If you did not vote, do not complain
I would like to offer a bouquet to the approximately 40 per cent of the eligible registered voters who voted in last weekend’s Tauranga byelection but a brickbat to the approximately 60 per cent that did not vote.
Just remember if you did not vote, don’t complain as your chance to do that was last weekend when all you had to do was turn up at one of the many polling booths, which would have taken you no longer than 30 minutes.
The byelection result was basically a disaster for Labour when compared to the 2020 result.
Maybe the result would have been different had Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern visited Tauranga, even once, over the campaign period as other party leaders did.
Hopefully, there is a significantly greater turnout for the 2023 election as there has never been a better time for a change of direction, but meanwhile congratulations to the successful candidate.
Mike Baker Bethlehem
Plate recognition needed
I have noticed a huge upturn in the number of unlicensed and therefore unwarranted vehicles around the area in the past two years.
I also note on television that the Aussie and UK police, along with lots of others I’m sure, use number plate recognition to immediately stop vehicles that are unregistered, or where the owner is unlicensed, and have the power to have them removed from the road.
Why does this not seem to be done in New Zealand?
The only use of the technology I am aware of is for overparking in some Auckland suburbs.
If a law-abiding citizen was to have an accident with these vehicles, our insurance would insist that we — or our insurer — pay for the damage.
I have seen work vehicles with 2017 registrations showing on them, and I don’t think that Covid lockdowns can be blamed as it is possible to register online.
I think that many such vehicles are driven by unlicensed drivers, which would mean that they get removed from the roads at the same time as the vehicles.
Alister Blair Tauranga