Letters: We fail the Ghandi test when it comes to treatment of our most vulnerable

Eden Park's proximity to public transport services and key arterial roads make it an easy-access venue for big events in Auckland.

Letters to the Editor

How do we treat our most vulnerable?

Mahatma Ghandi once said, “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.” This Government seems unable to treat our most vulnerable with compassion.

The $14 billion tax cuts gave our most needy families no financial relief whatsoever. Measures were put in place to ensure lower benefit increases over time. It tightened the provision and amount of food grants by MSD. Its programme for funding for Food Secure Communities ends in July 2025, resulting in some foodbanks and charities facing potential closures.

But the emergency accommodation policy of being able to refuse assistance if MSD deems the applicant has contributed to their homelessness is perhaps the most callous. The majority of our most vulnerable suffer from mental health issues, drug and alcohol addictions, and a large proportion are in their predicament after having been abused in state care.

Rosemary Cox, Kuratau.

Trump’s historic tariffs

Donald Trump claims that the results of his tariffs will be “historic”.

He is hoping that will be in a positive way but the term “historic” has a number of nuances. The great depression was “historic”. So were the two World Wars and the Holocaust.

It just confirms that Phil Goff was right, the man in the White House has no understanding of history, nor, it appears, of the English language.

Greg Cave, Sunnyvale.

President right about one thing

The tariff wars are a result of the Trump economic promises to make America great again. America was disappointed in President Barack Obama and felt that his promises failed to eventuate, or to improve the lot of the lower-paid workers, and so we see the reaction to his failure with the current Trump regime.

Whether the new tariffs do what Trump intended by “making America rich again”, after decades of neglect and shuttered factories and small town unemployment and drug use and escalating crime, remains to be seen.

However, Trump was correct in one sense, that America had very low tariffs on many imported goods. Only time will tell if his policy is the way to better and improve the lives of the lower-paid and unemployed population of his America.

Bruce Woodley, Birkenhead.

Gaza a litmus test

Last Saturday, we marked Palestinian Children’s Day at the Britomart Square Auckland CBD rally, remembering the thousands of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces.

The following day, TVNZ showed horrific footage of 15 Palestinian medics shot dead by the Israeli military while responding to an emergency. One of them was filming the rescue until the moment he was killed. The footage provided damning evidence of the atrocities.

In January last year, 5-year-old Hind Rajab died alone in Gaza, trapped in a car with her dead relatives. Her calls for help were recorded. The medics sent to save her were also killed.

Not all Israelis share their Government’s ideology. Many have bravely spoken out.

Gaza is a litmus test for our morality and for whether our Government and media are still capable of telling the truth.

Palestinians deserve the same rights, freedoms, and safety that we take for granted.

Dana A. Patterson, Oneroa.

Swarbrick’s threat response

The fact that Green MP Benjamin Doyle received death threats over his Instagram posts is disturbing. However, the fact that Green Party leader, Chloe Swarbrick, saw fit to ask Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to “shut down” Winston Peters and accuse Peters of “fanning the flames of hatred towards the rainbow community” seems to be deflecting the problem.

Swarbrick’s prime concern should have been directed at those who made the death threats in the first place as this is a very serious crime. Surely this is the heart of the problem.

As Green Party co-leader, Swarbrick should have referred the matter of death threats against Doyle immediately to the police and not gone off on a tangent by discrediting Peters in defence of the rainbow community. Peters did not commit a crime. Those who made death threats did.

Or maybe Swarbrick was reluctant to get the police involved given her colleague Tamatha Paul’s recent disparaging comments about the ineffectiveness of the police.

Bernard Walker, Mt Maunganui.

Hard to beat Eden Park

Over the last 40 years I am well into triple figures in games attended at Eden Park.

Correspondent Reg Dempster (Herald on Sunday, Apr6) is right to say that rail access is great with Kingsland Station literally right across the road, unlike the proposed waterfront sites which are over 1km from Britomart.

However, I’m sure if he’d been there over 100 times himself he’d have noticed that it is also at the confluence of a number of major arterial roads - Sandringham, New North, Great North, Dominion and St Lukes - as well as being very close to the Western Springs motorway interchange which can quickly take you towards the North Shore, South Auckland, West Auckland and Auckland Airport.

As far as transport links are concerned, I think you’d struggle to find a better spot in Auckland.

John Christiansen, Mt Albert.