Nelson Mail

Costly government

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National had us financiall­y stable, but at such a cost to the people. Housing substantia­lly lacking, people living in cars, garages and on the streets.

Hospitals – doctors and nurses run off their feet and in many cases unwell, but still working long hours.

Education in chaos and young people wanting work, but businesses not wanting to employ them because of cost.

Come on, there has been a lot lacking and these are the very basics of living.

We look forward to a real improvemen­t in the next three years and they will need more than that time to make a real impact after what National has given us. questions to truly understand the full capital costs and risks associated to constructi­on of the dam.

At no stage has TDC told us which bores will benefit from 10 per cent of the higher water flow in the river when the dam is used to try to defeat nature and that wont flow into the Waimea estuary.

Nature has delivered a dry Waimea river bed about once every 30 to 40 years since time immemorial.

The dam project financials have glaring areas that appear unresearch­ed and or under provisione­d.

Spending to date on this project equates to theft as no mandate has been sought or given for this work.

As the Environmen­t Court judge observed TDC really has got its cart before its horse on this pipedream in every respect. should acquaint himself with some facts.

First, any percentage less than 50 is not a majority. Neither 44.4 per cent of the vote nor 56 seats in our Parliament, are a majority.

Second, unless he can point us to a legal document that gives to the largest single party the right to form a government, we have to assume that he has an irrational expectatio­n of something that does not exist. Third, it did not take a blogger long to find 30 cases overseas where the largest single party did not a government make, hence, while it may never before have happened in New Zealand, it is well-known elsewhere and not regarded as ‘‘utterly bizarre’’. It is now more than 20 years since a proportion­al representa­tion system was introduced here - perhaps your correspond­ent should refrain from getting so wound up over something that he has apparently not understood for 20 years.

 ?? STUFF ?? Winston Peters made the right decision to go left, says a reader.
STUFF Winston Peters made the right decision to go left, says a reader.

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