How can sex identity affect healthcare budget?

The other week I copped a bit of flak for challenging the need for gender identity questions in the upcoming, or any census. What seemed to escape people is that a census is to help governments deal with issues of financing various departments and such. Whether you deem yourself to be any one of the letters are out there to describe what you “feel” you are is surely immaterial. For instance, if you are a gay man who identifies as female, you still have a prostate gland that sometime in the future may have to be dealt to. If this idea of deciding what you identify as is not a problem then let’s not ask vehicle owners what car they own but rather which they would like to. Then the bureaucrats can figure out what to do with all the flash cars the country now has.

John Capener, Kawerau

I read with amazement the front page article ‘Road Tolls Sought to Cut Traffic’ in Saturday’s Herald. Who in their right mind believes that charging a small fee would stop someone from using the motorway? It has been obvious for years Auckland’s traffic woes are the result of a poor public transport system. Why can’t those overpaid bureaucrats accept an efficient rail, bus and ferry system is the only answer to the problem. Our roads are clogged with articulated trucks inefficiently carting goods that should have been on a railway carriage, or cars occupied by a single occupant. Who would prefer that to a comfortable bus or train? Who would battle the nightmare traffic and pay exorbitant parking fees at the airport if they could be efficiently and comfortably transported by rail or bus? Auckland city’s public transport has been ruined by government and local body plutocrats for years. Get an efficient public