Letters: Council debt transparent

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Harry Brasser's comments on my letter of November 12 misrepresent everything that I have said.

I did not give a "fine rating" to our council. The credit rating agency Fitch did. I did not talk about "transparent reporting and financial disclosure". Again, I was simply quoting Fitch, whose words they are.

He insinuates that our council tried to hide the costs of legal representation from us. Perhaps he should consider that that information was subject to a confidentiality agreement between council and a litigant, and so needed a LGOIMA request to have it released. By the way, has the litigant, a frequent fighter against council spending, decided to pay it back I wonder?

Harry Brasser is correct, he and I do not need an accountant to comment on what our city debt will be. That is easily found in our annual plan, a prime example of how Fitch came to their conclusions; the "transparent reporting and financial disclosure" of our council.

[ABRIDGED]
JOHN PAKES
Ngongotaha

Hollywood and New Zealand used to have censors, appointed by society at large, to prevent overt sexuality getting on to the TV and movie screens or books.

But no, we said, that's dumb: let's have explicit sex on TV, on the movies and books too. It's natural!

People like Patrica Bartlett warned us that it would end in disaster (she campaigned against pornography many years ago).

No, we said, it'll be great!

Now, though, watching the constant succession of rapes and indecent assaults flood through the news channels, I wonder if perhaps Patricia was right?

Maybe showing pornography on every TV channel, at the movies and in most of the adult fiction library books is a bad idea?

The Bible, even, expressly tells us that people who do porn won't get into the new Heaven, described in Revelation.

GJ PHILIP
Rotorua