Letters
Plus Caption Competition, Quips & Quotes, Life in NZ and 10 Quick Questions
As the old chestnut of superannuation’s affordability in its present form returns to the National Party agenda ( Editorial, March 25), a couple of other questions occur to me. Can we afford MPs’ perks and chief executives’ huge salaries and bonuses in their present form? Can we afford to have so many MPs? And what’s the bet pensions for MPs and judges won’t be affected by any increase in the age of oldies’ Super entitlement.
Once again, the oldest among us are under attack. And so are younger people, who have little prospect of buying their own home, thanks to Government inaction on housing. Child poverty is rife, as is a degree of pensioner poverty. Meanwhile, many MPs own at least two houses. Perhaps the real question should be: can we afford this Government any longer?
Carol Worthington (Lower Hutt)
I fully support the editorial view on superannuation. Such nationally significant social issues should not be at the mercy of petty party politicking but be resolved by an all-party coalition.
Isn’t this an occasion to use the strengths of MMP? Many major issues are immediately derided whichever party dares to raise them. Surely politicians are mature enough to sit down together and rationally discuss important issues and make decisions without point scoring?
Political parties should revisit their mandate to govern and pull together when important social issues such as superannuation are being discussed.
I am rapidly losing faith in all political parties.
Madeleine Price (Christchurch) LETTER OF THE WEEK
Political consensus is the best possible solution for sustainable Super, and what a great pity it wasn’t achieved in 1974. That is the year Norman Kirk’s Labour Government introduced the New Zealand Superannuation Scheme, only for it to be replaced by the National Government’s National Superannuation in 1977. Today, Labour’s scheme would have been worth about $300 billion.
A couple of decades later, we were given another chance when Michael Cullen set up the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and KiwiSaver. He then went on to pay down public debt so the country was in relatively good shape to weather the global financial crisis.
The present Government used the financial crisis as a reason to stop contributions to the Cullen Fund, which has cost us a further $20 billion.
And KiwiSaver has been watered down, too.
Now we are told that
New Zealand Super will be unaffordable at age 65 to those born after 1974 – the very people Labour’s policies were designed to support.
Peta Barker (Whakatane)
Nobel economics laureate Sir Angus Deaton writes in his book Puzzles and Paradoxes how some notions are “ill-posed and insoluble”, which is how I see the proposal to tinker with our superannuation puzzle. Given that employers are reluctant to take on older workers and technology is shrinking the number of jobs, it seems to follow that … this is the part where puzzle becomes a paradox. Won’t extending the qualifying age mean even more older workers chasing even fewer jobs? I doubt even Deaton could figure that one out. Perhaps the proposal is ill-posed and insoluble.
Michael Dally (Levin) SO AVERAGE
I’m sure no one wants to be “average”, but it is a necessary tool for numerical studies (“The tyranny of average”, March 25). We are all individuals when born, and most would like to pursue their passion. But often we have to support ourselves and a family. This article is a classic example of discourse on the obvious.
Hamish Walsh (Devonport, Auckland) MONEY FOR WATER
We are told to not be concerned about gifting our pristine artesian water to multinationals because it makes up only 0.000002% of our annual water resource ( Politics, March 25). It’s unfortunate for us that the oil-rich nations don’t have the same generous approach to their natural resource; we probably don’t consume even 0.00002% of their pristine artesian oil, but we have to pay dearly for it. Surely what’s good for the goose is also good for New Zealand.
Michael Roberts (Nelson) US MIGRANTS’ PLIGHT
As a New Zealander of 26 years (having emigrated from the US), I usually enjoy Joanne Black’s perspective on her experiences in Washington, DC ( Back to Black). However, I was disappointed in her comments on undocumented immigrants in the March 25 Listener.
She explains that undocumented immigrants must bear some responsibility for their own difficulties because they “broke the law only in the hope of making a better life for [their] kids”. Indeed. Who doesn’t want to give their children a decent life?
Black’s apparent lack of
empathy for these children whose parents may be ripped away from them is stunning.
She blandly states that on any given day perhaps only a few parents of undocumented children may be picked up and jailed pending deportation, but they are the few among a few million. She might better heed Mother Teresa’s advice – “Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time.”
If New Zealanders engage in negative portrayals of undocumented immigrants in the US, it is not drawing too long a bow to worry that we will be seeing an expansion of antiimmigrant rhetoric here.
Susan Jacobs (Napier) SWEET TIMING
I am writing to thank you for your article on carbohydrates (“The fault in our carbs”, September 24, 2016). I had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and given Metformin, which made me ill. Then the Listener with the weight-loss cover story arrived and I discussed with my doctor if I should try the blood-sugar diet. He agreed that I should.
By January, I was back to normal blood-sugar readings, had lost weight and found a whole new way of eating. Your article came at just the right time.
Karen Lowe (Burwood, Christchurch) SHAKING OFF THE SHAKES
Ruth Nichol perfectly states the dire problems faced every day by essential-tremor sufferers ( Health, March 18). I have had the condition since age eight, so, now aged 70, am a lifelong expert.
What the article does not mention is a ground-breaking new treatment that is not available in New Zealand, but has been approved by the FDA in the US and is used in many other countries. It is catchily named MRgFUS, which stands for MRI-guided focused ultrasound – is a non-invasive treatment to destroy the rogue cells in the thalamus causing the problem. Benefits seem to be the avoidance of surgical risk and extended recovery time in hospital compared with deep-brain stimulation, and huge cost savings. The disadvantage, according to my much-appreciated neurologist, is that if it is not done right, it is not reversible.
