Act Party leader David Seymour. Photo / Jason Oxenham
LETTER OF THE WEEK
The expression “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” has never been more apt than Act’s proposal to reform New Zealand’s gun laws (NZ Herald, January 4).
The word “reform” denotes making something better and there’s nothing in David Seymour’s proposals that would improve the current gun laws for the greater good.
The visceral image of Senior Sergeant Paddy Hannan holding an AR15 is both frightening and repellent, which is the appropriate response to a weapon that was explicitly designed to maim and murder enemies during wartime.
That is emotive language for an emotive situation, not helped by a Cabinet paper which stated that shooting clubs, with about 11,000 members, have been described as “largely unregulated” in application of the existing regulations.
If the goal is for the Act/National/NZ First coalition to rewrite the Arms Act and pass the new version into law by the end of the term, then the New Zealand public needs and deserves clarity and transparency. Instead, what we have is a masterclass in “gobbledygook”, exemplified by Seymour stating “the aim is to provide for greater protection of public safety and simplify regulatory requirements to improve compliance”.
Really? The existing legislation (affirmed by all major parties) is succinct and effective and the police are far better equipped to spot potentially dangerous breaches, particularly in the criminal community, than moving the Firearms Safety Authority to, perhaps, the Department of Internal Affairs. Gun clubs and shooting ranges won’t suffer unduly by being denied access to large-capacity military-style semi-automatic rifles, compared to the level of risk in allowing the use of these weapons recreationally.
More of these weapons circulating equals more compliance and oversight and equals more opportunity for human error resulting in tragedy.
Just because we import the irritating but benign traditions of Halloween and Black Friday doesn’t mean we also need to adapt America’s manifestly stupid love of guns. We can fervently hope that we never reach anywhere near their reliance on carrying arms and the approximately 630 mass shootings there in 2023 using semi-automatic guns is a salutary lesson. One which we learned so tragically on March 15, 2019, and we should never forget.
Mary Hearn, Glendowie.
Motoring costs
Recent research in the USA estimates that the cost to motorists of driving on poorly maintained roads is US31c per kilometre. They arrived at this figure by using data from millions of Uber trips showing how drivers behave, slowing down, accelerating away from or detouring around rough road surfaces to determine time losses, incremental fuel costs and vehicle wear factors.
Assuming New Zealand drivers are no different from their US counterparts, this data leads to some interesting local cost analysis.
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) says Kiwis drive nearly 50 billion kilometres a year. More than two-thirds of New Zealand roads are rural, sealed and unsealed, and these are where the pothole problem is worst. If only half of our travel is done on these roads, the cost to the New Zealand motorist is more than $12 billion per year.
Yet NZTA only gets $4b per year in taxes and road user charges to fix the roads, both urban and rural in total. It’s not enough. Do we increase taxes to solve the problem, or just keep paying the hidden cost?
John Denton, Eskdale.
Taupō road criticisms
Regarding Taupō's road layout, how true Lynley Cullinane (NZ Herald letters, January 11).
We long-suffering ratepayers knew from the very start that the shambolic system to which you refer could not possibly work to anyone’s advantage.
And it doesn’t. Everyone finds it difficult to navigate, even if it were not additionally hindered by “speed bumps”. On one point you are wrong - by insulting the average 5-year-old. They would have designed a much more traffic-wise alternative to the old system - which was actually much more user-friendly.
Robert Burrow, Taupō.
China or climate?
It is pointless to talk about defence spending without going back to basics: what is the external threat against which we need to protect ourselves?
There is a lot of talk about an increasingly threatening security environment, but it always comes back to China and its “assertive” role in our region.
China may seek influence in the Pacific, but is this threatening? As a rising economic power, China has a stake in protecting sea routes and maintaining friendly diplomatic ties.
The United States is trying to curb China’s growth by restricting its access to microchips and promoting a military threat narrative. New Zealand is being drawn into this confrontation and it is especially apparent in our capital defence spending.
Four anti-submarine Poseidon P8A aircraft are costing us $2.3b (more if you include operating and housing costs). The price tag reflects the aircraft’s capacity to operate at long distances and its suitability for anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare. New hardware is being chosen to ensure “interoperability” with our defence partners, the US and Australia.
Real security should be achieved by focusing on the urgent regional issues posed by climate change and devastating cyclones, not hyped-up threats.
Maire Leadbeater, Mt Albert.
Weak argument
Jarrod Gilbert (NZ Herald, January 8) has thrown his weight behind Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s weak black-market argument to defend repealing smokefree measures, which would save at least 8000 lives.
