Rein in the council’s wage bill

Auckland Council’s payroll is clearly out of control. How many public companies could claim 20 per cent of their staff earn more than $100,000? The CEO, who I would assume has some control over staff wages, has got a 5.2 per cent increase when most in the private sector are lucky to achieve 1 per cent.

Because the funding of this wage bill is provided by ratepayers, and not earned as is the case in the private sector, it appears increases are being tossed around with little accountability to ratepayers. The Local Government Act requires the council to act in the best interests of the community it serves, not the best interests of its staff

The solution to getting wages under control is to appoint an outside consultant with experience in the private sector to establish appropriate wage levels for council positions. A major restructuring should then take place, with staff reapplying for their jobs at realistic rates of pay. I won’t be holding my breath that anyone in the council will think that’s a great idea. J. P. Kania, Long Bay.

‘Appropriate’ payout?

So that’s all right then. Auckland Council CEO Stephen Town assures us the $405,000 golden handshake for a nameless departing senior executive is “appropriate”. If there was an award for arrogance this clipped, self-serving explanation would win first prize. If this is what passes for civic leadership we’re screwed because when even a guy on just under $800,000 a year can’t take the time out to explain to us his employers why such a payment was appropriate you’ve got to wonder what actual qualities he was employed for in the first place?

When you contrast this story with the desperately struggling mother of Moko being declined a bed at Starship’s Ronald McDonald House through budget constraints, or the 11 junior teachers’ yearly salaries a payout like this would cover, there’s something putrid at the heart of this city’s governance. Where are the leakers and whistleblowers — we need you now more than ever.

Phil O’Reilly, Westmere.

Tree protection

If your readers didn’t read the article on page A22 yesterday, I strongly encourage them to search it out and read it now. It is not just another article about the latest tree issue. Grant McLachlan, environmentalist and infrastructure specialist, has written one of the most comprehensive but devastating articles I have read about what’s wrong with our local body system and other connected bureaucratic aspects of officialdom. He signs off by asking that this “mess” be cleaned up. Who could argue?

M. Carol Scott, Birkenhead.

No wailing

What a load of sentimental twaddle from both Grant McLachlan and Victoria Carter. A tree is a tree. A “tree council”? I think some people need to get a life and stop wasting ratepayers’ money. What people do on their own properties is surely their own business. One of the good things about moving to this part of the world is that there are no “tree huggers”. If a tree is a problem, it’s gone with no wailing and gnashing of teeth, as witnessed by the fact tall trees across the road from me were taken out without any fuss, and definitely no one being moved to write an obituary-type column about them.

John Capener, Kawerau.

Felling benefits

In a world gone mad it was good to have an entire page on “To tree or not to tree“. I am an advocate for tree extermination in some cases. I might be viewed as a concreter from hell but I have degrees in both botany and environmental economics and do considerable amounts of tree hugging in my garden. A neighbour kindly exterminated one of the Norfolk pines on our boundary.

The pluses for the demise of the Norfolk were multidimensional. First, the skill of the tree feller was mind-bogglingly good. The neighbours regained natural light and hence heat. My vegetables reclaimed fertiliser from their bullying neighbour. I re-owned my gutters and roof dents from 4kg seed pods ceased.

Hundreds of baby Norfolk seedlings appear in the garden, if you want to plant some at your place and spend your life life rooting about in the gutters and stranded on the roof, be my guest.

Justine Adams, Ohope Beach.

Run or stay?

Civil Defence instructions in the event of an earthquake are: “Drop, cover, hold and stay put” and “If it’s long and strong get gone [sic]”. The latter applies to quakes “near the coast” because they might cause a tsunami. In fact land-based quakes generally don’t. So which one? Stay put or do a runner into the unknown?

In trying to have an each-way bet CD has come up with confusing and possibly dangerous advice. I have tried to engage with CD about this and have been fobbed off. Bureaucrats think they know best and resent feedback. That’s why they get things wrong. John Clements, Orewa.

League reps

It is ridiculous that Island players have a choice to play league for two different international teams. They are bought up in New Zealand, educated and learn their league skills here, yet play for another country. I can’t use the words Graham Low said about the situation but it is a betrayal of rugby league in this country.

Rex Head, Papatoetoe.

Selective label

Why is it a young non-white who is Muslim and kills a number of Americans is automatically called a terrorist, but when a middle-aged professional white male in that country kills and injures a record number of Americans he is always called a “lone wolf” or “a mentally deranged individual”. Are white people never to be called terrorists whatever they do for whatever reason? Most of us would say that that someone who murders 59 people and wounds almost 500 is terrorising them. Dick Cuthbert, Herne Bay.

Manhood the problem

It is easy to despair and get sidetracked by the mysteries of motivations associated with mass shootings. The answers won’t come from politicians, media and psychologists or even from the family of the perpetrators. It’s a situation that social scientists, philosophers and theologians need to step up to because the cycles of violence expressed at micro and macro levels have their base in a far bigger social-cultural frame.

The five previous worse mass shooting in the US; Orlando, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, San Bernadino and Columbine have a major commonality; they were perpetrated by men; or at least a specific corrosive type of vicious masculinity.

It’s the same type that fills our prisons, headbutts strangers and finds it ways to the front lines of religious conflicts. It’s highly competitive, identifies itself within its right to power and a narrow fragile truth. We celebrate it in sports and commerce, yet it’s the ultimate poor looser. Global cultures and societies are enthralled by it but it is increasingly threatened and out of sync with the modern world. Modern manhood needs to be reimagined and find a strength and purpose within alternative power expressions. Russell Hoban, Ponsonby.

Plastic bags

Supermarkets are going to tax us for single-use plastic bags. Wouldn’t it be smarter to simply stop selling them. The small charge they are expecting to lump on to the consumer is more than enough to supply decent recyclable paper bags in place of single-use plastic ones. The charge won’t reduce the use of plastic bags but paper bags are at least renewable and recyclable. Sometimes I wonder at the intelligence of the high-paid executives and our politicians. Mike Williams, Howick.

Divided parties

MMP guarantees nothing other than that you will not get what you voted for. How far will National bend its principles to get back into power? How far will Labour go to bring their increasingly far-left agenda to fruition? How much power will the Greens have after the dust has settled? How stable will the outcome be after the Winston Party has made its demands?

Add into the mix the following facts. The Greens are only partly green as they are mainly far left socialist. Labour is severely factionalised with the far left led by Jacinda against the centre left, Stuart Nash and others. How long before those two factions start squabbling? New Zealand First’s supporters are probably evenly split between disenchanted right and left leaning voters.

And the final part of the puzzle, who calls the shots in NZ First? Is it a dictatorship of one or a democracy of nine? Regrettably, only one thing is certain in the outcome, and that is uncertainty. God help New Zealand.

Steve Clerk, Remuera.