There’s need among the elderly too

Shamubeel Eaqub’s recent statements that all older people are wealthy and do not need superannuation, and the money should be used for a children’s benefit, are unworthy of an excellent writer and speaker (A ‘super’ for children, Dec 15).

The statistics he uses to back this up are older ones. Recent statistics show the beginnings of poverty among older people. The housing crisis will be contributing to this.

Many people were not able to buy their own homes. Eaqub writes well about generation rent. The phenomenon applies to older people too.

He says that older people have been collecting money for 60 years or more and do not need any state help. Many people lost jobs partway through their working lives and never got another one. The discrimination against employing older people is real and horrible.

Others trying to make provision for older age lost money in company crashes and never caught up again.

I was forced to retire early because my employers could not be bothered to make provisions for my disabilities.

Superannuation regulations notice people who have more money than allowed and tax them on it.

I do agree there should be a universal child allowance but not at the expense of any other needy group, which includes many older people.

Mary Hobbs, Aro Valley

Hypocritical position

I agree with Pamela McKirdy (Letters, Dec 17) that Mark Kinvig is in dreamland. I have experienced the same problems reporting water leaks.

Furthermore, in the original article Where is Wellington’s water going, Kinvig said ‘‘every drop people save will reduce our carbon emissions and energy use’’.

A somewhat hypocritical position as a couple of years ago a Wellington Water spokesman said ‘‘in the grand scheme’’ a leak of a million litres a day was not that much. Well, a million litres is about 20 billion drops and represents over 12 years’ residential use for a typical Wellington resident.

Kinvig also compared Wellington’s residential water use to that of Melbourne, Auckland and Dunedin. Firstly, he needs to get the numbers right. Melbourne would love to be at 150 litres/ resident per day – their long-term target is 155 litres – and secondly he should be

comparing like with like.

His comparisons give little confidence that Wellington Water actually understands the various factors that impact water consumption – household size, climate, saving incentives, recycled water use and so on.

Regarding the carbon emissions Kinvig cares about so much, Wellington Water has emailed me that it does not have the basis for that information. Frank Cook, Mt Cook

Pamela McKirdy’s response to my comment that ‘‘every drop saved is a win for the environment’’ is understandable.

Over the past five years, we’ve seen a 40 per cent increase in water reticulation leak reports across the region. And in fact, with summer approaching, we’re expecting leak reports to rise again.

Keeping up with that increase has been a challenge – and in some cases, we haven’t been able to. We prioritise leaks, attending urgent ones within hours. Nonurgent leaks take days, and sometimes getting underground service reports can add to that delay.

We’ve been keeping on top of the urgent work, but for non-urgent leaks, we’re not meeting council targets of resolution within 5 days (Wellington and Porirua cities) or 15 days (Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt). These targets are set in council Long-term Plans.

Leaks are caused by age, pipe condition, pressure and movement. Over 40 per cent of water networks are made of brittle material vulnerable to earth movement; the 2016 Kaiko¯ ura earthquake is a likely factor in the increase.

We’re talking with our client councils to plan the best response to this change. We’re also using smart technology to improve network monitoring, and managing water pressures to reduce the strain on pipes.

These things will make a difference. In the meantime, I hope that Pamela and others will continue to report leaks they see, even if they have to be a little more patient until they’re fixed.

Mark Kinvig,

Wellington Water

Spend it on trains

Jacinda Ardern called climate change ‘‘my generation’s nuclear-free moment’’ so why on planet Earth is the Labour Government planning to spend billions of dollars reprising National’s absurd Roads of National Significance?

I recently went on the train from Masterton to Wellington and was stunned to see it went much more slowly than when I last frequented it, in the 1960s – nearly 60 years ago.

If Labour has a spare $12 billion lying around that it feels it needs to spend to lift the economy (and thereby produce more carbon emissions), why not spend the whole lot on our woeful public transport infrastructure?

Simon Louisson, Seatoun

Nats’ spending spree

Roosevelt once said: ‘‘Governments can err . . . [but] better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.’’

Now that National has begun its big electoral spend-up, the relevance of those words is very clear. We now have a government that tackles problems, not one that hides them, and must ensure it has a second term.

Anthony Dreaver, Raumati Beach

An e-bike for everyone

The cost of doubling the Mt Vic tunnel is $700 million. For that price-tag, we could buy everyone in Wellington City a $3000 e-bike. Then we wouldn’t need another tunnel!

Business car parking is currently exempt from Fringe Benefit Tax, and so are some vehicles.

On-street car parking is also hugely subsidised; if central city dwellers paid the true cost of their resident parking, car ownership would plummet.

So why not subsidise e-bikes? Or at least exempt them from Fringe Benefit Tax too? And public transport while we are at it. Then see if we’d need another tunnel.

In 10 years’ time, we may be sharing automated cars instead of buying our own. Given that cars are only used 5 per cent of the time, this could free up hectares of city space. Who knows what infrastructure we would need then?

Far better to accelerate the uptake of new technologies than build infrastructure that could be obsolete within a decade.

Some potential cyclists will be put off by the rain. But that only affects commuters one day a month – and, besides, Wellingtonians aren’t made of sugar!

The final objection some raise against riding is that we don’t have decent cycling infrastructure.

Which is exactly the point. For $700m, we could afford it easily.

Geoff Simmons, leader of TOP & Wellington resident

Followers of Islam

You report that a Stuff survey has found that Ma¯ ori and Muslim people are the prime targets of racism.

The problem with this finding is that ‘‘Muslim’’ is not a race but the term for those who follow Islam. Pa¯ keha¯ , Ma¯ ori, Pacific people, Asians and any other race are free to follow Islam.

More correctly those Muslims who experience discrimination, more likely to be women, do so because they wear attire that identifies them as such.

Many New Zealanders, myself included, are offended by the wearing of symbols of a religion dictated 1400 years ago by a misogynistic warlord and which infer a woman’s duty is to subordinate herself to a man.

The one positive of migration from majority Islamic countries is that women are freed from many forms of exploitation. But one wonders if continuing to wear the veil is due to being put under domestic duress to comply. John Morrow, Island Bay