I am willing to take the risk, and with help from neurologists to guide me to the right shop, hope to get it done overseas sooner rather than later. There are 82 of the required machines operating in the world, two of them in Australia. Why can we not have one here?
Michael Peake (Opotiki) PREFERRED VOTING SYSTEM
The Maori Party’s decision not to contest the Te Tai Tokerau electorate seat in the general election will reduce split voting, the “divide and rule” aspect of the first-past-thepost (FPP) system for electing electorate MPs that frequently results in questionable outcomes.
Currently, 26 MPs in the
71 electorates were backed by less than half of the voters. With 50 list members, 76 out of the 121 MPs were not democratically elected.
Labour unseated Mana Party leader Hone Harawira in Te
Tai Tokerau with 45.2% of the votes. Crucially for National, Peter Dunne won Ohariu with 37.5%, and David Seymour’s 45.1% won Epsom.
The democratic remedy is to entitle voters to express their first and second preferences for candidates. The two with the most first-preference votes are then allocated their second-preference alternative votes (AV) from ballot papers on which the first-preference vote went to an unsuccessful candidate.
Failure to adopt AV is an impediment to all democracies.
Kenneth Lees (Whangarei) TRAINS OF THOUGHT
KiwiRail made the decision to replace its old electric locomotives with diesels ( Editorial, March 18) because our major customers have told us reliability is the key to getting more freight onto rail, and for every tonne of freight shifted by rail there is a 66% emissions saving over road. Rail is also significantly more carbon-efficient than coastal shipping.
Rail is only a tiny greenhouse-gas contributor – KiwiRail emits just 0.2% of New Zealand’s total. Shifting to the latest diesel technology will increase that only a fraction more – the equivalent of one daily return train journey from Auckland to Tauranga. Put another way, the shift away from the small electric fleet will increase New Zealand’s greenhouse gases by 0.014 of 1% a year.
Yet the payoff has the potential to help New Zealand reach its Paris emission targets. That is both far-sighted and responsible. KiwiRail made the decision because it is simply the right thing to do.
It is important to note that KiwiRail carries about a quarter of our exports. That strategic importance to the economy is where the editorial argument – that the country is ill-suited to rail and its net benefits are few – also comes unstuck.
Yes, public investment is required in the rail network, just as in the building and maintaining of roads. But the payback to communities, to our tourism industry and to the growth of the economy is significant and growing.
It is incorrect to state that rail fails on both economic and environmental grounds. In fact, it stands head and shoulders above other forms of freight transport on both and the KiwiRail board’s decision to move to a more reliable
and efficient single fleet does nothing to change that. Peter Reidy
Chief executive, KiwiRail (Wellington)
Having ratified the Paris Climate Agreement, New Zealand is obliged to significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in order to meet our stated reduction target. This will be challenging and the transport sector has a major role to play.
Annual carbon dioxide emissions from the transport sector have grown about 45% since 1990. KiwiRail’s decision to replace electric locomotives with diesels will further increase these emissions.
Given our enviable high share of renewable electricity generation, encouraging the electrification of the country’s transport fleet (including buses, motorbikes, cars, small trucks and trains) is the sensible way to proceed if we are to follow the long-term aim of many countries to make the transition to a low-carbon economy over the next few decades – starting from now.
Ralph Sims
Director, Massey University Centre for Energy Research (Palmerston North)
I wish to draw your attention to two analyses of the economic performance and strategic options for rail, published by the now-closed Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation, of which I was general manager from 2008-13. The first of these was funded by a Treasury grant, the second by the institute’s members to inform debate on the efficiency of the country’s transport networks. Both reports drew attention to the weak economic case for rail in New Zealand.
So, it is not the case that the analysis has not been done – what has been lacking is the political courage to act on the recommendations in a timely manner, thereby preventing the huge losses borne by taxpayers in forgone spending on other state-funded activities such as health and education.
Bronwyn Howell
School of Management, Victoria University of Wellington
HARD-TO-TAKE CURE
I hate spiders but am unable to learn about the “cheap, effective cure” ( Psychology, March 25).
As I turned the latest Listener’s pages – I will read the contents page first in future – I glimpsed the photo at the top of the column. This was so traumatic I had to close the magazine for some minutes to recover.
If the aim was to help people overcome their phobia, it would be preferable if the object of the phobia was not shown in all its ghastly glory. I realise “flooding” is one technique – or used to be – for curing phobias, but I am not a fan. Sue Wright (St Heliers, Auckland)
ON YER E-BIKE
Peter Griffin ( Technology, March 4) is put off buying an electric vehicle because of the capital cost and because he’s sensibly organised his travel needs so as not to need urban car use.
If you want electric assistance for short-range personal transport, an electricassist bike is the way to go.
For under $3000, you can have a vehicle with a range of 30-100km that provides door-to-door transport, reliable journey times (not affected by congestion or searching for a park), takes up minimal storage space and can provide you with optional healthgiving exercise.
Okay, you may have to worry about the weather, but in New Zealand it rains about once a month on average during commuting time.
Alastair Smith (Aro Valley, Wellington)