Are we working hard, or hardly working? Photo / Supplied, File
We are all in this together with our Covid-19 times and our $60 billion debt that we do not wish to burden our future generations with.
We have employers crying out for staff and we urgently need overseas people to come in and fill the gaps, as we have a low unemployment rate of just 3.2 per cent.
Yet what is not counted in the unemployment figures is, we have 1 in 8 New Zealanders on a benefit, or 12.5 per cent of our available workforce.
New Zealanders are generous people and we willingly want to help our sick and vulnerable but not those that choose to have benefits as a lifestyle.
Imagine getting shipwrecked on an Island and while most of us built shelter, hunted food and water, some chose to sunbathe on the beach and swim, but turned up at mealtimes. That wouldn't last long, would it?
I think our Government and future governments need to address this situation as six out of seven working New Zealanders want some help from those who can work but choose not to, just as if we were shipwrecked.
Mourning too late
On April 13, 2019, my 56-year-old husband died suddenly of cancer. A memorial with his ashes was to be a year later but this couldn't happen due to Covid.
On April 13, 2022, it will be three years and my daughter and her partner of 10 years could be there from Sydney.
We are all vaccinated, have been locked down in Auckland and Sydney, and have done our best.
Her vaccinated Australian partner of 10 years applied for a visa for seven hours so he could fly in to be with us and share our grief.
The border exemption comes in at 11.59pm, April 12. His plane arrives at 5pm as there are few flight choices. The visa was denied.
Is this the kindness that we are told about in New Zealand every day? I think not.
Margaret Clapham, Mt Eden.
Flatlining healthcare
A response to animalus politicus and now Herald commentator Steven Joyce (Weekend Herald, March 19).
A "cure" for the health system is now probably a short/medium term ideological
impossibility. In particular the chronic shortage of nurses.
For decades, management of this area has been driven by high PC and low intelligence.
Under the apprenticeship type system, third and fourth year ("student") nurses carried much of the basic nursing load.
As I recall, staff nurses looked after ward and office work/rostering, etc. Sisters
looked after departmental organisation and (along with matron) and having choice
words with student/junior doctors who got a bit "uppity".
Conversion to a "profession" has left insufficient people to carry the basic nursing
load. Ideology closed mental hospitals.
Health has long been starved of funding. It started with post-war financial exigencies, rationing.
It has then been upped to crisis levels with the actual actioning of new-right ideology
from mid-1984. Given the new-right ideology, there seems only long-term hope in the form of robotics.
Ken W J Lynch, Northcross.
Carry on, nurse
New Zealand nurses are in short supply (Weekend Herald, March 19). One way to value and retain our Registered Nurses would be via reductions in their student loans or with cash bonuses.
Removal of student fees for trainee nurses would encourage more into the profession. This could be linked to a time period of employment within New Zealand once they had completed their nurse entry to practice programme.
Mary Adams, Mt Eden.
Nice backspin
Auckland Council proposes a "golf investment plan" in yet another consultation. After retreating in 2019 from a more transparent plan to build housing on six publicly-owned golf courses, the council has pivoted and created a 25-page document spinning a new story.
Head to the FAQs which note that options include "selling all or part of the land".
So in actual fact, we probably have a "golf divestment plan".
Chris de Lautour, Westmere.
Driving imperatives
John Capener (Weekend Herald, March 19) asks how clever am I, and others, feeling now?
My question is, as a tradie, what choice did I have?
There is an electric ute on the market with a tad over 300km range, empty. Load it up or tow a trailer that range drops by 50 per cent. So how clever would I feel with an electric ute that is not fit for purpose?
When there is the option of a ute or van with at least double that range, fully loaded, then I might be interested. And that is why I and others "spurned the rebate on electric utes and vans" because in the real world there still is not a viable alternative to the diesels.
Steve Montgomery, Karaka.
Blank Facebook
Diana Wichtel's commentary (Canvas, March 19) on social media use resonates with me this month. Having given up Facebook for Lent (Catholic alert), I have been staggered at the frequency of pings I hear on my phone. A birthday last week was particularly noisy.
My question is, do I do a massive catch-up at Easter or let 40 days go by, remaining forever uninformed about my social media lockdown?
David Tennent , Wattle Downs.
The Commerce Commission should be renamed The "let's big note ourselves then faff around and achieve nothing" Commission. Steve Dransfield, Karori.
John Capener (Weekend Herald, March 19) wonders how clever owners of diesel- and petrol-powered vehicles are now feeling. Probably the same as before. The modern internal combustion engine is both fuel-efficient and produces extremely low levels of pollution. A J Petersen, Kawerau.
I'm feeling just fine about my decision, thanks. I didn't use any taxpayer money to buy a new vehicle when others require it for basic necessities; and I didn't add to our nation's electricity demand knowing that every incremental unit is generated by burning the dirtiest coal in the world. Carl Bergstrom, Glendowie.
When will the PM announce that her programmes for delivering a transformed society are complete or is worse still to come? Gavin Baker, Glendowie.
In reply to Pauline Alexander (WH, Mar. 19), Putin needs help from Belarus and Syria as too many body bags going back to Russia may start to make his little '"special operation" in Ukraine look like a war. Lee Cramp, Takapuna.
Putin is just the latest to join the "Hall of Infamy". It seems that evil has no bounds. Ray Gilbert, Papamoa Beach.
So Putin wants to meet with President Zelenskyy as part of any peace talks. Why? To give him a Novichok hug? Jim Flewitt, Warkworth.
Value the nursing workforce in remuneration which will retain them, rather than export them to countries where salaries there value the work of a nurse. John Ford, Taradale.
No histrionics, no aggressive fist-punching, no racket bashing, no referee abusing, no balls hit in anger. Thank you, Ash Barty, and all the best for the future. Richard Alspach, Dargaville.
I do wonder if the Prime Minister had personally engaged with the protesters, everyone would have gone home much sooner. Tiong Ang, Mt Roskill.
Here is an announcement letting everyone know that we will be digging another hole so we can look into it. Richard Carey, Manly.
Maybe other suppliers having logistics problems should talk to the confectionery people. The Easter bunny has had no problems getting to the supermarket shelves. Jock Mac Vicar, Hauraki.
OPINION: Kem Ormond is busy with onion seed trays & preparing the ground for strawberries.