Give kids health passports

We fine people who bring in an apple from Australia, biltong from South Africa, other foods from Asia and elsewhere. We killed hundreds of thousands of cattle just to prevent the spread of one disease.

MAF works tirelessly to protect our forests and crops. We set traps to catch a single fruitfly. And publicise all of this.

Yet we do nothing to force parents to vaccinate their children. Do our plant and animals count for more than our children?

Every child should have a health passport issued at birth with all inoculations recorded therein. No child should be allowed in kindy or school without inoculations being up to date. Non-complying parents should be prosecuted. The state’s first duty is to keep our people safe, not just cows and crops.

Dr C G Marnewick, Bucklands Beach.

Long and short

The paramount responsibility of any government is the security of its citizens. On this measure this government is a failure, both short term and long term.

In the short term because of appalling inaction we have a serious measles epidemic in this country with our status of a measles-free country at risk of being withdrawn. When I moved to Rochester, Minnesota, in 1982 my daughter was refused admission to school before we could prove to their satisfaction she had been vaccinated. Surely this can be done in New Zealand?

The cost of this failure in terms of dollars and medical resource has already been horrendous and can only get worse.

The Government’s neglect in the long term may be even more serious. We have a superannuation system which virtually all financial pundits claim to be unsustainable and yet the Prime Minister has endorsed her predecessor’s inertia. It is easy to understand why politicians may not support Simon Bridges’ call for the eligibility age to be raised from 65 to 67 over 20 years, as they are able to sit back on their extremely generous secured, “self-authorised” plans. Lesser mortals will suffer when the piggy bank runs dry.

Rod Lyons, Muriwai.

Making tracks

Lauren White’s article on the need to refocus urban planning on trains (NZ Herald, August 30) gets it right. However, Auckland’s transport planners seem inherently averse to this approach. Apart from the City Rail Link, the current 30-year transport strategy includes not one metre of new passenger train route.

G W A Bush, Parnell.

Brexit busters

Democracy originated in ancient Greece where the people voted on major issues and those in power implemented the people’s wishes. The British parliament has chosen to ignore this basic duty.

For the last three years those who chose to remain have tried every means they could devise to overthrow the people’s decision including the last two prime ministers, both Remainers, one who ran away and one who tried to compromise with those for whom there is no compromise, only their own way.

But predictions of doom and gloom, public anti-Brexit demonstrations, the backstop, leaving with no deal, all are irrelevant when compared with the basic principle of democracy. At last, Britain has a prime minister prepared to fight back with as much determination as his opposition has shown. I voted remain but I hope Johnson succeeds and the enemies of democracy are finally defeated.

Gerald Payman, Mt Albert.

Drug funding

The emotional pressure on the Government and Pharmac over the purchasing of expensive cancer drugs for their loved ones is understandable.

But these bodies have a finite resource so when pressure is applied to buy expensive cancer drugs, another drug may have to be quietly unfunded. Those receiving the less high-profile drug may not have the confidence or the ability to stand up and assert their rights.

It’s a difficult position for the Government and Pharmac. And it’s nauseating to listen to our Opposition Leader denouncing the lack of funding and offering a plan with greater funding.

The best thing National Party members can do is to cajole their numbers into paying all taxes owed on business deals, industry expansions, housing profits etc and not use tax havens, clever accountancy or lawyers who know how to hide assets within trust funds, because that’s where our tax system is falling down. What should be paid in is not. We should all be adding to the support we are going to need, especially when sick.

Emma Mackintosh, Birkenhead.

Family time

Eric Murray is to be congratulated on his decision to spend more time with his autistic son. Hopefully he will be a role model for other rich and/or famous people. I am regularly bemused by older people retiring and saying they want to spend more time with their families. In most cases, their families have grown up or learnt to deal with their absence.

Danna Glendining, Taupo¯ .

Finnish line

Various correspondents have extolled Finland’s education model and believe it should be adopted here. But the success there derives in no small part from the vastly different socio-economic environment of that country.

Finland is a tiny, homogeneous, highly egalitarian, high-income nation with an extraordinarily high level of social cohesion forged through adverse historical experience and compulsory national service.

New Zealand is a nation of recent settlement with an undisciplined, dysfunctional, multicultural population without sense of national purpose or common interest except sport and consumption.

Finland’s teachers can focus on teaching. Our schools are expected to be world-class educational institutions and societal transformational agencies tasked with solving intractable social problems wrought by inequality and low wages.

The uncritical adoption of apparently successful foreign models can result in very different outcomes in an uncongenial environment.

John Gascoigne, Cambridge.

Child seats

As a heavy vehicle driver in a fast-growing urban area I make a plea to all parents and caregivers of infants. You load them into the car behind the driver’s seat, doubtless because outside the house the car is easier to access from that side.

When you park the car you are opening the rear door in the path of oncoming vehicles. You open that door, reach in, release the infant, take a step back to close the car door, take an extra step back and where are you? Right in the way of oncoming traffic.

It takes some time to stop a 10-tonne vehicle without the manoeuvrability of a car. I do not want the death of an infant and or caregiver, despite my innocence, on my conscience. Please think.

A D Kirby, Papamoa.

Caring nurses

I totally agree with Linda Robert (NZ Herald, August 30). I too did my hospital based training in psychiatric and general nursing. I feel that nurses trained in a hospital setting are more caring and better educated, as they have more understanding of human nature. They can, as Linda suggests, specialise in their chosen fields once they have completed their basic training. We would have better trained nurses who maybe could take some of the load off doctors.

Sally Shaw, Orewa.

Bridge design

The design of the Auckland Harbour Bridge was not an exercise in “engineerled, imagination free, hideously perfunctory, colonial number 8 wire mentality of ugly function over aesthetics” as Phil O’Reilly asserts (NZ Herald, August 29). The design team was led by Oleg Kerensky, a partner in the renowned British engineering firm Fox & Partners. Sir Percy Thomas, Past President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, was retained to advise on the aesthetics of the bridge and approve the design.

Replacing the existing three bridge structures with one 10-lane bridge of the same design as the four-lane original, with a second deck within the steelwork, will return to the 1950s design classic that was only visible for 10 years and provide maximum transport connectivity through the existing corridor.

The $2 billion bridge replacement can be funded by from the $5.1b that Government and Auckland Council have budgeted for roads and greenfield infrastructure in the next decade and the connecting rail lines can be funded from the $8.4b budgeted for rapid transit.