Dinosaurs in politics, media, workplaces
THE Cretaceous period ended millions of years ago and yet dinosaurs still walk among us. These dinosaurs cannot cope with the idea or practice of cogovernance or the notion that our waterways need better approaches to care for them. Some dinosaurs don’t understand that if they want people to work in major tourist destinations, there needs to be affordable housing.
Other dinosaurs lead opposition political parties and don’t do their homework about programmes that are already in place to get young people into work. Other dinosaurs shriek that ineligible people are receiving the cost of living allowance when they provide no evidence whatsoever. They are colluded with by the media, who never ask for any proof and neglect to suggest that if ineligible it should be donated to a foodbank or gosh, actually returned. There was never going to be a perfect way of delivering help to those who need it. However, these dinosaurs would never approach the issue of the wealthy finding ways to hide income to avoid paying tax. Funny that.
There are also dinosaurs that exist in the mainstream media who think it is acceptable to constantly interrupt and be rude to a female prime minister during interviews but drool over anyone who fits in with their rightleaning ideology. And there are dinosaurs in workplaces who don’t understand that their staff need reliable equipment to do a good job as in the shocking state of that available to firefighters. The dinosaurs running for local or central government are easily identifiable. In my opinion, I don’t think we should be voting for them. Dinosaurs identifiable elsewhere will need other strategies to consign them to history.
Lou Scott Kenmure
Storm in a teacup
I WAS shocked at the repeated claims by Nicola Willis that Labour has paid out the living allowance to dead people. What a storm in a teacup. Most people will be aware that the first thing you do when someone dies is close their bank accounts and if they’re on a benefit (including the pension) tell Winz they have died. There are other steps you do too. I think it shows a degree of ignorance of how the real world works when Nicola Willis keeps making these untrue comments. All she needed to do was check with a bank and they would have told her that there are no bank accounts kept open for dead people for that money to go to.
S. Libeau Invercargill
Three Waters
MS Ardern’s Government intends to seize control of Three Waters assets across New Zealand. The NZ Taxpayers’ Union recently commissioned a legal opinion (Franks Ogilvie) on the draft legislation and had that said opinion reviewed by a prominent QC, Gary Judd. The full opinion of the intended legislation is damning. The issue is with ownership and what that actually means in NZ. Most Kiwis know full well what ownership means and it is clear that the Government knows that and has thus attempted to ‘‘redefine’’ the word. The legal opinion suggests that the Bill has been ‘‘calculated to deceive’’ and to ‘‘confuse councils and ratepayers with false statements’’. Gary Judd QC comments in his review of the opinion ‘‘when all the lying statements are put together, as the opinion does, the Government’s effrontery is breathtaking’’. I would encourage all ratepayers and taxpayers to push back against this attempted coup on our assets.
Gary Cole Fairfield
Student nurses
I THINK Dr White (Letters, 8.8.22) hit the nail on the head when he said that ‘‘the poor nursing student . . . [was] abandoned to their own devices’’. Although I’m not sure the pun was intentional!
Logan Mitchell Waverley