Saving KiwiSavers

“Many happy returns” (May 26) hits the nail on the head when it points out that KiwiSaver management fees can rise even if a fund’s costs barely change. It could have gone further and said some management fees are pure gouging.

My fund, a major player, took out a hefty fee the moment I invested quite a large lump sum; that is, without its having earned me a single cent. And then it crowed to me about the growth of my wealth. So there’ll be no more investment from me until the fund changes its attitude and practices.

Christopher Johnstone (Grey Lynn, Auckland) THE STRAITJACKET FITS

The Labour Government’s insistence on following a National-type “fiscal straitjacket”, as it has been rightly called, belies its claim that it will be a transformative government.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said that neoliberalism has been a “failed experiment”, but she may tire of hearing just how neo-liberal her self-imposed straitjacket is. It must be remembered that it was a Labour government, guided by Roger Douglas, in 1984, that brought the global neo-liberal attack to New Zealand. The profound transformative nature of that move has fundamentally, and not surprisingly, sunk the neo-liberal into the soul of the Labour Party.

The Government’s insistence that this Budget is just the beginning of a long-term transformative move away from neo-liberalism towards a sustainable future is unconvincing. That we must have a fundamental transformation is clear, but it is not likely to happen until the Labour Party, with its neo-liberal soul, has disappeared from the New Zealand political scene.

Richard Keller (Wellington) LISTEN TO THE PATIENTS

Ken Mason is quoted in the story about the Government’s inquiry into mental health services (“Compassion fatigue”, May 5) as saying we should “listen to the people”. Yes, but listen to the right people: the patients. This inquiry needs to be about hearing from those who’ve been treated, and those who’ve been unable to get past first base.

I attended one of the public meetings. It was all very PC. But is this type of process going to bring about the change needed so those needing help can get it? Is this process going to lead to care that is appropriate?

The terms of reference prevent past injustices or present complaints from being dealt with. The inquiry, we’re told, is about the way forward.

But the lessons of the Treaty of Waitangi should be applied to mental health: there is no way forward until the injustices of the past are put right. There is no way forward when the advice of everyone but the patients is sought.

This is what has happened throughout the history of mental healthcare, and what have patients experienced? Lobotomies, deep-sleep treatment, forced ECT with no anaesthetic, drugs with horrendous side effects compulsorily administered. The patients must be listened to.

(Name and address withheld) THIRST FOR PETROL

Perhaps sharply increased fuel prices will influence how we choose and drive our cars ( Editorial, May 12). In recent years, the enormous proliferation of SUVs on narrow and congested Auckland city streets has been astonishing. Although not all of our vehicles are imported from the US, the vehicle culture certainly is.

As keen as we are to adopt an American style, we should pay attention to some important differences about vehicle use in our two countries. In the US, roads are wider and safer, petrol is much cheaper

and, in many states, emissions are strictly regulated. None of these factors applies in New Zealand.

Perhaps the most alarming truth about too much fuel used by too many vehicles is that while we complain about the inconvenience of our notorious traffic jams, we don’t pay enough attention to the quality of the air we are breathing while we sit in that traffic.

We have no periodic testing of vehicle emissions, and we are only waving our hands at the effects of our traffic-choked roads on the health of our population. In California, all vehicles are smog-tested every two years. Why not here? Why not now?

Barbara Callaghan (Kohimarama, Auckland) LETTER OF THE WEEK

Recent petrol price rises, apparently because of a worse exchange rate and more expensive oil, make Auckland’s impending fuel tax minor by comparison. Are suppliers

simply maximising profits, as they did last year?

Petrol pricing needs an urgent Government investigation to make prices fair all over New Zealand, instead of them being set to see what the market will bear, as is the case at present. Murray Hunter (Titirangi, Auckland)

ZUCKER PUNCH

The May 19 Technology column speculates about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s cognitive dissonance and the “sociopathic scene” in Silicon Valley.

Clues to the way the denizens of the Valley think can be found in the 2010 movie The Social Network, which chronicles the genesis of Facebook and illuminates Zuckerberg’s creepy character. In response to being repeatedly rejected by women with whom he attempted to have relationships, he created a website for his fellow frat boys to rate women they had sex with.

Like all sociopaths, he gained satisfaction from his behaviour, which spurred him (and subsequently similar others) to mine “the whole cesspit of human psychology”, to quote Facebook advertising machine co-builder Antonio García Martínez, for unfathomable payloads. Sure, create the beast, but then you have to keep feeding it … Marguerite Vanderkolk (Matakana)

WORDS WORTH 1000 PICTURES

Thanks to a Wordsworth entry (May 26), I recalled a T-shirt slogan that was doing the rounds sometime in the 1990s. It was “Shellfishness is Unconchionable”.

Following the example of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, perhaps those who exceed fisheries management quotas should be made to wear this T-shirt as well as

receive a fine. Maybe then they wouldn’t fritter away a natural resource. Paul Kelly (Palmerston North)

CLIMATE OF DOUBT

Correspondent David Gibbs ( Letters, May 26) criticises work by Victoria University’s James Renwick for not citing recent evidence that Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf appears to be stable (for now), saying its omission is “because it doesn’t fit” with alarmist interpretations of climate-change data.

He seems unaware that the research being discussed relates to the collapsing ice shelves of the Antarctic Peninsula and the accelerating erosion by warm currents of parts of the potentially unstable West Antarctic Ice Sheet – capable of raising global sea-levels by 6m when or if it melts completely.

“The cold war” (May 19) explains in some detail the main objectives of the climatechange research conducted by New Zealand universities, focusing on the many and varied effects of the changing Antarctic climate and the melting sea and land ice. The inescapable conclusion is that, to avoid seriously harming marine-based life and to protect the world from