Letters: Why are so many things ‘unacceptable’; Hooton’s column; and the Greens

Public disorder on the streets. Photo / New Zealand Police

Letters to the Editor

Power to make changes

If I had a dollar for every time I heard a hand-wringing person say “this is unacceptable”, I’d be a rich man.

Vulnerable children continuing to suffer – this is unacceptable, they say, and yet it continues. Gang shootings in the streets – this is unacceptable, they say, and yet it continues.

Overflowed emergency patients await triage in ambulances – this is unacceptable, they say, and yet it continues. Increasing numbers of people sleep in doorways in our biggest cities – this is unacceptable, they say, and yet it continues.

In truth, it appears only to be unacceptable to those who are powerless to make the changes. Those who have that power must have already made the decision that all such things are indeed acceptable.

Otherwise change would already have taken place.

Where to from here for the rest of us?

Nigel Meek, Raglan.

Column was a revelation

Well, Matthew Hooton’s column (NZ Herald, August 2) was a revelation!

Finally, acknowledgement that the “yeah-nah” years were an economic disaster, noting that only Labour Governments (Savage, Lange) deliver radical reform, conflating the Keynesian response to Covid-19 with mismanagement and revealing that the National Party’s fawning on its narrow base precludes consideration of serious policy alternatives.

However, radical reform is essential and zero company tax is worthy of pursuit, but within a much broader scope. Government revenue must come from somewhere – GST, capital gains, dividends, and wages, he says.

He ignores the consequences of a laissez-faire corporate environment! Who wants New Zealand to be a gig economy? Who wants a widening of the have/have-not gap?

Serious restrengthening of commerce, fair trading and fair employment legislation plus heavy sanctions against inevitable corporate greed might mitigate the risk of reducing corporates’ current (20%) share of total tax to zero and deliver greater productivity and prosperity.

Dr J.P. Moriarty, Paraparaumu.

Less reports, more action

Yet another report on the child protection system.

A 2022 review by Dame Karen Poutasi following the death of 5-year-old Malachi Subecz made 14 recommendations which Aroturuki Tamariki/the Independent Children’s Monitor has recently been tasked with reviewing.

Among the key points raised in the review process has been the apparent lack of urgency to implement change, but more important is the finding that Oranga Tamariki is not sufficiently focused on the safety of the child. If not them then who is?

Findings of 30 reports in as many years on the prevention of child abuse have failed to keep the five children killed in New Zealand every five weeks safe, so it looks like it’s up to up to each one of us to be vigilant in protecting our tamariki . This is a community problem in which we all need to be involved.

Glennys Adams, Ōneroa.

Lack of empathy

Nicola Willis’ sneering comment about public service job cuts – “fewer people wearing lanyards on Lambton Quay” – shows the complete lack of empathy that anyone in this Government has.

Regardless of the reasons for the job cuts, the people concerned will be hurting and this cheap jibe can only increase that hurt.

We have heard recently of Parliament being a toxic environment. This comment only goes to show that the toxicity starts right at the top.

Greg Cave, Sunnyvale.

Agenda is ‘off-track’...

Bruce Cotterill’s take on the Greens (NZ Herald, August 3) was accurate in every sense.

The co-leadership incumbents have an agenda that is way off-track indeed; they are agitated not about the environment anymore.

Their agenda is to agitate and antagonise over inequality from a purely socialist platform.

Whilst the current leadership has this perspective, the environment they so cared about will suffer and decline.

John Ford, Taradale.

... or perhaps not

Your columnist Bruce Cotterill seems to think that concerns for the health of the planet can be divorced from the activities of the people on it.

The green movement realised a long time ago that the major polluters are large corporations whose decisions are driven almost solely by the drive to maximise profits.

Some in the Green Party have also realised that the Labour Party is not game to tackle this problem and it will require a Green Party-led coalition to make real progress.

Such a government has to carry out all of the functions of government, including fighting for social justice.

Bob van Ruyssevelt, Glendene.

Not soaring

Audrey Young’s predictable hagiography of the National-led coalition Cabinet contains one key sentence. Her adoration of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon proclaims he “has hands-off management of coalition partners”.

This really means that he appears to separate himself from the anti-Māori actions of the minor parties in much the same way as the Health Minister delivers hospital passes to his deputy when challenged over controversial decisions being made in his area.

Luxon does not soar with “hands-off” impunity above Act and NZ First and their heinous policies but in fact is utterly complicit with them, as history will show to his discredit.

Peter Beyer, Sandringham.