Our turn next

So Jacindazilla’s wrecking ball is targeting oil companies’ profits, presumably to expose perceived price gouging which is just a red herring. One cannot have much faith in oil companies, as by the very nature of the beast they will try to maximise profits wherever possible, however the Commerce Commission already has the power to investigate and deal with this. On the other hand, you couldn’t trust this covert Labour/Greens bunch on anything whatsoever, as there are virtually no controls or sanctions to police government lunacy.

Just look at the 20-year riches to rags story on Venezuela, with a projected inflation rate of 1.4 million per cent by the end of 2018.

Once Venezuela had a significant middle class that’s now disappeared in the crazy leftist /socialist upheaval over past 10 years, currency trashed, food shortages abound with up to 3 million refugees fleeing over the borders to Columbia, Chile, Brazil, Peru etc, plus many heading for Spain and the USA. All this nonsense is taking place in a country that has the world’s largest oil reserves, and is the eighth biggest exporter of oil in the world.

Labour/Greens were always hell-bent on driving our currency down, and have succeeded, by 12.5 per cent, for no gain, only pain. Then New Zealand was suddenly hit with ballooning oil prices the government imposed additional excise and regional fuel tax (around 16 cents per litre ) so it is little wonder New Zealand petrol prices, now said to be some of the highest in the OCED, have gone through the roof.

Overseas debt, of course, is up 12.5 per cent in $US terms.

Just consider, the government fuel tax takes around 70 cents per litre, plus GST equals 80 cents per litre, plus all the other associated garbage, so you can easily get to $1 plus per litre (even MBIE don’t have the exact figures).

Say the fuel tax take is $10 billion and only $4b is spent on roads and associated infrastructure etc, which means $6 billion goes to the government slush fund and is therefore not even spent on roads, and the shortfall comes

from general income tax.

Oh, and don’t forget that city and town roads funding is primarily ratepayers’ responsibility, not governments.

Trust this socialist neoMarxist lot at your peril, or be proactive at the next election and vote them out — they are profligate, arrogant, ignorant money-wasters lacking honesty, transparency, openness and accountability. To be fair, the Nats are no better.

Someone needs to spell out financials in plain English, specifying the total annual level of fuel sales (specifying types), the total tax/levies taken from those, defining how much is applied to roading and how much is allocated to the slush fund. A huge fiscal gap and rampant inflation awaits New Zealand at the end of this out-ofcontrol journey courtesy of the unhinged socialist engineering experiments.

The only conclusion to be reached is that politicians are doing the fleecing, and Kiwi citizens are being fleeced.

ROB PATERSON

Mt Maunganui

and the call seems worldwide, even if it has different titles. There are a number of definitions, although most include a study about being a citizen and their rights, which most students already seem to know, and their responsibilities, an area that students need further development on.

The number of areas that teachers have to address is growing swiftly, from the old topics of reproduction (and hopefully contraception) to include gun safety — as if that is really possible, politics — which many of the participants don’t even seem to understand, and diversity and its acceptance — a task that seems to be beyond the capacity of many ‘mature’ adults.

Oh, for the days when multiplication tables were one of the most difficult topics on the teaching programme.

Most of these are mature concepts that can’t be taught as facts and figures, but rather as a choice in life. These areas should really be handled by parents and the wider community but that is where students see these ‘uncivil’ actions occurring. These should be demonstrated by example, a situation that is becoming rarer in most countries, especially amongst the leadership groups.

Parents — they are your children, it is both your right and responsibility to prepare them for life, don’t just pass it on to some overworked teachers, yet again. DENNIS FITZGERALD

Melbourne