Vegetables and fruit are good, but don't do the complete job, so we should not be rating them over dairy products and red meat.
G.R. SCOWN
Whanganui
Wellbeing bonds
As Simon Wilson commented (Chronicle, February 5), the PM's speech at Waitangi was "big on rhetoric". Not that I needed this observation to read with sceptical eyes, "We are here to acknowledge the past, and challenge the present".
Okay, let's do exactly that. But in reverse. On January 13, the New Zealand Gazette published a Notice of Approval in accordance with the Crown Entities Act (2004), incidentally passed under a Labour-led government. Permission had been given to Kainga Ora (formerly KiwiBuild) to borrow from sources other than the NZ Treasury, including dealing in derivatives (financial fairy dust).
The two Labour Ministers responsible are Grant Robertson, Minister of Finance, and Dr Megan Woods, Minister of Housing. The amount approved was $7,100,000,000 along with permission to borrow more as required.
Readers are sure to raise their eyebrows when they learn the name of the securities being offered on the debt markets: "Wellbeing bonds"! Certainly the well-being of the speculators is assured, long-term public debt yielding steady returns in decades to come as our mokopuna struggle to pay the interest.
All this is in stark contrast to sentiments about acknowledging our past. Especially coming from a politician who wants this nation's history taught in schools while refusing, along with her colleagues, to honour their first prime minister's brave decision to fund State Housing from the newly nationalised Reserve Bank.
With minuscule interest and with modest rents soon flowing back into government accounts, the houses were soon paid for without long-term debt. But, as history has proved, M.J. Savage was short on rhetoric, preferring real action.
To quote the great 20th-century Quaker economist, Kenneth Boulding: "What has happened is possible". Just need more Kiwis to agree.
HEATHER MARION SMITH
Gonville
Charging shortfall
It is all very well John Milnes telling New Zealand to buy an electric car and save the planet, but the charging infrastructure needs improving.
In Norway, where the electric-vehicle revolution has taken off, half the cars on the roads are EVs. The airport in the capital, Oslo, has more than 700 type-2 charging plugs for electric cars and a charge is free. In England all the BP petrol stations are being fitted with 100KW-DC fast-charging plugs.
New Zealand charging stations have a maximum charging rate of 50KW-DC and most can handle only one car at a time.
I have a Jaguar I-Pace that is 100KW-DC charging capable — which, if available, would make my trip between Whanganui and Auckland much shorter in time.
If someone else is charging their car, that's another 40 minutes to wait.
The Ford Motor Company in America, about eight weeks ago, released a new SUV car named Mustang. It has the Mustang pony emblem on the bonnet. It is fully electric.
The internal combustion engine is going the same way as the dinosaur, the horse and cart and the coal-fired steam engine. The petrolheads need to understand this.
RICHARD BOULD
Westmere
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