Hercules should be unchained
I would like to know why the RNZAF C130 Hercules aircraft, which can carry a rubber fuel bladder, can not be adapted to be used as firefighting aircraft. They would dump a lot more water than the helicopters. Also the biggest helicopters in New Zealand with the heaviest lift are the RNZAF NH90. Why are they not being used to help fight the fires in Nelson? They are operated by the Defence Force, why are they not being used to defend New Zealanders against these fires? Or are they being reserved for MPs’ personal travel?
John Laing, Drury.
Huntly bypass
The new expressway is going to be great and it's good to see the work being done. I travel through Huntly and and around the back of Huntly for work and travel to Auckland regularly. But my beef is this. What cowboys are doing the planting and maintaining the planted areas? It looks terrible, weeds higher than plants. I found out it was an Auckland company with a good reputation up here. Surely they aren't the ones planting and maintaining it? If so, they need to look it ASAP.
Andy Stubi, Ngaruawahia.
Directors at fault
Greed is the great motivator for corruption and it seems to get worse the higher up one gets in an organisation. What is looked on as theft when it applies to hourly-rate workers is often seen as a perk or entitlement by senior staff. The Aussie banking scandal illustrates it well when the management of one bank didn’t even believe they did any wrong. Executive bonuses perhaps were the motivator.
Writer Duncan Bridgeman thinks the problems in Australian banks should not occur under the nose of directors doing their jobs, but can they do their jobs properly when many are directors of many companies? I am appalled by the number of directorships some have.
It’s obviously just a financial perk to many of them and their inability to do their jobs correctly means they have to offer obscene bonuses to CEOs and senior staff to do their jobs properly. Remember the CEO of CBA was going to earn a $9 million bonus for his efforts last year. No person is worth that and yet these obnoxious bonuses are approved by boards of directors. So it is the directors who are at fault.
Bill Gibson, Kawerau.
Sport coverage
It has been a delight watching the women’s cricket team play India. Whoever made the decision to place the team as openers to the men’s game needs congratulating as this has given an important spotlight to the game. And they won all their Twenty 20 games. They played to such a high standard, with the help, of course, of the growing numbers of enthusiasts filling the stands for the “big” game, the Black Caps playing India.
Then I read the Herald. The sports section had a full back page of Daryl Mitchell rightly enjoying his bowling moment. Where were the White Ferns? I found the Blues (any wins yet?), Irish and Scots rugby and then, oh dear, boxing. A huge photo of two fighters. In Melbourne!
Below the boxing, there the White Ferns were, at the bottom. Disappointing.
Emma Mackintosh, Birkenhead.
The virtue of taxation
Niall Robertson's letter yesterday beautifully set out the reason for taxation. We are all in this society together and society's cohesiveness is based on all being supported and all contributing as each can. Society develops rules over thousands of years to ensure its survival. When the rule makers treat some people poorly, society ultimately breaks down.
There is no god-given right to acquire huge levels of wealth at the expense of others and so society. If not corrupted, the power brokers make rules to reallocate income and wealth, i.e taxes. The French revolution and other revolutions showed that ultimately the people collectively will make the necessary changes to stop outof-control greed. The US, with its political corruption, shows the result otherwise. The top three individuals in the US own more assets than the lowest 168,000,000.
The fault is inflation, which favours the asset owners and if not taxed leads to the result many societies face. The NZ Taxation Review report, due out soon, may lead to new tax legislation and help put the ship on a more even keel to the benefit of all.
Dennis Pahl, Tauranga.
No shortage
In the news recently there have been a couple of stories of good, hard-working immigrants being deported, a couple who run a cafe in St Heliers and a flower-shop owner in Nelson who also happens to be a local firefighter. What I would like to know, is there a shortage of shop and cafe´ owners in New Zealand? And would there have been an uproar and online petitions if the people were Indian or Asian? John Capener, Kawerau.
Restaurateurs
There seems to be a bit of a kerfuffle about this Ukrainian family that is about to be deported in spite of running a successful Auckland restaurant obviously enjoyed and appreciated by the public. But I can see Minister Lees-Galloway’s point too. These people are not convicts, they do not have false passports, they do not deal in drugs and they are not members of any gang. In fact, they don’t meet any of his criteria to stay here and it is ludicrous to think that someone should be allowed to stay who wants to work and pay taxes. Yours not so sincerely,
Rod Kane, RD2 Henderson.
Social credit
Brian Gaynor in his Saturday column let the cat out of the bag. Banks create money. That’s how they make vast profits. He also mentions the small percentage of money issued by the Reserve Bank. Social Creditors have tried to get this message across for almost a century. They have been ridiculed for daring suggest the use of Reserve Bank credit at an administrative charge of 1 per cent for public works. The first Labour government financed the State Advances Corporation through the Reserve Bank to build the early state houses. The Reserve Bank also financed the successful NZ Dairy Board at 1 per cent. So why don’t finance ministers make better use of the Reserve Bank instead of going to trading banks and getting the Government and councils deeper into unrepayable debt?
This question can be answered by asking another question. Why are so many former politicians, including prime ministers and finance ministers, now on the boards of banks? Cushy jobs for their loyalty to the banks, not to the country.
Clark James, New Lynn.
Bank regulation
The article by Bryan Gaynor on the banks’ money creation was informative. The Commerce Commission covers industries and utilities like telecommunications, energy, airports and dairy. While the Reserve Bank may have an input it is surely time for banks to be regarded as just another utility and brought under similar controls.
D. Reid, Cockle Bay.
Freedom camping
A leftover from the previous Government, the “Freedom Camping Act 2011”, is causing ructions across the country. Local authorities are finding freedom camping and its consequences virtually impossible to deal with, and communities are resentful. The concept is unacceptable and unsustainable. It is ill-conceived, anti-community, and anti-environment.
Although passed supposedly to assist GDP, it is having unfortunate effects on smaller business like traditional camping grounds. It should be repealed. However, if the Government wishes to persist with this ill-conceived concept, it should use some of its revenue from its “visitor tax” to provide or buy a few areas of land for these well-heeled visitors and to also ensure close monitoring and enforcement of the appropriate rules on such sites.
A. P. Holman, Northcote Point.
Old term
In Margaret River they build houses with a skullery, according to the article comparing house building prices. No wonder it is cheaper to build in Australia if they have a room for excess skulls.
Mike Wells, Kawerau.
Offence to circus
Since circus acts are highly rehearsed, choreographed, and designed to entertain, I am curious which act Ms Marvelly has in mind when she calls her public display of affection toward her girlfriend “reduced to a circus act” by observers. Is it the clowns? Or an animal act? From someone who constantly reminds us of tolerance for all lifestyles and behaviours, she inappropriately equates the circus industry with a low standard of behaviour.
Dennis E. Morse, Ka¯ eo.