Art, beauty, and entertainment
A couple in our seventies, we visit the city centre frequently to enjoy Tu¯ ranga, the art gallery and the museum, to shop at Scorpio Books and Ballantynes. We walk the new path by the river, explore the laneways, borrow films from Alice in Videoland, drink coffee at the Arts Centre or in New Regent St.
We delight in the ease and many options for parking, the new facilities for cyclists, the wonderful grid system for traffic and the many facilities for pedestrians, though there could be more.
I suggest that the lack of people visiting the city centre is not the fault of the transport planners but of those who publicly complain about changes, most of which have made the city centre better, easier to access, and will hopefully continue to do so in the future.
We need positive comments instead of misleading remarks that keep people away, as we watch our lovely city come to life again, a meeting place for its residents, a place of art, beauty and entertainment. Susan Cambridge, Cashmere
Population growth
Dr Pat McIntosh has touched the matter with the point of a needle, and exposes the truth that humanity refuses to see. Far too many people.
We are cutting down our rainforests, fishing out the sea, polluting the biosphere, land, sea, and air, causing climate change, and presiding over, and are responsible for, the sixth great extinction of life on Earth. We have become de facto curators of life on this planet, and so far we could not have done a worse job.
We are trashing the planet and causing climate change. But no politician or business leader anywhere will point to the root cause of all the problems: the world is overpopulated by humans by a factor of at least 10.
It’s not the economy, stupid, it’s the environment. Mankind must live within the boundaries of what the planet can sustainably provide in order to survive. If we don’t change our lifestyle very soon, our days are numbered. I predict our civilisations will crash before the end of this century. What a terrible tragedy.
Alan Walsh, Rangiora
House questions
An obvious ploy, used increasingly by National, is to keep asking questions in the House they know the person has no direct responsibility for.
For example, Simon Bridges (Dec 5), re Karel Sroubek, maintained Jacinda Ardern wouldn’t answer questions for which she had no direct responsibility and couldn’t possibly know.
This is intellectual dishonesty in the extreme. The Speaker was forced to used Standing Orders to stop Bridges blatantly grandstanding.
Ursula J Rose, Christchurch Central
Walk-out
I was appalled to learn about the National Party walk-out of Parliament after Simon Bridges and Gerry Brownlee were kicked out for inappropriate conduct. It is essential that MPs conduct themselves appropriately during parliamentary proceedings. That includes submitting to the rules administered by the Speaker.
New Zealanders must reject polarising actions like this walk-out, a stunt intended to foster conflict rather than constructively address an issue. What Mr Bridges is doing is to stir up division for its own sake.
Do New Zealanders want to become like the United States, where Republicans and Democrats cannot engage in civil discourse, and where the real goal is to disrupt ‘‘the other side’’, rather than to pass good laws and develop good policies? National’s strategy is a leaf straight out of the US Republican party playbook. Mr Bridges is acting far too much like Newt Gingrich did in the US Congress in the 1990s. The divisiveness that he preached has taken over American politics. And he is now known as the man who destroyed American politics.
New Zealanders, regardless of party preference, want a Government that is functional, where party differences do not turn into pub brawls and taunting. All MPs need to be held to that standard.
Lee Heller, Takaka