Nats ones who will be in trouble

So right-wing columnist Heather du Plessis-Allan predicts the demise of the Green Party within a decade. And celebrity boy racer Mike Hosking also snorts the Labour Party is in trouble. I think they're wrong.

The world’s three biggest issues are climate change, wealth inequality and over-population. Leaving aside overpopulation as far as this country is concerned, the latest figures show that continuing as we are will leave the top 1 per cent owning two thirds of the world's wealth by 2030. The alarm bells ringing about climate change from burning fossil fuels grow louder by the day.

Both issues are fertile ground for the Greens and Labour and will increasingly be the big issues of future elections. The parties that offer the most radical and bold ways of tackling both head-on will win big. Conservative parties such as National and Act, who pay only lip service to these issues, are the ones in long-term trouble. Greed is only short-term when up against fairness and survival.

It won't be the Greens in trouble in a decade but National, Act and NZ First.

Jeff Hayward, Auckland. doesn’t say how the spread is being measured. Compared to what?

Could soil scientists better study how the sharp increase in dieback correlates with increased glyphosate use by Auckland Council, 1080 by DOC, and myriad petrochemicals streaming into our environment from land, sea and air vehicles?

The immune systems of all sentient species are challenged and debilitated by our everyday “onslaught” of chemical and electromagnetic emissions. Our kauri are the hyper-sensitive sentinels, the canaries in the mine shaft.

Michael Fleck, Waiheke Island. On Saturday, John Roughan suggested the Mayor should use public transport to work. As “one who commutes by car”, he should stop preaching and use it himself.

J. Billingsley, Parnell. I, too, live, work and play on two idyllic islands.

Therefore, I hope our Government and the tourist industry as a whole read and will both learn and digest the problems raised in your Weekend Herald.

Like Boracay in the Philippines, Maya Bay in Indonesia and probably many more sites around the world, New Zealand seems ignorant of the stealthy danger to our environment.

The Government vows to correct decades of pollution by farmers in particular to our waterways, but ignores the greater danger posed to our whole environment by unfettered tourism.

Tourists come here for our (so far) relatively unspoiled rivers, mountains, lakes and most of all, relative solitude.

NZ roads, accommodation and outdoor infrastructure in general cannot possibly cope with the double whammy of both immigration and tourism at present levels, let alone the unbridled expansion proposed by both the Government — which certainly can’t afford the cost —and a tourist industry which probably won’t.

We are told 33,000 people walked the Tongariro Crossing at Easter 2017. This is madness and I am sure many South Island tourist spots are far worse afflicted.

Tourism is great. We desperately need farming. Immigration is essential. All three are vital for this country to pay its way in the world, but all three also have the potential to kill the three geese that laid three of the golden eggs that support our enviable standard of living.

Looks like Boracay and Maya Bay overfed their geese on tourists. They’re closed. Robert Burrow, Acacia Bay. until its 2017 defeat, the Key Government systematically cut funding to public services, using the smokescreen of increased budgets, a fallacy in real terms.

John Key led the attack on our country’s wellbeing, and cannily chose to abandon ship early enough to score a knighthood. Former Health Minister Tony Ryall had already made his escape.

Bill English and Steven Joyce also fled, but remember the complicity of the remaining National MPs who supported the destructive agenda and who are striving to undermine the new Government’s moves towards repair.

Flora Calder, Epsom. To those complaining about intrusive commercials during the Commonwealth Games, spare a thought for those not interested in sport who are being deprived of our usual programmes.

Ray Gilbert, Matamata. Your April 7 front page “$23,000 tax bill sent to 8-year-old” mentioned the family gave up trying to contact IRD. This would be familiar to many. IRD’s stock response is for taxpayers to use its myIRD account service. Behind this lies its sense of entitlement to communicate with us only on its terms. It has resisted using email for decades on security grounds. Yet email is secure enough for it to use for sensitive inter-departmental and ministerial communication.

IRD continues to insist on snail mail as the postal system grinds to a halt. It has buffer periods of delay even after items are received. A long wait on hold to its call centre is not an option for busy people. Email is simple and instantaneous.

IRD knows many taxpayers and small businesses prefer email. Its excuses are no longer acceptable.

Richard Small, Avondale. Someone will have to invent a tracking device for every drone before there is a serious airline crash. They could contain an inbuilt tracking device that activates every time they are flown. Surely this can be possible with the advanced satellite technology we have today?

We need to know the source of these drones so the police can prosecute and heavily fine the owners. This behaviour is totally irresponsible and highly dangerous. Marie Kaire, Whangarei. Herald contributor Elizabeth Ardley, responding to the international expulsion of Russian diplomats, states “the increasing insanity of Russia hysteria” and quotes writer Harold Pinter, “the tapestry of lies woven by the US and allies over the past decades”.

Russia today is expansionary, a rogue state, corrupt, public criticism silenced and the rule of law extinguished, all quite factual. In response to Pinter's claims, might we instead revisit history to rediscover without US military supremacy and its humanitarian aid in the past century our world today would be a “very dark place” indeed.

True democracy and Western values, alien to so many, the dream and destination of asylum seekers' worldwide, are to be cherished and the right, unique today, gifted to us which permits free expression without reprisal, is a precious commodity to be forever guarded.

P. J. Edmondson, Tauranga.