Letters: Warriors defensive woes, voting reforms, David Seymour and dropkicks, passport name-changing

Warriors half Chanel Harris-Tavita looks dejected after the loss to the Gold Coast Titans. Photo / Photosport

Letters to the Editor

Warriors’ defensive woes

Opposition NRL teams scheduled to play the Warriors must surely be aiming their attacks on the Warriors’ pitiful right-edge defences.

Time and time again, our right side has been found wanting, with Dallin Watene-Zelezniak in particular looking as though he just has no idea how to stop his opposing number.

Just look at how easily the bottom-placed side – one of many recently – were able to circumnavigate our defences there, with Watene-Zelezniak left dancing in the wind like a lost child.

Surely our coaches can see our weakness in this area and can bring about positive changes.

It is just too easy for opponents to exploit the frailties we have here.

Alan Walker, St Heliers.

Voting reforms

How are the changes to voting going to make it harder to cast a vote? The election date is announced months in advance, so people have no excuse to not enrol to vote.

Also, by making it illegal to have entertainment or food offerings within 100m of a voting station is just common sense, votes must be cast freely and no inducement should be offered.

It seems the only ones complaining are the ones who use this as an election-day strategy.

Mark Young, Ōrewa.

David Seymour and dropkicks

David Seymour has again demonstrated his gift for insult, this time calling tardy voting registrants “dropkicks”. Such boorish, sneering, self-righteous language, while not surprising coming from Seymour, really shows what a massive dropkick he is.

Brian Dwyer, Welcome Bay.

Passports

It is so hard to understand what the Government is trying to do in changing the order of name on our New Zealand passports. The use of te reo is a source of pride in the unique embracing of our heritage through our original language.

Other countries praise us for it. There are no obvious nay-sayers except certain voters who are dwindling in number as they “get” the unique lustre of “Aotearoa New Zealand”. In that order.

Christine, Northcote Point.

What’s in a name?

I am a New Zealand citizen living in South Dakota. I recently had my New Zealand passport renewed and noticed the Māori word for New Zealand was placed above the English word on the passport. I was somewhat mystified and offended by this change, as I view myself as a New Zealander, not an Aotearoan.

I presume this renaming order is a manifestation of “woke” ideology derived from the previous Government under Dame Jacinda Ardern. I find this form of “virtue signalling” distasteful and not becoming of the Commonwealth country New Zealand is. To the three leaders of the current Government, congratulations are deserved on their sensible and appropriate name reversal on the front of the New Zealand passport.

Quentin Durward, South Dakota, US.

Cost of living

We are currently in Perth and there are five different supermarket chains to shop at, plus a whole host of independent stores. One greengrocer in particular, Spud Shed, is 17 stores strong. Many of these are open 24 hours, offering an exciting shopping experience for the customer.

It is a lot easier to shop around here to keep them honest. Some purchases included red capsicums for $1.75 each, two for $4 cabbages, $5 blueberries, and large 500gm strawberries for only $4.99. Two chips of cherry tomatoes for $3, and a block of Aussie butter for $6.79.

Their in-season Sumo mandarins are magic, but it is not all beer and skittles in the produce world; we spotted our gold kiwifruit for $12.99/kg, and we miss our glorious New Zealand apples dearly.

However, one thing is for certain, our New Zealand grocery retail needs some serious competition.

Glenn Forsyth, Taupō.