For several days the world was on edge as tensions built between America and North Korea. We were told by every news source that a powerful American naval force was steaming towards North Korea with the intention of showing that President Trump's patience was at an end.
There was no naval force steaming towards Korea. Was this deliberate misinformation? Surely we, the public, deserve better than to be told lies, especially when so much is at stake.
If North Korea is as unstable as we are led to believe then why poke them unnecessarily.
James Gregory, Red Beach.
Real heroes
I know news media love a personality to hang feel-good stories around but, while deserving of praise for her persistence and clarity of exposition, Ms Bartlett isn't the main story in the settlement of the pay equity case. The real heroes in the case are the union and its lawyer.
They must have known that the chances of success were small and that it would require substantial investments of time and money to succeed yet they persisted. Then, the union accepted the Government was genuine in its desire to settle the principle, not merely making token changes for the worker involved, and put in the time and effort over many months to reach a final position which encompassed real changes for not just their members but for all low-paid workers.
A real thank you and congratulations are due from all low-paid workers to the Service and Food Workers Union, now part of E tu, and its lawyer, Paul Cranny.
Jervis Cleary, Hataitai.
Home care too
It is great to see a government after much persuasion give deserved pay rises for workers in aged care. The current pay rates are 15 years out of date as, when I was working in the comparable job of banktelling at that time, I remember similar rates of $15 to $16 an hour for someone with a decade of experience.
I was caring for my mother-in-law which included cooking dinner and taking it to her home every night for four years and taking her to every outing or appointment, meaning I had to sacrifice my own earning ability because I was unpaid. It seemed my husband could well take care of that on librarian's wages.
I don't believe assistance should be means-tested on a spouse's income, an individual is entitled to be paid.
Susan Margaret Verran, Takapuna.
Making money
Like Don Brash, I read Brian Gould's piece about banks creating money with interest. According to Gould, banks "make their money ... by charging interest on money that they themselves create". Don Brash thinks Brian Gould is "not alone in peddling this nonsense". Gould is not alone. The Bank of England has produced a paper called, "Money creation in the modern economy", which sets out to explain, "how the majority of money in the modern economy is created by commercial banks making loans".
Many modern economists are likewise actively "peddling this nonsense". Professor Steve Keen at the Kingston University in London can be found online explaining the process. How does Brash answer these peddlers?
Michael Laurie, Mangere Bridge.
Arrival museum
Our waterfront Maritime Museum could grow to become Terry Dunleavy's "Arrival Museum". He should be applauded for his concept of a museum that records the bad as well as the good, with the bad being past government decisions.
This museum should cover every arrival from the first Polynesian waka to the latest international flight landing. So it needs a shady gallery dedicated to the arrivals of citizens who used the donation-to-political-party route to semi-secret citizenship with a tableau that includes a fat German, a man on China's list of economic criminals and an American billionaire who became a citizen with minimal actual residence in New Zealand.
Bob Atkinson, Birkdale.
Deterrent needed
Our local dairy owner was recently violently assaulted and robbed. The frenzied attack resulting in him being hospitalised. He was carrying out a service to the community by running a legitimate business. Our present so-called justice system makes no provision for physical punishment to be inflicted on the person who commits an assault no matter how badly or viciously it is done.
When there was capital punishment in New Zealand there were about four murders a year, now it is a weekly occurrence. The deterrence has gone. People who commit violent crime should be deported if they are not New Zealand citizens. We don't need or want them here.
Arthur Moore, Pakuranga.
Changing sponsors
Murray Mexted's article is surely tainted by the tinnies that sponsored rugby "back in the day" when he applauds the Canes' team culture and castigates SBW's sponsorship stand. The rugby booze culture that sponsored Mexted has been rejected by All Blacks management and the alcohol forum.
Ethics and rugby have clashed countless times, often involving sponsors. SBW is a team player with ethics that sponsors cannot buy and the Blues finally have some ethical backbone.
Steve Russell, Hillcrest.
National's faults
While some hyperbole is to be expected in an election year, mere shibboleths, empty rhetoric and gross exaggerations mislead rather than to enlighten. "National's mantra is money," writes Stephen Barnett. He then accuses National of focusing only on "protecting and increasing the wealth of those who are already wealthy". This cannot be true as there is an insufficient number of "already wealthy" voters to keep National in power.
Maybe the truth is that National focuses on being frugal with taxpayers' money. Since there are millions of taxpayers, that may explain National's focus in this regard, and, consequently, the popularity of its policies.
Mr Barnett also accuses Messrs Key and English of being "dim disciples of selfish free market policies". First, the core free market policies now in place were introduced by Labour in the 1980s and they continue to follow those principles.
At the core of every human's heart lies self-interest. I don't see a long queue of home-owners lining up to sell their homes for less than their market value. And I haven't seen any advertisements in the property pages advising potential buyers that the house is for sale only to someone with a proven ancestry going back generations in New Zealand.
Dr C.G. Marnewick, Bucklands Beach.
Obvious solutions
It's an Australasian mystery but some obvious remedies for what needs to be done may never happen. To prevent sharks and crocodiles killing people you need to cull crocs and sharks. To avoid houses being razed by bushfires you need to be allowed to clear trees away from houses. To reduce congestion on Aucklands roads you need adequate parking for park for park and ride to be effective. To drastically reduce the need to build new prisons you need to decriminalise marijuana. Oh well.
Mel Davis, Mairangi Bay.
Transport plans
Auckland Transport's "2012-2041 Integrated Transport Programme" report is a let-down. It does lots of fiddling with existing infrastructure such as widening current roads and improving access and has an over-emphasis on public transport and cycling.
Future estimates for public transport and cycling are unrealistically high, and for roads, unrealistically low.
Auckland's population is forecast to reach around 2.5 million people by 2041. Another 450,000 vehicles will be on the city's roads in the morning peak in 2041. We need more roads. The report acknowledges congestion, but has no answer. Auckland will increasingly be one of the most unliveable cities around.
James Burnett, Pokeno.
