Britain's King Charles III wears St Edward's Crown during his coronation ceremony in Westminster Abbey. Photo / AP
Letter of the week: Time to question Crown’s relevance
As the coronation of a King or Queen only comes around rarely, I took the opportunity to view the TV screening. It was certainly a great spectacle but why are we involved in such an outdated institution which has no direct bearing on governance of NZ? After viewing, what came across was the interdependency of the Church and the Crown, and that church philosophy depends upon the Crown supporting it if it wishes to grow or even continue as an institution, though the religious aspect is a dubious one in my humble opinion. This then raises the question as to why we continue to support such an outdated institution as British royalty and bow our heads to these people who have only reached this status by an accident of birth. Their relevance to New Zealand and its cross culture of many races should now should be questioned. We are no longer a backwater of a British-populated colony. Has not the time come to have a national consultation on our ties to royalty and to consider a move towards becoming a republic?
Bruce Woodley, Birkenhead
Odd case of intolerance for royalty
Shaneel Lal’s opinion (“Time for the outdated monarchy to go”, Herald on Sunday, May 7) absolutely bristled with anger and indignation towards the royal family. Lal works tirelessly for queer rights and indigenous rights, and is leading the way for change. What they have achieved is outstanding. So it was disappointing that Lal showed scant respect, or understanding, for another group of people, who — through no fault of their own — are born into the royal family.
Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth
Kingmaker roles
The political pollsters tell us that the groupings of parties are currently split neck and neck for the election with smaller parties possibly having a kingmaker role. Pollsters usually ask between 1000 to 5000 opinions which is about .0006 per cent of the 3.871 million eligible voters. About 3.86 million voters were not asked. They tell us there is a 2-3 per cent margin of error. Some pollsters have admitted previously that there could be a 10 per cent margin of error some times. Based on the unfulfilled promises, policy bonfires and non-performance of the Labour/Green Government of the past five years, together with their current stumbles, I suggest this October’s election is much more clear-cut than the pollsters, journalists or commentators are allowing and that Chippie will become sawdust at this election.
Gary Carter, Gulf Harbour
Carbon tax answers
In answer to Jock MacVicar’s question of last week: There is no worldwide carbon tax. It would not make sense because of the different purchasing power parity, and Russia, China or India would not agree anyway. Carbon tax is a national tax. It is meant to simulate the climate cost of emitting carbon, and assign these costs to those who cause them. This is a fundamental requirement of capitalism but never enforced by Governments (just look at forestry slash and overfertilising). Ideally, the carbon tax would be used to mitigate the cost of climate change but knowing our Government, it would disappear into some black hole, never to be seen again.
KH Peter Kammler, Warkworth
Value in royal family
Shaneel Lal certainly paints on a broad canvas in criticising the British monarchy from poverty-stricken Brits to its cost, that it’s undemocratic, to invoking the non-existence of God. The royals have links to almost 600 charities. Business valuation consultancy Brand says their contribution to the British economy far outweighs their cost and that their annual cost per head to the British public is about £5.50 per annum. Shaneel then goes on to say that the royals don’t deserve the respect they receive, and people should not bow to them. Shaneel fails to see the history behind all this as the British monarchy traces its roots back to the early Middle Ages and a lot of people see good reason to respect this institution as the current royals are evidence of this longevity and this is what they bow to. The fact that the existence of the royal family is undemocratic is precisely true as it does not rely on this as a reason for its existence. Queen Elizabeth II certainly didn’t, neither did King George VI as the royal family gained respect when they stubbornly stayed in the Palace during the Blitz. A lot of people also see the royal family legitimised by a God who, say, does exist because to deny this is also to deny the art, literature, music and architecture created by many — Westminster Abbey being one — who were inspired by that same God. If Shaneel does not believe in that God but admires these arts, then that amounts to modern-day hypocrisy.
Bernard Walker, Pāpāmoa
Logging firms leave disaster
Recent events have shown that the Gisborne District Council and most local bodies in New Zealand including the Far North and Marlborough District Councils and their consultants are out of their depth when giving approval for resource consents for harvesting logs. It is beyond belief that logging companies and forestry land owners were not required to lodge multimillion-dollar bonds to avoid the disaster that has evolved. Like mining companies they should be required to restore and rehabilitate the land to the condition it was in before planting operations began. The Government, via the Ministry of Forestry, should put a moratorium on all logging until a proper robust process for scrutinising logging applications has been prepared and the logging companies and forestry landowners have cleaned up and paid up for the current mess.
Bruce Tubb, Devonport
Govt misses key metrics
Our Finance Minister will be revealing his new budget this coming week. But according to knowledgeable pundits, this apparent saving he considers providing is mainly due to previously allocated funds that haven’t been spent, due largely to poor management. While on this topic, the Government has failed in most of the important metrics. Our education continues to fall in achievement rates while truancy steadily increases. The justice portfolio seems to prefer soft options. Ram raids and gang confrontations continue daily. Our health sector is increasingly struggling but the new organisation that we were told would fix this issue, is still sorting itself out. Our grocery costs are 12 per cent up on last year, against an embedded inflation level of around 7 per cent and of which the Reserve Bank has also failed in its target of 3 per cent. The Government seems to continually punish our farmers and agriculture, ignoring the fact that it is this sector that can earn additional overseas income to offset the huge negative trade gap that we have, which is getting worse monthly. And still Government pronouncements continue as to roading or rail infrastructure in years well into the future. You have to wonder if any ministers in this Government are actually experienced or good enough to do the job that we, unfortunately, elected them for.
David Hallett, Mt Maunganui
Hosking’s call superfluous
Mike Hosking’s call for performance pay for teachers is superfluous as it already exists in the form of a grading system but it fails to raise overall pay to attract more into the profession. Teachers are rewarded for qualifications and teaching ability by steps in the salary scale and gaining positions of responsibility. The system may have changed since my time. Even then it depended not only on results but how you got on with senior staff, including the principal.
Geoff Barlow, Remuera
He faces two charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.