Letters: How the taxpayer helps those who make it big

A reader writes that if a business owner has employees, 'the taxpayer paid for their education, the taxpayer pays for the roads that staff use to get to their place of work'.

Letters to the Editor

Those who praise the ingenuity and creativity of wealthy people, whose success they believe to be “self-made”, might ponder the support system underlying that success.

If they have employees, the taxpayer paid for their education, the taxpayer pays for the roads that staff use to get to their place of work, the taxpayer pays to provide care for any health problems that might keep them away from their work.

The taxpayer provides a host of services to all of us, that enable us to become the intelligent capable people/workforce we are.

The new National MP James Meager talked about his humble beginnings in a state house but failed to mention which government’s policies provided that house to his solo mother at an affordable rent, and that the Government he is now part of is reluctant to do the same to help others in her position.

All citizens including all employers have benefited from public investment and it would behove them to show appreciation by willingly contributing to the cost of all those amenities and services by paying their fair share of tax.

Instead, those who deny the importance of public assistance in their own lives tend to support governments that promise to help them make the least possible contribution and indeed exempt them, leaving it up to others to pay.

Susan Grimsdell, Auckland Central.

GST watch

With the Government looking at new sources of income for an economy in deep recession and any new income streams some distance away, it might have a look at increasing GST which will give an immediate and permanent boost to its income.

However, although this should be done immediately in this election cycle, to recover from the backlash from the electorate before the next election, a discussion should really be held to ascertain whether this is a necessary step at this time.

Of course, as in the past, if the Government decides to actually increase GST, they will not give us advance warning.

John Robertson, Mt Maunganui.

Swimming stalled

Another summer, another year of beaches and waterways closed for swimming due to faecal contamination.

This is a national disgrace for a country that markets itself to the world as being clean and green. More like unclean and brown.

R Howell, Onehunga.

Three Waters

Peter Beyer makes a very good point about the demonisation of Three Waters.

While groups like Hobson’s Pledge and Groundswell whipped up populist hysteria about Māori input, the incoming Government was able to use this as an excuse to trash the policy and return to the unsatisfactory status quo.

We still need a better water management system, and as he points out, many councils were more than happy to accept central government assistance with funding.

Instead, we have a government which is shoving responsibility for this eye-wateringly expensive public amenity on to cash-strapped local councils.

Public good? Who cares? We now have an unholy mix of regular central government interference in local government combined with a hostile attitude to local decision-making, and a withdrawal of support. I fail to see how the public will benefit from this ugly standoff.

Vivien Fergusson, Mt Eden.

T-shirt fuss

Why is there a fuss about the police confiscating a 12-year-old’s T-shirt that had a Black Power-type insignia on it?

The majority of New Zealanders have been wanting police to get tough on gangs and we are now seeing this start to happen.

The youth was wearing the T-shirt in public which is against the law, and the blame for that rests firmly with the adults running the Kia Kaha Boxing Club. They should have ensured that all young members understood what was allowed under the new law, and what wasn’t.

That the youth was referred to Youth Aid may make the difference between him falling into gang life or following a law-abiding pathway.

Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.

Speed limits

Our best year on the roads in a century. Would that have anything to do with lowering the speed limits Simeon?

Geoff Leckie, Flatbush.

Covering up

Great to see so many people, in your photo of Mission Bay, sensibly covered up from the sun’s rays. Message getting through, hopefully.

Jean Goodall, Matamata.

Offshore benefits

The strategic adviser, John Nash, for the IRD is being disingenuous when he says that information on the money laundering that happens in New Zealand (Herald, Dec 30) has been lost after a computer upgrade. This is not probable and would be easily found by a forensic analyst. In the 21st century knowledge does not just vanish, even if he says so.

The current drive to ascertain who are the beneficial owners of trusts is now being held up in the United States, the United Kingdom, and of course New Zealand. Not knowing who owns trusts is very beneficial for both tax evasion and money laundering.

The New Zealand Government attitude to these problems is bizarre, and now we have legal, online, offshore gambling being advertised on TV, discreetly of course, but what a great way to hide money.

It is very sad that New Zealand was run for six years by a fiscally incontinent Labour Government, and now we are returning to the secret squirrel policies of John Key. Money once again talks!

Neville Cameron, Coromandel.