Auckland's port from the entrance to the Waitemata Harbour. Photo / Edward Rooney
On Sunday morning there were nine container ships waiting in the Hauraki Gulf for an empty berth in Auckland. This is a dreadful indictment of those who manage the Port of Auckland.
The problems with the new automated system must lie with Auckland Port. The
administration's attempts to blame a shortage of straddle drivers, as if that also is not due to faulty management any way, surely falls short.
The main problem is a total lack of governance. The owner, Auckland Council, either can't or doesn't want to put any pressure on the port administration. The port acts on its own without any semblance of an active board, which would otherwise require efficiency, an adequate dividend flow to Auckland citizens and service to a good half of New Zealand's population.
If any another argument is needed to send the port's functions north to Whangarei this must be it. And the sooner the better.
John Potter, Takapuna.
I am really disappointed with the irresponsibly soft approach to drugs by Labour, Greens and Act. They have allowed pill testing at festivals this summer and look to broaden these laws even further.
Their hope to save young lives is commendable. However, surely a better approach is to have sniffer dogs at each entry point to such festivals and any other places where people are prone to use dangerous drugs?
More money should be spent on training sniffer dogs and deploying them in all places of concern, including schools. Simple. Lives saved, right message sent.
David Kidd, Tauranga.
If Labour MPs think raising the top tax rate to 39 per cent is merely tweaking its pre-election promise not to raise taxes, because 98 per cent of taxpayers will not be affected, that promise is false while tax thresholds remain frozen and all income taxes continue to increase.
Taxpayers have suffered real tax increases each year since thresholds were last adjusted in October 2010, to offset the GST increase from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent.
In tax year 2011/12, tax on the average wage of around $58k was 17.965 per cent. By tax year 2019/20, tax on the average wage of around $74k (now in the top tax rate) was 20.729 per cent. That 2.764 per cent increase times $74k = $2045 additional tax on the average wage — or a total income of that amount.
But for that additional tax, Labour's pre-Covid 2019/20 $3 billion budget surplus would by my reckoning have been around a $3b deficit.
Those on the average wage since 2011 have paid, in 2020 dollars value, around $14,000 more tax than if thresholds had been properly adjusted. And will continue to increase until they are.
If Labour's policies require more tax, voters should be told before they vote.
Kenneth Lees, Whangarei.
Contributor Kay Weir (NZ Herald, December 4) criticises Australia's role in the standoff with China, sympathetic to that country's smear campaign of our Tasman neighbour. She states "Australia is falsely parading as a guardian of justice in the world along with America" and refers to "US war crimes".
We might instead revisit history and rediscover in the past 100 years the US and Australia have been at the forefront when combating global injustices with the sacrifice of so many lives, to ensure the privilege we hold, to exist in a peaceful Western democracy, a luxury coveted, yet deprived to so many.
In all our interests it is imperative China and Australia restore harmonious relations at the first opportunity.
P. J. Edmondson, Tauranga.
How could anyone believe the [cash drop promotion] event in Aotea Square was a good thing? It was a potential disaster.
A crowd of desperate people, fenced in a small space and believing free money was going to rain down on them, was never going to be a good thing.
I was in Aotea Square, along with many other grandmothers taking children to the ballet, and witnessed this event.
How could Auckland Council not have evaluated the risk factor? When people are desperate, hungry, and needing money, things can get out of hand quickly and they did.
Men on platforms hurled paper and pretend money on the heads of the crowd, who tried to grab the money. The company claim there was real money mixed in with the trick money. Did anyone get any real money?
Heather Tanguay, Glen Eden.
Having spent several hours navigating a clunky and unhelpful website to register for managed isolation, the first available date is February 17, 2021. Trying to speak to a human seems impossible without experiencing a circular automated call system that simply hangs up on you.
I eventually found humans after long, expensive calls from overseas, only to hear what I suspect, by their accents, is an off-shore call centre that couldn't answer my questions anyway. The irony is I am arriving from a place with even less Covid than New Zealand. I would be taking up space and potentially catching it from my neighbours in the facility who arrived from countries where Covid is endemic.
David Brown, Melbourne.
I attended the prizegiving for a secondary school last week and what a celebration it was. In a year of challenges for all schools this school demonstrated some remarkable achievements.
We were entertained with musical items from the very proficient school band. There were rousing hakas and photos of a number of successful school activities including rowing, athletics, and a school musical.
Individual effort and achievement was recognised at all levels but there were two highlights for me. There was a 100 per cent pass rate for Pacific Islanders in NCEA and 94 per cent pass rate for Maori. What an achievement. Further, there were a number of scholarships awarded to individual Year13 boys to study at universities here as well as at least one overseas scholarship for a student to study at Boston University.
Helene Kermode, Epsom.
As a Papamoa ratepayer, I welcome the dismissal of the council. It is hypocritical of them to claim this is undemocratic, as unpopular decisions have been made without reference to ratepayers.
A prime example is the foisting of four bins on us. This is an additional expense and creates problems of storage. Awarding the contract to a Chinese company will also impact business profitability and create unemployment.
There seems to be a vehement anti-car policy, exemplified by a wide and superfluous median strip along a section of Maunganui Rd. Ironically, narrowing this road will make cycling more hazardous. The money could more usefully have been spent on repairing poorly maintained existing roads.
Ray Gilbert, Papamoa Beach.
I am not surprised Queenstown is bereft of tourists due to their greedy prices. There is a lack of wealthy overseas tourists but surely by charging an affordable price, their accommodation could be filled with NZers who have possibly never been to the South Island let alone Queenstown.
Empty accommodation means no revenue or jobs and possible business closure. Discounted accommodation would at least provide some revenue with staff taking a slightly lower wage in order to keep their job. Queenstown cannot expect ordinary New Zealanders to pay top prices when only a very small percentage of the population earn over $180,000 per annum.
Marie Kaire, Whangarei.
How can 335 people be shot at when a highly broadcast policy statement from our Prime Minister, supported by an incredibly expensive buyback, was going to remove all illegal firearms from the market ?
It was certainly a perfect excuse for citizens who no longer had practical use for a firearm to turn it in at very favourable prices. Not so sure about folk with nefarious intent.
Robert Burrow, Taupo.
On gifts
It was great to see Mike Hosking and Jacinda Ardern exchanging Xmas presents. Needless to say Adrian Orr's face will not be on my face mask AGAIN this year. Reg Dempster, Albany.
On politics
Rather than Rawiri Waititi challenging to be a pebble in the shoe, wouldn't it be more fitting for a politician to say let's remove all pebbles so we can walk together? R Cluley, Mt Roskill.
On EVs
NZ lags behind in the fossil-fuel morph to clean mobility. In the US, all 450,000 school buses will be electrified by 2030. Let's go hard and become an EV leader, as one of the richer countries on earth with plenty of local power. Rob Buchanan, Kerikeri.
On construction
On sites in NZ, why isn't it legal to prefer to hire permanent residents — and in a ratio of no more fully qualified tradesmen to labourers? And are all building inspectors at Auckland Council qualified tradesmen? Yvonne Sutton, Northcote.
On alcohol
So today is "Crate Day", a misguided celebration of binge drinking. That seems to epitomise New Zealand's problematic relationship with alcohol. Alexandra Barratt, Hamilton.
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Former All Black and All Black Experience General Manager, Ian Jones and Sherson Willis Director, Trish Sherson join Ryan Bridge for the daily panel.