Private eye not used to spy on Kiwis

I am concerned recent reports, including an opinion piece titled, “Agencies should leave fishing to Winston”, may have wrongly left some people under the impression the NZSIS used or encouraged private investigators to spy on citizens. I can assure you this is not the case. NZSIS has never procured services from Thompson and Clark Investigations Ltd. NZSIS has not interacted with Thompson and Clark in relation to that firm’s private investigation services.

NZSIS has a legislated role to provide protective security services, advice and assistance, including by encouraging private sector providers. NZSIS’s sole reason for interacting with Thompson and Clark related to this area of work.

Anyone seeking independent assurance on this issue can contact the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, enquiries@igis.govt.nz

Rebecca Kitteridge, Director-General of Security.

Quirky names

One of the most important responsibilities on new parents is to name their child sensibly. Gimmicky or long, pretentious names, no matter how deep and meaningful, are soon forgotten, replaced by a short nickname. Lengthy, so-called Christian names become the sole domain of legal documentation that can be a burden. Every time I complete a departure card at Auckland International Airport I’m grateful to my parents.

Bruce Eliott, St Heliers.

Match a mistake

No surprise the New Zealand national anthem for the Kiwis v England rugby league match in Denver was a joke. The whole match was a joke from go to whoa, and the persistent commitment to it must surely rate as one of the worst decisions made by the NZ Rugby League.

The match did nothing to promote the sport in the two countries that actually matter, New Zealand and Australia. Rather it possibly jeopardised clubs required to release players to participate. We should be under no illusions that without a club in the NRL, league in this country would be pretty much a non-event.

Phil Chitty, Albany.

National on climate change

Simon Bridges’ announced willingness to work collaboratively with the Government on climate change is welcome but not if he sees it as an opportunity to moderate Government action, as some of his statements seem to suggest. For nine years the National Government moderated climate action almost out of existence.

Even though the Labour-led coalition Government is ready to act, the signs are that it will be on the cautious side. If National’s intention is to add weight to caution it will not enhance prospects for a successful transition to a rapidly decarbonised economy.

Bryan Walker, Hamilton.

Phony photo

In answer to Arch Thomson, yes, Jesus said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me”, that is to Jesus himself, not into the US illegally. Just for the record, that little girl who was pictured crying was not separated from her mother. She was simply put down while her mother was searched. Also, the Obama Administration prosecuted 500,000 illegal immigrants and similarly separated families. So did the Bush Administration. Time to seek out the truth, maybe?

Joyce Cooper, Eden Terrace.

Story incorrect

It has been said “a picture is worth a thousand words” but unfortunately your weekend “pic of the week”, which also featured on the cover of Time, had the wrong narrative with it. Time has since apologised for the untrue story that navigated its way round the world.

The Honduran girl was not separated from her mother. The mother had been deported from the US in 2013 and had the child since. It is easier to get into the US if you have children in tow.

The fake narrative with the picture taken by John Moore of Getty Images managed to raise $18 million in crowdfunding on Facebook.

It goes to show fake news does pay off, at least for a time.

Pauline Alexander, Waiatarua.

Blaming parents

Just when you think parent blaming by a section of the Herald readership couldn’t get more punitive and lacking in compassion, a new low was reached by David Vinsen who blames the parents for the suffering of children separated from their parents at the US-Mexican border.

Child poverty? It’s the parents’ fault. Children in cold damp homes? Ditto. Teenagers killed in police chases?

Yes, you’ve got it. Perhaps these correspondents would like to turn their attention to solutions. They could for instance round up the parents and lecture them for being poor or homeless or for wanting better for their children. They could haul in some grandparents and blame them as well.

Barbara Grace, Grey Lynn.

Keep calm

It is difficult to see that any of the proposed changes to the Employment Relations Act which Kim Campbell has bullet-pointed in his article threaten the ongoing wellbeing of the economy. When the last Labour Government took power the economic doomsayers all flocked on to the streets, as the country entered a decade of prosperity. Perhaps Campbell and some other employer groups need to keep calm and carry on.

Gavin Kay, Remuera.

Not the first

I am delighted our Prime Minister has delivered her first child, a special moment for every parent, and am thankful both appear healthy. Okay, that’s it, done. No more baby stuff. Baby Neve is not the first baby, nor are the parents and she the first family, and Clarke Gayford is certainly not the first gentleman, or whatever. The child and her father are an irrelevancy to the job Ardern was engaged to undertake.

Peter Carruthers, Paremoremo.

Use executive pay

The Government is in a dilemma about how to find enough money to pay nurses what they deserve. While hunting for a stash of cash, perhaps Health Minister David Clark might look at the large gap that frequently exists where salaries paid to CEOs contrast sharply with the wages of the rest of the workforce.

On January 27 the Herald reported taxpayers forked out almost $66 million in 2017 to pay 444 chiefs and senior executives to run the 20 district health boards. And on April 14, Herald columnist Simon Wilson revealed the fulsome employment package of Lester Levy who until this year chaired the Counties Manukau and Auckland and Waitemata health boards, plus Auckland Transport.

One can only imagine what his salary amounted to, but perhaps the headline to Wilson’s column, “The health boss who’s had enough” said it all. Time for nurses to share some of this wealth?

M. Carol Scott, Birkenhead.

Personal insult

I take issue with the reviews of Dancing with the Stars by Steve Braunias. It’s okay to criticise but not okay to insult the participants. I am no fan of Act or of David Seymour and agree he shouldn’t be in the competition at this stage based on dancing prowess, but to call the him a dunce, a clown, a waste of space, is a personal insult and not a review of the show.

His comments a few weeks ago that the public’s voting was racially based was somewhat irresponsible, almost as if he was wanting to create some sort of racial disharmony. Maybe it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek but either way his reviews don’t sit well with me. There is enough negativity in the world.

DWTS is lighthearted fun while raising some money for charity.

Shelley Thompson, Titirangi.

Pleasure of paper

Congratulations on your recent readership figures. As a professed news hound I have been reading your newspaper for decades and the Sunday edition since its advent. Even though breaking news is on radio and online, and sometimes on TV (always seems well behind), obviously many others share my passion for the written word in print form.

When I was a kid we received the Daily Mirror, Canadian Star Weekly (don’t ask me why) and the Listener on Fridays as well as the daily Herald.

I was a bit too young to read the Herald then but my parents clearly didn’t care about censorship as I was an expert on the Profumo affair and the Trudeau (snr) marriage with all its juicy details at about 12 years old. I would be covered in black print each Friday and nothing has changed on Sundays.

Nothing beats holding a newspaper or magazine. Susan Wilson, Surfdale.

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