Wage rates elephant in the room

The move by the Government to shore up business confidence should be welcomed by the community as a whole. The remarks by the chief executive of Westpac are so very telling, urging business to get over the election result. Do these people realise that confidence should not be a political football where one gains points by dragging down the nation by perception?

The 1987 crash was caused by the perception that values on paper were first worth more than they were in actuality and then reversing the process overnight. The largest elephant in the room is pay rates. For the past decade business has been able, with government assistance, to keep pay rates at a very low level. Socially this has had a very bad impact on far too many families. Proposed pay increases have been coupled with the fear by business that there would be job losses. A joint body to work on where to go from here should be seen as a positive and with a general change in attitudes confidence could quickly be restored.

Reg Dempster, Albany.

Business advisory group

With the Prime Minister’s announcement of yet another advisory group I had a flashback to the early 1980s when I was employed by a large, nationally prominent organisation. It was going through difficult times. Management, apparently lacking the acumen to introduce positive initiatives, created cluster groups tasked with brainstorming ideas to turn the company around. As the numbers of consultative groups grew, a catchphrase arose. “Business is down, but meetings are up 80 per cent”: Now doesn’t that ring a bell? Dave Murray, Grey Lynn.

Let Manning in

Immigration demands visitors to be of good character. Chelsea Manning demonstrated that. From the trenches she made a moral decision, pointing out grave crimes while putting herself at great risk. Is it National’s submissive reflex towards US interests that forces them to urge she be denied entry? Or do they fear she might incite future leaks from their own rows? Because if we need anything, it is showing her respect to encourage future whistleblowers. Jan Huwald, Titirangi.

Mental health card

I am appalled at the mental health card pulled in the limogate malarkey. The parliamentarian who provided the fodder was physically well enough to shovel the information into the public realm. This is now a blatant attempt to do the fireman’s job of quelling the flames of furore.

The prudent response now is to urgently identify the person at risk to ensure they have supports in place to not cause harm to themselves or unidentified others. After all, this person is running our country in some role or another.

Richard Ghent, Freeman’s Bay.

White elephant

The Auckland Council’s claim that the cost estimate for the Central Rail Link was $3.4 billion in 2014 is nonsense. According to a council website it was $2.4b on January 15, 2016. It mysteriously blew out to $2.8-$3.4b in September 2016. Now, we are told, it will cost a lot more.

At $2.4b, it was not good value for money and even worse considering there is more than $1b lurking in the background for fixing level crossings. By the time it is operational it will be threatened by selfdriving minibuses offering door-to-door service, more people will be telecommuting and, perhaps, a new council will have decided to make a dramatic drop in the cost of land and housing by expanding the city boundaries and developing satellite centres.

The CRL is a total white elephant driven by profligate people who are lost in the past, blind to the advances of modern technology and convinced they know what is best for everyone else.

Bryan Leyland, Pt Chevalier.

Concert drinking

Your correspondent Heather Kingston probably attended the same performance at Spark Arena as we did. We also were witness to the excessive drinking of a group of about 30 three rows in front of us. Their arrival during the first act, all with a glass in hand, was raucous and distracting for those of us who had arrived on time. Throughout the performance, members of the group were coming and going bringing in trays of drink so that by the end of the evening, many were in an intoxicated state.

While we witnessed no aggression, their behaviour was unacceptable at a performance. I do despair that for many it seems necessary to drink to excess to “have a good time”. Heather Kingston’s suggestions to curtail this bad behaviour should be considered by the management of Spark Arena. Gail Conder, Parnell.

Park & Ride

The problem with Park & Ride is AT’s stubbornness to not invest in Park & Rides even though they are what everyone wants and will easily adopt. AT’s preoccupation with feeder buses is hampering use of public transport. Has anyone at AT who is making these decisions used these feeder buses? When the weather is cold and wet who wants to wait for these feeder buses with no shelter?

Arriving at work wet and cold is not a professional look. Nor is walking to and from the stop in the dark appealing for women on their own. The Park & Ride gives public transport some comfort and safety for commuters. Surely that isn’t much to expect.

Claire Teirney, Stanmore Bay.

Commuters taking spaces

Auckland Transport continues to give the provision of suburban transport parking as its top priority but practice does not follow promise. This month they have completed a new 80-space tarsealed parking lot on Shore Rd, Remuera. It adds to the existing 200 spaces on Bloodworth Park which have not yet been used by five cars at any one time because the new third rugby pitch it is designed to serve is unusable.

It has long been practice that any sports or recreational space in the city must be provided with permanent parking. In the near city this is mostly used by shoppers or commuter parkers which makes it unavailable for its designed purpose, eg Selwyn Reserve, Mission Bay. The half of the area under tarseal is fully occupied by cars with nobody on the beach.

John E. Binsley, Parnell.

Anzac St carpark

We would like to congratulate Heart of Takapuna for organising the campaign to stop the sale of public land in Takapuna. They persuaded more than 2000 people that, despite the threats from Panuku’s option three to take away other projects, selling the land is not the way to go. Unfortunately, many more headed the threat and didn’t vote at all.

Takapuna will need this land in the future for open space and a transport hub as the major metro centre grows. Nobody knows how this is going to play out.

Selling this very valuable land to the highest bidder to “unlock” projects in other communities is misguided and unfair to the residents of Takapuna.

Ruth Ell, Environment Takapuna Inc.

Governor’s reach

I applaud Adrian Orr’s wide approach to include climate change, infrastructure, environment etc as part of his mandate. For far too long the Reserve Bank has narrowly focussed on interest rates. Hobson Wealth’s Mark Fowler’s desire for unfettered “progress” panders to a narrow wealth-obsessed lobby unconcerned about our already degraded planet. There is no Plan(et) B. Tony Kaye, Hamilton.

Assisted dying

I support Paula Salisbury who raised the important link between suicide and assisted dying. Of course there is a link. If there were not, why would most articles on assisted dying feature the usual helpline numbers for those at risk? It is well-known suicide is contagious. The widely reported suicide by Marilyn Monroe was followed by a spate of suicides. This is why guidelines for the responsible reporting of suicide were developed by the World Health Organisation.

Explicitly excluded is dramatic coverage likely to sensationalise or glamorise the death. This is exactly what happened in the case of Brittany Maynard who died from doctor-assisted suicide in Oregon on November 1, 2014. She soon became a poster-girl for assisted dying. A month following her death a physically healthy young man presented to Californian doctor Dr Will Johnston. He told the doctor that he had watched a video about Ms Maynard, identified with her, and wanted to die like her.

Tracy ten Hove, Rotorua.