like too many of our male MPs have been over-focusing on the last two words of the Covid mantra. Gary Andrews, Mt Maunganui.
Is it a fact that the best people to run the country are not available as they are busy driving taxis or cutting hair? Don Robertson, Auckland Central.
As we move toward an election it could be worth reflecting on the kinds of government that are in power in countries/states whose citizens are dying in large numbers. This is not a party choice in September; it's a life and death one. Bruce Rogan, Mangawhai Heads
On Rarotonga
Is there any reason that, in the short term, flights to Rarotonga could be through the domestic terminal, that is, treat it as the same as a flight to Christchurch? Derek Paterson, Sunnyhills.
On trees
The police should be protecting the trees from the developers, not arresting the people trying to save them. Come on Auckland Council, do something right. M.Thomson, Devonport.
On Antarctica
Mr Peters, can I please be your friend? I too want a taxpayer-funded trip to Antarctica. If it makes your decision any easier, I also have dual citizenship. Mike Roland, Ōrākei.
On leadership
Not to diminish the sterling efforts of the medical profession but, as evidenced globally, their efforts are futile without astute leadership at governmental level. Carolyn Campbell, Herne Bay.
The road is closed, and motorists should follow diversions.