National’s choices terrifying

No-one will argue the premise that Bill English is a nice guy and I wish him well. The last nice guy we had was Bill Rowling but it seems no-one remembers him. I suspect the same legacy waits for English. Not memorable.

The possiblities for the new leader are, however, terrifying. Collins would be enough to see me leave the country, Bennett more so. I believe the gift of leadership will accrue to the ever-smarmy Steven Joyce because there aren’t many other Nats who seem even vaguely qualified for the job.

Rex Fausett, Auckland Central.

Who’s next

With Bill English gone, who will take over? Build more roads Simon Bridges, minister of everything Brownlee, build more prisons Judith Collins, cut the education budget and give the surplus to charter schools Amy Adams, give less to beneficiaries Paula Bennett, or cut health funding Jonathon Coleman? Who will it be? Marie Kaire, Whangarei.

Sabbath ruling

With the most deadly cyclone in 30-40 years bearing down on Tonga’s capital on Sunday, the 60,000 people hunkered down were told no-one was to lift a finger to protect themselves or their property or their families. Tongan religious leaders should be ashamed of their holy day ruling applying to nailing up protector screens, stocking supplies and planning survival.

The ruling class probably have elevated cement-pillared houses designed for flood and wind. All future dwellings must be designed with more than flimsy sheet roofing and galvanised nails to suit an angrier god of an earth having wilder atmospheric change. Rob Buchanan, Kerikeri.

Housing study

Phil Twyford has repeated his “housing market crisis”. He has backed it up with a long overdue report from Governmentfunded but highly qualified and experienced authors. The Opposition inevitably decried its value and veracity, suggesting ideological cant rather than a catalyst for change and a roadmap for improvement.

While New Zealand continues to vacillate over an apparently intractable problem of insufficient resource and ineffective delivery, South Australia’s Government has bitten the bullet by engaging none other than Elon Musk to offer a viable model for the future — free Tesla solar panels and batteries to at least 50,000 South Australia homes.

Minister Twyford says Kiwibuild will create 12 to 15 simultaneous housing developments the size of Hobsonville. Cover them with solar panels, lithium-ion storage batteries and reversible power meters to feed back into the grid. Nigel Meek, Bayswater.

Share the house

In response to John Allum’s letter yesterday, after my husband died I was uncomfortable living alone in my fourbedroom house amid the Auckland housing crisis. Yet I was not willing to open my door to just anyone. I know three other widows in a similar situation and each of us has found a way to share our home with one other person.

John is right when he suggests living alone is a very poor use of our housing stock, which is the usual living style following the death of a spouse. I would add that loneliness is a significant problem among elderly people and having another person in the house may be helpful in decreasing this experience.

There is room for wise creativity and going beyond our comfort zones when we make choices about our living styles.

Isabelle Sherrard, Auckland.

Take in borders

I write in agreement with your correspondent J. Allum. Five years ago I became single again after 20 years. In the years since I have at times shared my large villa with my adult children and little grandson.

I have also enjoyed the company of a number of overseas travellers who stayed for up to a year. Limited income from boarders is tax free, which has enabled me to pay my mortgage and very high rates. I would encourage Pakeha New Zealanders to follow the example of other ethnicities and embrace multigenerational living.

Caroline Bree, Grey Lynn.

Headlights please

Vehicle lights are clearly felt to be unnecessary for most drivers, judging by the way they showed their inability to drive safely during recent periods of rain. The safe drivers had their headlights on.

The worst drivers however, are those who drive on their sidelights believing they can be seen. Duh.

If radio stations could remind us to use our lights in bad weather, that would be a start. If the Government paid them to do so, that would save money for the health service. I believe, like other countries, that every moving vehicle should have headlights (and working rear lights) on at all times. Rob Wightman, Rothesay Bay.

Illegal dumping

The problems with rubbish on the streets started with Bob Harvey when he decided he did not like the look of the inorganic collections on his streets, so he banned them. This was taken on by the Super City which also stopped street collections.

What should then have happened was that you could take your rubbish to the tip for free, or dial an 0800 number to have the rubbish taken away. Instead this council decided it would bend the needs of the people to fit in with the wants of the council, so now we have the tail wagging the dog. Aidan Crabtree, Titirangi.

Simple answer

In reply to Mayor Goff’s article on illegal rubbish dumping, the answer is simple — reinstate inorganic rubbish collections.

The street we live in has become the dumping ground of Howick. On our morning walks we regularly find black rubbish bags, bottles, green waste, used condoms, fast food packaging, tyres, broken whiteware, building material waste, and once even two goat carcasses Mac Grant, East Tamaki Heights.

Crayfish numbers

The New Zealand commercial fishing industry has nothing to hide from an independent and wide-ranging review of New Zealand’s Quota Management System (QMS). While the system has served us well for more than 30 years there is always room for improvement. However those calling for a wholesale overhaul of the QMS by citing one fishery (crayfish in the Hauraki Gulf, CRA 2 are disingenuous.

The rock lobster industry has voluntarily reduced its catch in CRA 2 by 25 per cent below the total allowable commercial catch for the past two years and for more than 20 years has invested its own money in data collection and tagging programmes to improve the information on the fishery beyond that required by statutory reporting.

The decisions arising from the recently revised stock assessment will allow the fishery to rebuild and we believe no increases in the revised catch limits should be considered for at least five years.

However it should not only be one way. Estimates of recreational catch are only available to the Government regulators every six years and there has been no work to estimate illegal catch for almost two decades. Serious effort is needed to address black market and poaching activities.

Mark Edwards, chief executive, NZ Rock Lobster Industry Council.

Charter schools

I have noticed a close parallel between our Labour Government and the British Labour party in their common visceral hatred of schools which increase the chances of success of their client base. In Britain it is the grammar schools that are under attack because they take in students from the lower socio-economic groups and give them the opportunity to go up the education ladder and on to success in life.

There appear to be more good reports than bad about our charter schools having students from a similar background. If, as is widely touted, education is the key to advancement, why is “the Left” so hellbent on putting obstacles in the way of the very groups that they purport to represent? G. N. Kendall, Rothesay Bay. Homeless I live in Auckland where the first words people say to me in the morning, are not “good morning” but “have you any spare change”. Unless people reset their values, the current levels of homelessness, where one in a hundred kiwis are homeless, will remain nothing more another talking point. This shameful problem requires urgent action. D. Gardner, Auckland Central