Overhaul coming Foreign workers

Just because the Labour Party made the decision to stop their proposed version of a capital gains tax due to a huge public outcry at the time and a desire to be re-elected come 2020, and also are not in total favour of the wealth tax as proposed by the Greens, do not assume that they support the status quo (John Woolf, Letters, October 25).

They are well aware of the inequalities and there is a complete overhaul coming at some stage so that a fairer system may be passed into law. Both proposals can be improved. There are many ways to skin a cat, or in this particular instance, fat cats.

Carolyn Sutherland, Hamilton

The constant advertising of fruitpicking jobs throughout New Zealand defies all logic. We bring in seasonal workers from overseas to do such tasks – they are without their families, in a foreign country unsupported in their cultural environment. Yet New Zealanders do not want to accept these tasks because they are away from their families. Our social welfare system has become a way of life and in a country where we sing ‘‘God defend our free land’’, the word ‘‘free’’ is misinterpreted; that everything is free.

It is breath-taking that we are allowing Russian and Ukrainian fishermen to man our fishing vessels. These workers come from a region where Covid-19 is rampant, their testing processes are suspect. Why couldn’t the fishing companies send a boat to, say, Vladivostok, to pick up the fishermen, have them tested on board on a nine-day trip to New Zealand, then have them anchor offshore to make up the 14-day quarantine period? They would not be permitted on shore unless clear of the virus as determined by our reliable testing methods. Wayne McNeil, Auckland