Gilbert’s source for the size of the illicit trade (12.1 per cent) is a report commissioned by Imperial Tobacco New Zealand (ITNZ), which includes a disclaimer that it hasn’t been independently verified and shouldn’t be relied on by anyone other than ITNZ.
Peer-reviewed research shows no increase in the proportion of the illicit trade over the past decade, which has remained at 5.4 to 8 per cent of all tobacco consumption - despite increases in tobacco tax.
The answer to black market sales of imported tobacco is to strengthen border control and enforcement - and reduce the value of tobacco by retaining the Smokefree measures. Examples of seizures by Customs don’t prove an increase in illicit trade but show the agency successfully doing its job.
Gilbert’s line that “a bit of bad comes from banning [smoking], too” is false - the law is not a ban and the “bad” is a fiction. Sacrificing a law that would save thousands of lives for political ends is more than a “little bit of bad”, it’s devastating.
Professor Lisa Te Morenga and Professor Boyd Swinburn, Health Coalition Aotearoa co-chairs, Wellington.
What wisdom?
Explanations of understanding artificial intelligence (AI) by Randolph Grace (NZ Herald, January 8) left me completely bewildered and convinced that logic and understanding of humanity flew out the window and into the hands of those computer freaks who spend their lives stroking beloved machines.
Venturing out into the real world where greed and power control most outcomes that affect humanity, we see clearly the damage already created without mathematical equations, those outcomes already playing havoc with our world.
Grace sums up by stating the importance of our need to “wake up” to the need for our collective wisdom to ensure AI’s safe use. When has the world ever shown this?
Emma Mackintosh, Birkenhead.
A QUICK WORD
Thank you for the excellent, unbiased editorial “Body cameras could prove an extra safeguard” (NZ Herald, January 11). All that needed to be said in a nutshell.
Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.
It’s a sad fact that despite all the publicity and advertising, over half of all road deaths (57 per cent in 2022) involve alcohol, speeding or both as contributing causes. When will people listen?
Kushlan Sugathapala, Epsom.
If every boat, launch and yacht berthed at every Auckland marina was sold our broken infrastructure, health, education and housing systems could be fixed overnight!
Bruce Tubb, Devonport.
Here we go again! A motorist pleads guilty to driving under the influence and is let off because he is a sportsman and a conviction would restrict his ability to compete. Further, the judge states that restricting a sportsman’s ability to compete in sports events is too great a penalty compared, presumably, to the crime of risking the death or serious injury of other motorists or pedestrians. I’m not afraid of gangs, muggers, or armed dairy raiders; I’m afraid of sportsmen.
Gerald Payman, Mt Albert.
Air New Zealand advertises “one-way cheap fares” from Auckland to Sydney, Tokyo, Vancouver” et al (NZ Herald, January 10). But how do I get back to Auckland?
Johan Slabbert, Warkworth.
Really loving the wonderful photo entries but today’s “You will go into the water...” (NZ Herald, January 10) is a winner. Reminds me of Norman Thelwell’s books on guidance for young equestrians: “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it swim.”
Barbara N. Barwick, Gisborne.
I don’t know which is worse, driving over an Auckland pothole before repair or driving over it after repair. Any contractor should not expect to be paid for such unbelievably shoddy work.
Graham Astley, Auckland.
I read Professor Grace’s “Conversation” about artificial intelligence (NZ Herald, January 10). Can AI models be made consistent with human values, preferences and goals? Surely we should expect, and hope, that AI will deliver much better results than our fallible human minds? Between 1999 and 2015, more than700 British subpostmasters were wrongly convicted of theft (Wikipedia). Human beings and human institutions went on destroying the lives of these innocent people. Wouldn’t AI have quickly tracked down the real culprit: defective accounting software?
Arch Thomson, Mt Wellington.
Whose idea was it to get rid of the traffic cops? We need them now more than ever, Our police have their work cut out dealing with murders, gang warfare and ram raids etc. We need a separate traffic department to control the idiots in the roads.
V. Hall, Whangaparāoa.
The question must be asked of Wellington. What leaks the most - water or Parliament?
Garry Wycherley, Awakino.
Shock and horror! I noticed a single person in a bus today. This is a new phenomenon and I wanted to report it immediately to whoever runs this service. These buses usually run completely empty round Glendowie. I trust this trend won’t continue as it was quite a shock to me and might lead to many people using this service.
Brian Todd, Glendowie.
Assistant Commissioner Jill Rogers admitted letting two failed applicants into training.