Letters: Whether Bloomfield acted illegally is irrelevant; it worked

Legally, we won't have a team if [director-general of health Ashley] Bloomfield broke the law. A second wave [of Covid] is then much more more likely.

Idiots will flaunt their rights, confidence will fail, businesses will not have the team supporting them, and nurses, doctors and paramedics will lose confidence.

Experts in law are not experts in crowd dynamics; herd instinct will prevail and the police will be overwhelmed by lawlessness. Supermarkets will run out of stock, medical centres will close, testing for Covid will take weeks, hospitals will max out, patients will die before a bed is free, mortuaries will be swamped ... Martial law will be imposed as a last resort.

Whether Bloomfield acted lawfully is irrelevant; it worked. If we do it Trump's way and promote rights to freedom, the virus will win. Covid-19 doesn't care about rights, the law or lawyers. It wants people closely interacting, without washing hands or wearing masks. It abhors a lockdown and loves lawyers who give idiots an excuse to behave badly.
Steve Russell, Hillcrest
Top bosses don't earn their pay

Phil Goff is unimpressed with the $775,000 salary of the Watercare boss being higher than the chief executive's. Not surprisingly, the average wage earner/ratepayer is also unimpressed and angry with the obscene salaries paid to most of the upper echelon of business and public service.

Paying these salaries does not necessarily equate to quality of decision-making. These top salaries must be reined back as no one "earns" what is now being paid.

We are all part of a society. Covid-19 has shown that underpaid cleaners, healthcare workers etc. are doing just as critical a job for societies' wellbeing and prosperity as the overpaid bosses.
David F. Little, Whangārei
Labour alone a better option

It is looking increasingly likely that after this election Labour may well be able to govern alone.

Although it is acknowledged that seven weeks is a long time in politics, in my view, this would be a better option than a coalition with the Greens, as their policies appear to be potentially sending us backwards.

Labour has already announced it wants to increase rural incomes by $44 billion over the next decade, whereas the Greens want to close down farms and refuse to permit dams for irrigation schemes which would help increase farming incomes.

The Greens also want to introduce a wealth tax. Sadly, the Greens are not prepared to learn from what has happened overseas, where similar taxes have resulted in a flow of wealth to offshore tax havens.
Remember, it's not what they are telling us that we should worry about, it's what they are not telling us that should concern us.

Vote wisely, and remember, a strong opposition can be a good balancing tool, especially with us potentially facing a grave recession.
Mike Baker, Tauranga
Proximity cards

To find a person or people who have been in close proximity to a person infected with Covid-19 is a huge, time-consuming job, very often with a poor result.

What about getting all New Zealanders the Proximity Card, as proposed by Sam Morgan?

Sure, it's $10 for each card, sure the likelihood is that not all of the population will wear the card as strictly required, but it should be a big help in most inquiries.
Harold Thomas, Orewa
TV news needs to lift game

I have long thought our TV news channels only need one newsreader not two.

At present, one will read a sentence then the other one the next sentence, then back to the first and so on. There is a strong bias to local news, which is understandable, but superficial coverage of world news.

For world news I watch BBC, Al Jazeera or CGTN, all of whom use one presenter and these presenters are well informed, well researched so can also carry out in-depth interviews with correspondents, politicians, economists.

Our TV News channels need to lift their game.
Alan Milton, Cambridge