MMP Govt represents majority

Correspondent Paul Callaghan has claimed that our MMP system is absurd because on the Government side there are more list members than elected members and he seems to think that this represents rule by the minority. However the list members under MMP actually result in all votes cast being taken into account in all electorates and this results in a much more democratic result than can be achieved under the first past the post system which is still operated in many countries which are less democratic than New Zealand. To have a government made up only of elected members results in many cases in minority government as far as total actual votes are concerned, but MMP always ensures the government always represents the majority of votes.

David Mairs, Glendowie.

More buses please

I have had the misfortune to take the Northern Express now three weekends in a row with my family. Every weekend, without fail, these buses have been packed with people, families having to stand for the entire journey, with pushchairs and young children.

Does no one check the numbers and consider putting more services on, especially when there are extra events on in the city for Anniversary Weekend, Waitangi and Bike the Bridge?

No one seems to be monitoring the ticketing “system” to realise that more people are taking the bus than the capacity and greater frequency is needed. Elizabeth Jefferies, Milford.

Wonders of sport

Isn’t sport fantastic when we thought our Black Caps were the bee’s knees against the Windies and Pakistan only to be brought back to earth by our big brother Aussie neighbours. Twice. Got to hand it to those Ockers at times, they never say die. Glenn Forsyth, Taupo.

Weapons of death

The biggest blunder of any government in the history of civilisation must be USA’s Government to allow its citizens to own the AR-15 assault rifle which can kill 30 or 40 citizens at one burst. Surely it is time to recall all such death weapons to be melted down at the nearest foundry or at least pass them over to the military. Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.

Gun ownership rules

Whilst attending our son’s wedding in America a couple of years ago, our group of well dressed 60+ parents hit the tiles for a pleasant night out before the main event. Not one bar or restaurant would serve us until we provided a passport or other means of age identification and all of us would have exceeded the legal drinking age of 21 by at least 35 years.

What a strange country they have when a dozy-looking 19-year-old kid can stroll into a gun supermarket and freely buy an automatic killing machine with little more than a wad of grubby dollars.

We have it pretty well under control here, where one careless word from a spouse during a police interview, failing a written/verbal police interview or being unable to offer a legitimate reason for needing a firearm (rather than wanting one) can ban a licence for life. And we still have a few firearm problems here. Robert Burrow, Taupo.

Cleaner community together

Yes we do live in trash town. Every time I come back from overseas or show a guest around our beautiful city I am embarrassed how filthy our city is. On your next journey, note how much litter you see on the motorway, on the road walking to work or walking the dog. What do you do? Do you walk past it? Or pick it up? I pick it up and dispose of the litter with the doggie do bag or pop cans and paper in the recycle bin. That is why the streets around my house are clean. The dumping of tyres on Twilight Rd is a large version of what you can you see in the gutter everyday. If you dump litter shame on you. If you are aware of it and leave it, shame on you. Together one by one we need to do our bit. So I make this challenge to the citizens of Auckland: Pick up that next piece of litter you see.

Better still, don’t dump rubbish in the first place. DJ Goris, Albany.

More jobs to cover rubbish

Just announced, Auckland Council’s new rubbish enforcement spending of $200,000 includes three more staff, now nine people “enforcing” rubbish. Some sanity please. Wouldn’t we have a happier city with free rubbish collection and zero dumping aggravation? I walk past neighbours’ recycling bins stinking of maggots because some won’t buy rubbish bags or tags. Is there a hotline for that?

It’s a worldwide phenomenon that more executives on ever-mushrooming salaries rapidly accelerates procedural absurdity. Important people seem to lust after more minions, so they subconsciously create problems that need more staff to be dealt with — the empire thrives but service crashes. It goes against basic instinct to have to organise your rubbish AND have to pay for it. Back pain and wallet pain. Unbearable. Jim Carlyle, Te Atatu Peninsula.

Queen St embarrassment

Queen St, last Saturday. Two cruise ships are in, and the central city is full of people, vehicles — and beggars. Outside McDonald’s, food cartons, drink containers and rubbish cover a wide area of the footpath. And a scruffy young man is staggering around, verbally and physically abusing passers-by. A Council Watchman arrives, followed by the police. The area is cleared, leaving a dirty, untidy footpath and plenty of bemused tourists.

It is well past time that the council cleaned up our main shopping thoroughfare, if only for the thousands of overseas visitors who walk along it to see what Auckland is like. Pamela Russell, Orakei.

Inorganic collections please

Phil Goff is mounting an aggressive campaign to outlaw the dumping of household rubbish in public places and wants to prosecute people caught in the act. One million dollars is to be spent in the recovery of tyres and other rubbish which has been dumped at one popular site, necessitating the closure of the road for a day or more while a crane is brought in to remove the tyres. Two hundred thousand dollars is to be spent on CCTV cameras and enforcement officers in an effort to catch the offenders.

Prior to the Rugby World Cup being held in this country a few years ago now, the council operated a successful method of disposing of household waste in the form of annual inorganic collections carried out suburb by suburb throughout the greater Auckland area funded through the refuse allocation in our annual rates.

Just prior to the Rugby World Cup the council decided to suspend the collections for at least the duration of the games as they felt that the piles of rubbish along the roadside were not a good look for all our foreign visitors.

As a ratepayer in the Auckland area, I say bring back the inorganic rubbish collections. In providing the service which we pay for in our rates we can deal effectively with the problem of rubbish which is building up every day instead of having to spend more money on dealing with the criminals who have been created by the council not doing their job and collecting our rubbish!

Nigel Williams, West Harbour.

Transport decision-making

Thank you for headlining Simon Wilson’s excellent Opinion on Page 8 in Friday’s Herald.

Like Simon said, the chief transport officer for AT obviously has never used Auckland’s public transport at all and that is the nub of Auckland’s problems. We have a board and senior management who are continually making decisions from a position of absolute ignorance.

The best way to fix our problems is to make it mandatory for people holding such positions never to use cars within Auckland’s environs. Only then will they wake up to the fact of how imbecilic a lot of their decisions are.

If such was to happen we would get a world class public transport quick smart and most of Auckland’s car dealers would be put out of business overnight.

Tony Taylor, Henderson.

Shootings a complex problem

The horrors of another school shooting raises the questions of what can be done to prevent these events.

The occurrences happen in many countries although the USA seems to have far more than other countries so people need to consider what is different there.

Guns are the general method for these killings but somebody has to use them and the reality is that there are so many out there that they can’t be removed from the formula. Australia tried to ban guns with a funded amnesty but realistically only the “good guys” handed them in.

Information gathering and sharing helps although many of the people involved are lone operators and unsocial. Sadly as seen recently all information has to be shared and responded to.

Another Australian example shows the extremes schools will go to as one has banned Uber Eats from delivering food to their students. The concern is the delivery people wandering around schools without having signed in at the front office or shown any ID card. These people are strangers and maybe it’s time to remember the stranger-danger warnings.

The answer is — there seems to be no real answer. There must also be many people who have prayed for a safer world and yet there are still problems. We still need to keep trying to make schools safer. Dennis Fitzgerald, Melbourne, Australia.