Build it up

The solution to parking at the hospital is to build a three- or four-storey building on the parking area at the corner of Riddiford and Mein streets. Then allot one whole floor to the use of hospital staff only. Edna James, Berhampore

The thought that the private sector will absorb these people when the country is in a technical recession is exactly that. It won’t happen.

Furthermore, the simple blunt instrument of instituting cost savings across the public sector will not address issues of performance, etc. Other measures and KPIs would deliver on this.

To close, I ask the current coalition, with these Kiwis out of work, what does it deliver for our wider collective society when these people can’t then keep a roof over their heads, feed and clothe their whānau?

Fortunately there is a simple solution.

More than 100 countries now have a sugar tax, as recommended by the World Health Organisation.

Recent research by Otago University’s department of public health has revealed that when Tonga placed a 20% tax on sugary drinks and junk food, consumption reduced by a similar amount. This tax is now not only reducing the cost of imports to Tonga, thereby improving the balance of payments, it is providing helpful revenue to its government.

With the research clear now on sugary drinks causing obesity, type II diabetes, heart disease, dementia and some cancers, reduced consumption will improve the health of a population. This will significantly reduce healthcare costs for the 100 countries adopting a sugar tax and improve “healthspan” quality of life for their citizens.

Such an easy win-win should be a no-brainer for the National-led coalition.

However, I suspect this positive initiative will be stopped by the “junk food lobbyists” in the Beehive, controlling our elected representatives like puppets.

Shame on them and such a shame for our country.

MJ Young, Breaker Bay

George Spiro Kanelos, Broadmeadows

Peter Waring, Eketahuna