Pursuit of Rewa trial a new low

I thought a legal nadir had been achieved in New Zealand’s criminal justice history when David Bain was re-tried for his family murders. But to seek, with overt police thrust, another trial for charges of murder against Malcolm Rewa calls into question, once again, the ethics of justice on the part of the police. Surely, the police ought not to use Rewa as a scapegoat in order to redress their wrong decisions in the first place of focusing exclusively on Teina Pora? I sincerely hope the High Court see it my way.

Nicholas Lyon Gresson, QSM, Parnell.

C’mon team

Less than 10 days out from the opening of America’s Cup racing Emirates Team New Zealand is on the back foot already. I joined Team New Zealand in 1996. If our team doesn’t win this time I may have to wash my hands of them, but I have faith in our guys to bring the cup home to where it should be, in New Zealand.

Loyal Kiwi fans were let down in San Francisco so just do it, guys. Bring the old mug back home.

Gary Stewart, Foxton Beach.

Tax write-off

Labour’s recent suggestion to remove negative gearing from rental properties is fair enough. As a landlord, several years ago my husband and I used negative gearing on a rental to not only provide us with several tax free years but also to reduce our income so both our sons qualified for full student allowances. The property was purchased for our sons to rent during their time at uni and required significant maintenance so plenty of opportunity to negatively gear. The taxpayer kindly allowed us to have a tax holiday and also relieved us of the financial burden of supporting our sons.

Susan Broad, Katikati.

Investors speculate

Nick Kearney in his Dialogue article yesterday seems confused about the definition of “speculator”. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a speculator as, “A person who invests in stocks, property, or other ventures in the hope of making a profit”. By definition any purchaser of property is a speculator if the prime purpose for owning a piece of property is to secure monetary gain. The terms “investor” and “speculator” can never be mutually exclusive except when a narrow and arbitrary distinction has been applied for the purpose of confusing the public.

Christine J. Tregonning, Browns Bay.

Tax attractions

Mum and Dad investors are able to put their nest eggs in banks’ financial schemes that reward the client and pay a fair tax. The reason they go for residential rental investment is greed. It is tax-free and taxdeductible. Mums and Dads investing in rentals should be going guarantor for their kids’ mortgages and investing elsewhere.

Ian Wilson, Saint Johns.

Treating suicide

Mike King’s resignation deserves a more considered comment than that offered so far by the Government. The sad fact is that what he asks for is not realisable given the scientific state of knowledge about suicide. We do not know how to prevent suicide except that it is a very unusual outcome of a whole host of factors which are detrimental to healthy development of our children and young people.

We could throw up our hands and say we can’t do anything, or we can make our best guess as to what might do some good. Whatever we do is much more likely to affect attempted suicide than completed suicide but the real benefit would most likely be on the emotional distress experienced by a much greater number of young people and their whanau.

If we as a country were really serious about improving mental health we would address the larger issue of disadvantage. The Child Poverty Action Group has just launched a scholarly review on the effects of deprivation on mental health. The evidence is overwhelming — disadvantage is a killer in all kinds of ways.

We need a radical shift from looking at suicide to the whole problem of our pathological social environment for a substantial minority of our population. John Scott Werry MD, Emeritus Professor

of Psychiatry, University of Auckland.

The conservation show

We have Maggie’s Conservation Department show, starring Maggie Barry and the Ministry of Tourism as the prime sponsor. Tonight on the show we will tell you how to get more tourists into New Zealand with a subornment called the Conservation Department. We will show you how the Conservation Department’s core focus is no longer the environment, flora and fauna, it is about tourists and making them happy. Later on, viewers will see how we pledge money to focus on things not related to core conservation. It’s a sad show that’s currently playing out in short-term thinking by a Government asleep at the wheel.

Andrew Wicks, Te Atatu Peninsula.

Don’t blame phones

I am a 13-year-old iPhone owner and I want to share my thoughts on the article “ihunch” which suggests back and neck pain statistics are “skyrocketing”. Who says phones are the biggest cause of this hunch? In my English class we decided to put this to the test. We found reading a book was the most hunching activity.

This hunch is a problem that has been around for decades, so why are we blaming phones and devices as you even say that grandmothers and great grandmothers have the same problem as teens today. So maybe we all need to straighten up and stop blaming phones and devices for everything.

Samantha McClellan, Taupo.

Trump coverage

Bruce Pedersen is aghast at the “leftleaning bias” of the Herald against Donald Trump. Even some right-leaning Republicans are aghast at Trump’s behaviour. This shows he is an ignorant, bombastic blunderer who ignores advice and is totally unsuited to be President of the United States. The media and the public will show respect if it is earned, not when great power is abused. The US electoral system needs overhauling to prevent anyone like Mr Burns from The Simpsons taking over.

Geoff Barlow, Remuera.

Outdated fire levy

The Minister of Internal Affairs, Peter Dunne, justifying the changes to the Fire Service Act, states those opposed to them “seem unwilling to make any attempt to learn.” In his column he stated, “The insurance levy has the great benefit of being a long-standing arrangement in this country.” From this statement it would seem it is the minister who is unwilling to learn. Instead of taking this opportunity to resolve this funding anomaly the minister justifies its continuation on the grounds that “this is the way we have always done it”.

Any study of the origins of this funding system surely shows that the system belongs in a bygone era. Would the Government consider funding the armed services or police in this manner? If not, why are they prepared to continue to use this model to fund the equally essential emergency services?

Peter Kelly, Glendene.

Tokyo lesson

It is hoped Bill English will take time to look at Tokyo and reflect on how it compares with the likes of Wellington and Auckland in particular. Tokyo and the Yokohama metropolitan areas are home to 33m people and in the Ginza there is no tagging defacing walls, litter laying in gutters and blowing up and down streets, no homeless individuals sheltering in the doorways, no police and their squad cars with flashing lights and screaming sirens deafening pedestrians by day and night.

Bill English and his Government are committing millions of dollars for more police officers where perhaps a lesson from the Japanese could be taken.

Proud Japanese simply do not break the law, do not risk shame and dishonour, or pay the price which by comparison is deservedly and known to be tougher than ours. Ian Girven, Orewa.

Council website

I would like to reassure Michael Dawson and all Aucklanders that the Auckland Council website is secure. All pages where Aucklanders carry out financial transactions are encrypted and are compliant with payment card industry security standards.

On May 10 the council updated its server infrastructure to the latest encryption standards, removing older standards that generated the warning on the site. They had been in place to accommodate Aucklanders using older versions of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

We have investigated Mr Dawson’s concerns and can confirm no personal or financial data has been compromised. I take this issue seriously and want Aucklanders to know that their information is safe with us. Mark Denvir, Director ICT,

Auckland Council.