We as parents should not have to battle the system to access services for our disabled children. Parents without the ability to fight the system result in the child losing the support they need to be a valuable member of society.
I hate to think of the prospects for future generations as the system becomes more punitive towards our disabled children.
Susan and Kevin Warrington, Papatoetoe.
Blatant disregard
Colleen Brown highlights the ongoing cost to the lives of people with disability and their families that is likely to result from the changes to the use of disability funding recently announced through an agency Facebook page.
The imperative to make savings for tax cuts probably overrides all other considerations, including any understanding of the real situation for people with disabilities and their families.
Time to call out this blatant disregard for the life chances of those less able that is evident in this Government’s policy efforts to support the more able. It is ableist discrimination, an issue of power and equality that views disability as illness, incapacity, and dependence irrespective of the likelihood that, as it is integral to the human condition, most of us will experience the disabled state for longer and shorter periods in our lives.
Margaret McLean, St Johns.
Scrap tax cuts
People are not stupid. They realise that the promise of tax cuts was only an election bribe to help get into power.
What ordinary folk want is for the Government to provide high-level services across education, health and police. They also know these things cost money and know their taxes go towards fixing these things.
Year after year, the Scandinavian countries are recognised as being happy with their situation, and yet they are by far the most highly taxed. This is because they receive brilliant service in schools, hospitals etc and they know their governments need money to provide that.
So can the Government please scrap the proposed tax cuts and get on with fixing our roads, rail and ferries and providing top-level service in health, education and policing. This is what most people want.
Glen Stanton, Mairangi Bay.
Sailing away
How enlightening to read about the ridiculous constraints placed on SailGP within Lyttelton Harbour. Moreover, how the layers of bureaucracy add enormous costs to hosting events in New Zealand.
The harbourmaster, with his lack of reasoning not to allow international teams to practise, demonstrates the childish attitude of many ignorant New Zealanders in charge of their little empires.
More reporting on iwi, DoC and how they rule (read ruin) international events for New Zealand spectators is required. Let’s start with publishing where and to which select minority all the iwi’s income and funds go.
New Zealand, you are fast becoming a backwater and eventually, the world will turn its back on you. Say goodbye to SailGP.
Keith Moran, Stonefields.
School lunch bargain
The school lunch programme needs to continue - for some children, this may be the only meal they have each day.
There are so many benefits - observing what a nutritious meal looks and tastes like is a major influence in young lives that, hopefully, they take forward into their futures.
We know that serious schoolwork is impossible for children who are hungry: better attention spans and better behaviour in the classroom result from adequate feeding.
We know there are parents in these times of economic struggle who cannot provide a nutritious lunch for their children. If nothing else, can this programme be a bad thing when we consider the ballooning rates of childhood diabetes related to being overweight from high-fat, high-carbohydrate junk food without essential vegetables and fruit.
Cost out the care of a lifetime of diabetes and its complications. Surely, the school lunch programme is a bargain in comparison.
Marie White, Pukekohe.
