"I am an Aucklander. I love this place. That said, things are not as they should be." Photo / 123RF
I am an Aucklander. I love this place.
That said, things are not as they should be. Journalists, commentators, correspondents, people everywhere, are raising scarily similar misgivings. The city has tangled ambition with capability.
The Auckland Council lacks transformational leadership, governance, accountability, and is not able to keep in step with the business world of today.
Auckland Transport shares these shortcomings with its parent, yet has started a staggering array of projects.
How long these will take and how they will operate when finished, is beyond imagination.
NZTA is doggedly applying time-worn thoughts to what they have decided to work on.
Modern traffic flows are demanding beasts. Taming them calls for fresh thinking and innovation. All three examples are inward looking and happily pursuing objectives of their own choosing, with little empathy for what their work is doing to their fellow Aucklanders.
We know these problems trouble cities around the world. Well, New Zealanders are respected for the ways we fix things. We find solutions.
How do we persuade a sliver of the talent and energy already amongst us to switch some focus towards helping these people? These organisations are too vital to be allowed to wither. If capability is lifted and kept intact, the ambitions we all hold for Auckland will not reside entirely in dreams.
Dave Haire, Orakei.
Recent publicity has highlighted the difficulty faced by low-income families as the cost of fresh produce escalates.
There was once a time following World War II when money was scarce, jobs few and life a constant struggle.
To compensate, gardens flourished and fruit and vegetables produced in abundance, sustained families, any surplus gifted to friends and neighbours. This is in stark contrast to today as we witness the decline of the vegetable "patch".
It is ironic the majority of our state rental properties occupied by many on low income contain large sections conducive to the creation of a vegetable garden, once established providing some sustenance and in the process stimulating personal achievement, positive for financial and mental wellbeing.
Recently appointed Health Minister David Clark states the solution to the dilemma, "raise the minimum wage". That's commendable but alone is no compensation for innovation and creation.
P.J.Edmondson, Tauranga.
I greatly admire the willingness of the New Zealand Government to accept some of the refugees currently living in squalor on Manus Island. I am shamed that the Australian government stubbornly refuses to consider this proposal.
It may be a naive question, but is there anything to stop New Zealand from sending a ship to Manus Island and inviting the abandoned refugees to board ship and de-camp to New Zealand? Surely the PNG government would not obstruct such a move?
Given that the Australian government has abandoned any responsibility for these refugees, what legal obstacle is there to such a move?
Vincent Burke, Unley SA
When will the Government learn it is there to govern this country, not blame the Opposition?
An example recently, when Associate Transport Minister Julie-Anne Genter, after a horrific weekend road toll, said "the cause of this high death rate is the old National Government".
Figures show that during the nine years from 1999-2008 of Clark's Labour government, the country had 3946 road deaths. For the nine-year period 2008-2017, under the Key/English administrations, the country had 2910 deaths.
Maybe the Government is so used to being an ineffectual Opposition they have got into the habit of blame. As they say: "Old habits die hard."
A. D. Kirby, Papamoa.
They say always wear your seatbelt, don't speed, stay off your cellphone, don't drink and drive, headlights on 24/7 - but no mention of the deteriorating conditions of our roads, disintegrating faster than they can be repaired. Huge truck and trailer rigs pound the roads nights and day, chopping our roads to pieces. SH1 from Taupo to Auckland is a disgrace, SH27 into and around Matamata is diabolical and dangerous.
A learned MP authorised bigger and heavier trucks (perhaps for more RUC taxes) and now we are paying the price.
Flaking tarseal, pot holes, patches and band aids having little effect. So instead of increasing the speed limit to 110 on some roads it should be reduced on other third world-class roads to 80km/h - meaning fewer accidents.
Raymond King, Taupo.
I express my dismay that Auckland Transport were thinking of doing away with the "train manager" or what were known as "the guards". I travelled a lot on the old system when there were guards on all passenger trains.
They walked through the passenger carriages all the time, controlling noisy passengers and anyone misbehaving. They controlled noisy radios and feet on seats.
The persons controlling the new trains did none of this, some never walked through the trains at all. This was their downfall, but if they had done their jobs properly there would be none of the complaints I mentioned.
It would be impossible for the train drivers to control passengers in the carriages or on the platforms except with mirrors. Talking to some of the drivers, the last thing they wanted was mirrors.
The system we have now is very good and does supply a good service. Ticket inspectors do a great job in keeping the travelling public honest and should be given the authority to control passenger behaviour also.
Murray McElwain, Manurewa.
If shops and businesses in New Zealand fear Amazon and other international IT access businesses why don't they make their service, environment and destination so tempting and holistic that no one would ever consider any other option?
I have grudgingly moved to online shopping as mostly the shopping experience here is hell on earth. Customers are subjected to loud, bass-type music, sterile shops in shopping malls that call for urgent therapy.
This morning I phoned Spark with a simple query. It should have been a quick phone call between my other commitments.
I waited 53 minutes, during which time I had to hear lyrics that told me: "It Seems Like Nothing Matters", "Talk to Me", "Everybody's Sleeping", "Nature Answer Me". I hung on, in disbelief, just to see how bad it could really get.
I'm not 90 or anywhere near it, but what do older people do when they are told to go on line and "chat" or use an app? Where is the respect and where is the humanity? Sterile businesses - you really do have to fear Amazon and their cousins.
I recently, on three occasions, travelled for a few hours on the Northerner. What a class act. Super-friendly staff who enjoyed making the journey enjoyable, clean windows, clean toilets and just one great Kiwi experience.
That journey made me so proud to be a New Zealander. These businesses that "care" (your business is important to us), but don't care - take a leaf out of Kiwi Rail's journey.
Veronique Cornille, Devonport.
In a recent interview, ex-UK PM Gordon Brown expressed the view the Brexit negotiations would shortly reach a crisis point at which the British public would realise it would not get what it voted for. He concluded that those who voted to leave the EU might then think again.
Rather, the British public might well ask its politicians why they had such little regard for Britain's sovereignty that they allowed the country to get tied into an agreement from which it could not extricate itself and those who voted to remain might well recognise the position into which they had been placed and want to get out at any cost.
Gerald Payman, Mt Albert.
The legal action by Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters to drag reporters into his efforts to discover who informed them of his being overpaid his pension strikes at the heart of our democratic system.
The freedom of reporters to protect their sources, except in cases of national security in which lives may be at risk, is essential.
By entering the political world, Mr Peters' private affairs became a matter of public interest.
As a former Political and Business Editor for the NZPA and Evening Post, I can vouch for the creed that source protection (and credibility of the information on which subsequent reports are based) is for reporters a vital element in the conveyance of public-interest information.
How else, for example, would the world have known of the wrongdoings committed under Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandals?
Prime Minister Ardern may view it as a private matter for Mr Peters. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the position he has taken demands a statement of Government position on the use of the legal process by one of her ministers to force disclosure by reporters going about their lawful responsibilities.
If the Government accepts that such action by a politician can be justified as no more than an exercise of their personal right, boundaries will have been crossed with chilling implications for media freedom.
Bruce Kohn, Hataitai.
At least one house was hit, emergency crews seen going door-to-door.
