Beaches cycle city back 70 years

Auckland Council’s warning ( NZ Herald, January 4) that swimmers using more than 50 beaches are at “high risk of illness” because of sewage contamination highlights a disgraceful situation that puts the city back exactly 70 years when there was a widespread pandemic of the poliomyelitis virus, which is spread via raw sewage.

If it was not for current polio vaccination, which has eliminated the disease, hundreds of young people would once again suffer life-changing muscle paralysis and possible death. What kind of council priorities now exist when we have a Third World situation of widespread swimming water contamination, yet obscene amounts of money are being spent on much less important projects such as the present mania for hardly used cycleways? There is no possible debate.

Hylton Le Grice, Remuera.

Pollution plan

It was interesting to read about the sewage (E. Coli or faecal contamination) around Auckland’s beaches ( NZ Herald, January 4). Has anyone asked Auckland Council what its plan is to avoid these sorts of situations?

It must have a plan, as Auckland Council was one of the first ones to call out for a climate emergency.

Which, in my eyes, means you must look after the area you live in first and clean up the mess created.

Roelf Schreuder, Mauku.

Over-rated

How long has this been an issue at Auckland beaches now? The Auckland Council is seriously letting Aucklanders down in this regard and in a number of other ways as well.

There needs to be an urgent review of Auckland’s sewage and wastewater systems. Do they need to be extended or new systems put in place?

Auckland Council is more than happy to keep putting rates up but what services are Aucklanders actually getting in return?

All I can see is water restrictions, sewage pumping into some of our most popular beaches, overcrowded roads and a real lack of maintenance in regards to our public parks, walking tracks and footpaths. It is not good enough.

There needs to be some sort of accountability.

Before Auckland Council continues with approving new housing and construction projects, can it please ensure that Auckland has the infrastructure to support all these new developments?

Sarah Scholz, Sunnynook.

Whangamata¯ too far

It would seem there are those that think some police behaviour on that night was “unacceptable”.

Aside from the fact that if these wonderful members of our teenaged society lived in Trump Country they probably would have been tear-gassed.

Since when is it “acceptable” to throw bottles causing injuries, loot, steal and trash a business and surrounds? Worse still, not having to pay a cent in compensation to the business owner for the loss and damage, and council to clean it up, no doubt funded by tax and ratepayers.

I guess not everyone has the same take on “acceptable”. Debi Buxton, Taupo¯.

Turning point

Here’s a Waikeria Prison scenario that could challenge us.

NZ takes the situation seriously, as though the inmates are human beings.

It suspends punitive action and invites the Ombudsman in to listen to staff and inmates, to look searchingly at Corrections’ culture and conditions.

In learning accurately from this episode, the nation builds an enlightened policy that actively promotes dignity and decency.

Instead of being just another indignant prison eruption, Waikeria Prison 2021 becomes the turning point, establishing NZ as an outstanding leader in justice.

Or it becomes yet another opportunity for the letter writers to fume, while the system lengthens prisoners’ sentences and nothing changes.

David Cooke, Pt Chevalier.

Correct action

Your letters ( NZ Herald, January 5) seem to be dominated by correspondents who have a profound belief that only ministerial involvement will fix issues, whatever they maybe.

Minister Davis did the right thing by letting the professionals in Corrections manage the situation. His past performance in other roles proved he had little to offer in the way of skill or experience in any matters including prison unrest. To assume the politicians in any party are experts in all matters is naive. The fact that this was resolved without violence or significant injury is a credit to the professional staff involved.

Dragging in politicians will get you a headline, which is what the prisoners want, not what Corrections or the public need. You only have to look at the Ihumātao settlement to see what the cost of political interference brings; time wasted and significant cost to the public, then a settlement that is still disputed by some parties.

As an example, Covid has been mostly successfully managed by professionals and the key messages delivered by politicians, that’s the way it should be.

John Tizard, Howick.

Free Europe

Gwynne Dyer ( NZ Herald, January 4) is indeed correct in asserting Brexit has set the EU free. They will be able to assert their long-held wish to develop a European military presence (despite Nato being a huge success) and the euro will undoubtedly become universal in all member states (ask Greeks how that feels).

There has long been a fudge on the question of whether Europe wanted a federal constitution. Now it is clear. Those of us with a long memory recall Margaret Thatcher denouncing Monsieur Delors’ explicit desire for such a federal arrangement in her Bruges speech. She was in favour of a free market but preferred one agreed between nation states.

Ask any New Zealander if they would wish to belong to a federal Australasia, or a Canadian if they would wish to be part of an enlarged America merely because they were close neighbours and traded mostly with them, then you will realise why Brexit happened.

The Brexit conversation has been far too European-centric; the real growth in the world is elsewhere, as New Zealand has discovered and Britain will now try to emulate, unconstrained by red tape.

Martin Jacques, Belmont.

Economic answers

Gary Hollis says ” if you lined up all the economists in a straight line and asked them the way you should want to go they would all point in different directions” ( NZ Herald, January 4). That theory lines up with information I received when I won the prize for first place in Western Australia in the Economics exam for Chartered Institute of Secretaries. Of course I used a strategy for the exam and carefully read every article that year in the monthly magazine by the Sydney Professor of Economics. Sure enough, every question came from his articles, so I told him exactly what he had said, so

I was absolutely correct on every question. How could I not be?

The information I was told was that “every year, economics exam questions are the same but the answers change”. Much the same as Gary said.

Murray Hunter, Titirangi.

Plain disappointment

Being a close neighbour to the new and much celebrated (by Auckland Council, anyway) Te Komititanga public space, I would like to express my disappointment at yet another golden opportunity squandered.

Another sparse, desert-like area, which only encourages one to quickly move across the vast “Serengeti Plain” to seek refuge in the shade. It is an awful, paved, blue/grey area of nothing with little focus on bringing people together, contrary to the name and concept as per statements by the Auckland Council.

No international council representatives or landscape architects will travel to Auckland for any inspiration from this place. Where is the grass, water feature and shady trees? If only the designers had walked 200m south, they would have observed Takutai Square with children playing in the water feature and people gathering and enjoying the grassy area. Added to this is the council’s obsession with waterblasting the wooden seats twice a day, amid a water shortage. The ratepayers deserve both an explanation and a refund.

Annette Mills, Auckland Central.