State can’t sort health crisis alone
The Herald feature relating to the crisis at the [Auckland District Health Board] regarding employment stress, lack of beds and funding issues failed to provide answers to these issues.
To tip more money into the yawning chasm that is “healthcare” will prove inadequate, instead the private health sector must grow and ease the burden faced by area health boards.
Tax deductibility for health insurance premiums should be reintroduced to encourage more New Zealanders to take personal responsibility for their health needs and in doing so shorten the waiting lists and free up beds in state facilities.
An early statesman once said “no man should prosper at the expense of another’s pain and suffering”. The state cannot “go it alone”. P.J. Edmondson, Tauranga. The cultural cringe virtue signalling of Green MPs Golriz Ghahraman and Julie Anne Genter over the handshake snub of a female by an Iranian trade delegation borders on diplomatic treason.
I can understand that, as two people who are not born and bred New Zealanders, Ghahraman and Genter do not hold our country’s sovereignty dear.
I can even acknowledge that both women are being consistent in their ideology in striving to undermine Western society writ large.
What I can’t accept is that a foreign delegation deigns to come to our country, and pre-supposes that they will impose their stone-age misogynistic cultural practices on to us, and two female representatives of our Parliament defend them for doing so.
Congratulations to Kieran McAnulty and Rino Tirikatene for standing up for Labour MP Jo Luxton over this issue, and for defending the core premise of equality.
Ghahraman and Genter: Get a clue, and do likewise the next time around.
Dylan Tipene, Ranui. investigation into the illegal employees scam in the construction industry. This deserves an award. It is shocking and we should all feel angry about it.
The responsibility for this state of affairs can be laid firmly on the Key National Government. They were so slack and cavalier about immigration numbers coming into New Zealand and did nothing to reduce or carefully control them. Just as they would not limit house buying by foreigners. This excessive inflow of course boosted the economy in crude terms, for which they claimed credit.
Doing nothing was the hallmark of the nine years of Key administration. This is the result. Thank you Mr Peters for ensuring they didn’t get into government again.
Yet another mess of theirs for Labour/ NZF/Greens Government to deal with.
Russell Armitage, Hamilton. So, Donald Trump has found the perfect solution to the terrible school shootings; it’s so simple, arm the teachers! Why has nobody thought of that before?
He and his NRA mates trot out the “good guys with guns versus bad guys with guns” nonsense, but I wonder if any of them has ever set foot in a real classroom and observed teachers at work. One of the first points they might notice is that not all teachers are “guys”. When I was teaching, I usually wore a T-shirt and a simple skirt or pants without deep, lined pockets. Where would I have concealed a weapon? Another fact that might surprise them is that teachers move around the classroom, interacting with their students and concentrating on helping them with their projects instead of sitting down facing the door with their hand hovering over their “concealed weapon” just in case that bad guy walks in and not the lunch monitor. Don’t forget this bad guy comes prepared to shoot and knows the teacher might have a weapon so who do you think he aims for first? He won’t wait until the teacher has fumbled for the gun and taken off the safety catch.
The only people benefiting from this “so called solution” will be the weapon manufacturers being handed the golden opportunity to make millions by selling all those guns. They will love Donald Trump forever. Marian Stolte, Orewa.