City needs good home for cricket
Watching the Black Caps do so well this summer both here and abroad has brought home to me how crazy it is that Auckland still does not have an international-class cricket ground.
Eden Park is a joke, with a rectangular main arena and a small, undersized outer oval, neither of which is adequate for more than club play, or a strange version of one-day cricket.
No doubt a key factor is Auckland Cricket’s determination to hold on to their rights over Eden Park and while that is understandable, it begs the question as to why they don’t see the importance of Aucklanders enjoying international cricket live, be they tests or one-dayers.
The Auckland Council’s response to sort of offer Western Springs, but not yet, is not good enough. To see great cricket being played in both Mt Maunganui and Nelson over the past week was great, but it’s a reminder that for Aucklanders cricket has unfortunately become just another TV programme.
Don Bunting, Freemans Bay.
Tax suggestions
John Caldwell (January 9) is half right in his recommendation to lift GST to increase the income from tourists to help pay for the additional infrastructure needed. Where he is wrong is in his suggestion to reduce the top PAYE rate to 20 per cent and his assertion that this will not hurt the poor. A reduction in PAYE is needed, but it should come from the bottom end of the tax structure, not the top.
If the first $50,000 (or so) of income was tax-free then this would compensate the lower-income earners for the increase in GST, and it would also reduce the need for increasing the minimum wage and the gap between the minimum wage and the living wage. A reduction in PAYE from the bottom end would also reduce the moneygo-round of Working for Families and other working class welfare support.
Russell Baillie, Mt Eden.
Raising GST
John Caldwell seems not to realise that GST is a regressive tax, taking a larger percentage of income from low-income earners than from high-income earners. It makes everything dearer, including the essentials of life such as food.
If we want to increase revenue from tourists, increase the proposed levy from $35. Yes, it’s harder for those travelling on a shoestring, but as they have the time and money to travel all the way here, they are certainly not poor.
Too many of our own people are genuinely poor, to the level of being homeless, and there’s no way they could take weeks or months off to tour around and enjoy themselves. Increasing GST would make things far harder for them.
Susan Grimsdell, Auckland Central.
Assisted dying bill
David Seymour (January 9) must be getting flustered as a result of all the opposition to his bill which has been expressed recently in these columns and elsewhere.
In his second paragraph he refers to people “cynically exploiting the tragedy of youth suicide to buttress their support of the bill”, which makes no sense. Later in his letter he reverts to what he probably meant all the time, namely “buttress their opposition” to the bill.
His confusion is symptomatic of all that is wrong with the bill. It purports to be healthcare, but is its polar opposite. The lethal cocktail to be used to end the lives of patients is named in clause 15 most misleadingly as “medication”.
Then there is the issue of conscientious objection for doctors, which is dealt with in clauses 6 and 7. Doctors who do have this objection are nevertheless forced to refer their patients to colleagues who have no scruples in killing their patients.
A final example of the bill’s confusion is falsification of the death certificate as specified in clause 25 but partially contradicted in clause 28.
This is a poorly expressed and badly drafted bill which deserves to be soundly rejected by MPs. Jean Glossop, Auckland.
Consents process
I refer to Paul Lochore’s article “Inept consents process has city on go-slow” (January 9) and ask why he restricts his thoughts to the Auckland Council?
There are four local councils currently being investigated by the Ombudsman because of (perceived?) imperfections of their performance in many areas, including the consent process.
The Far North District Council, which administers the district I live in, is included in the Ombudsman’s investigation and I am personally aware that there is considerable amount of dissatisfaction with this council’s consent process.
No doubt both the Local Government Act and the Resource Management Act have an impact on local body activities but are also perceived to provide local body staff with the opportunity to drag out consent applications to an almost farcical extent. Bob Vartan, Coopers Beach.
Star signs
Some 2300 years ago, the Babylonians believed the gods lived in the seven “stars” they could see moving through the sky — the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn — and that they controlled the destinies of individuals through the intricate relationships of these stars with each other.
They had a number system based on 12, not 10, and so divided the sky into 12 sectors (which we now call the 12 Houses or Constellations of the Zodiac, eg Aquarius, Pisces, etc) to help calculate the positions of the stars at the time of an event, such as the moment of a person’s birth, and hence predict the person’s fate.
However, the Earth’s spin axis wobbles, rather like a spinning top, and it takes about 26,000 years to sweep out a complete circle. That means that roughly every 2200 years or so (26,000 divided by 12 Houses), the star signs get shifted by one House. So now the horoscopes you read are wrong by one House. If you don’t like your horoscope, read the the one for the previous star sign, it might be better.
Graham Alcock, Northcross.
1080 poison
Forest & Bird chief executive Kevin Hague’s arrogant and ill-informed putdown of the SPCA in its stand against the use of the poison 1080 (January 9) reveals a fundamental lack of knowledge of the history of a hugely respected organisation whose sole purpose is the care and protection of animals.
His dismissal of the case put by the SPCA to prevent predators dying long and agonising deaths from ingesting l080 by working on other more humane solutions is unforgivable.
As a relative newcomer to the world of animal protection, Mr Hague would do well to consider how other non-native species can be managed more humanely. History shows that dramatic toxic eradication programmes are not the solution and eventually so-called predators will return.
As humans we have an obligation to care for all life and with this in mind I would question having someone like Mr Hague heading Forest & Bird whose raison d’etre implies protection and care, not selectivity and destruction.
Judy Morley-Hall, St Heliers.
Freedom camping
From personal observation and reading, it appears freedom campers are mostly young adults, our own as well as foreign. They don’t “spend large” but do add goodly amounts to our tourism coffers.
To my thinking though, and much more importantly, these youngsters are hastening their own “growing up”, broadening outlooks on the human condition, expanding their thinking and learning that people are just people everywhere on this globe, with many more commonalities than differences.
Kindness and tolerance, for which New Zealand is noted, have immense intangible value for world harmony.
Let us be generous and build free basic facilities which will encourage them to roam for that reason if nothing else.
Juliet Leigh, Pt Chevalier.
Fabulous ferries
Simon Wilson and a dream of fabulous ferries (January 8) brings me to propose a new wharf for St Heliers.
The modern single pile-supporting style of simple construction means an easy build. The proposed electric shallow draught ferries mean a shorter wharf to deal with low tides.
This must-do project would greatly reduce commuter traffic along Tamaki Drive, connect the eastern suburbs to the North Shore, outer islands and other ferry berths, and transport tourists to St Heliers, supporting the shopping there.
There may be a better cost benefit than the proposed trams down Dominion Rd.
Craig Fraser, St Heliers.