Will courts have to intervene?
Is this country facing a constitutional crisis?
In the Government’s haste to fulfil its “100-day” agenda, significant and what could be far-reaching legislation has been rushed through, thus bypassing the select committee process.
How many of these “rafferty rules” are going to withstand the scrutiny of the courts? And has enough consideration been given to the certainty that there will be a proliferation of legal challenges invoking the NZ Bill of Rights 1990, which specifically protects the rights of NZ citizens?
Already the tyro Minister of Justice, Paul Goldsmith, has made the fatuous suggestion that such overriding legislation could be “cancelled”.
Clearly, Mr Goldsmith is unaware of Fitzgerald v Muldoon (1976), where Chief Justice Richard Wild declared that a statement by the then prime minister breached Article 1 of the Bill of Rights 1688, which prohibited the suspension of the law by regal authority, and that a law which had been enacted to remove the excesses of the Stuart kings still applied.
Will it again be the courts which have to remove the legislative excesses of the current NZ Government?
Leister Monk, Linwood
Funding rail
Minister of Transport Simeon Brown says it’s unfair for road users to help fund rail via road user charges etc.
I can’t see why.
The purpose of any economic or social policy put into place by government is to redistribute the interests, assets, or income of society on our behalf.
He might as well say it’s unfair for older people to subsidise younger ones, or vice versa.
Filling potholes at a cost of half a billion dollars seems a waste of taxpayers’ money if, at the same time, the Government makes it more likely to have heavy transport on roads.
Patrick Doyle, Hoon Hay
Don’t do it
How about the Government not restoring interest rate deductibility for landlords on the interest they pay on loans (which won't be shared with the tenants, as we well know) and instead using it to pay the health workers, especially our hardworking nurses, who have been waiting years for pay already owed to them?
It would transfer money from those who have to those who are owed for their hard work (and maybe keep a few from leaving New Zealand for Australia).
L McInnes, Upper Riccarton
Balanced, sustainable
In response to Bill Horsley’s letter (March 11) about balance on water management, being a farmer and water user does not necessarily mean I am in total support of ECan’s management style.
Irrigators today are bound by very strict consents controlling annual water take, water metering, soil moisture meters to control over-use of water and water applied by very efficient pivot irrigators.
Farmers comply to “best farm practice” and “water management plans” audited annually. Creek and river users abide by ECan’s strict minimum flows. Compliance comes with substantial cost to water users.
Under these controls water management is balanced and sustainable for all users.
Based on global research, New Zealand and Chile have many times more fresh water available to their land mass compared to other countries on the planet. All we need is common sense management.
I share my thinking with Bob Semple of the 1930s. It is hard to imagine what the economics of our agricultural nation would be without irrigation and hydroelectricity. I have responded to both Bill’s letters with facts.
Alan Crowe, Rangiora
Library service
A bouquet to the staff at Christchurch City Council and library services.
A friend of mine realised that she had left her keys in Sumner Library long after it closed on Sunday. After a few phone calls a very kind librarian phoned, and offered to open up late on Sunday evening to hunt for her car and house keys.
Service like this is above and beyond the call of duty and was greatly appreciated.
Thankfully the keys were in a safe place ready to be collected. I will not name the kind librarian due to privacy issues, but I have thanked her in person.
Major Paul Grainger, Sumner
Charging cyclists
The discussion about whether or not cyclists should be charged for using public roads are, quite frankly, a waste of brains and time.
It is especially so when, to combat climate change and for the sake of health and fitness, motorists are being encouraged to abandon their cars and get on their bikes.
One big issue here is enforcement. How would it be policed?
Would bicycles have to display a licence plate, or would cyclists have to carry evidence that they had paid the fee?
Would parking wardens be able to issue infringement notices?
What about cyclists who ride ‘off road’? Should they be charged?
Then there are the children and teenagers who ride to school.
Should they be exempt from the payment?
When they are out of uniform it'll be like a game of “spot the difference” between teenagers and younger (and even sometimes older) adults, many of whom look and act like teenagers.
This proposal is never going to fly.
Ian Badger, Christchurch Central
Harebrained, cynical
The Biden administration’s plan to build a port to deliver aid to Gaza is harebrained and appears to be a deeply cynical attempt to regain some of the political support it has lost through its ongoing backing of Israel.
Thousands of Gazans are dying of starvation as I write.
The need for aid is immediate and could be addressed without delay if the IDF allowed the hundreds of trucks denied entry to get through.
So much for the ruling of the International Court of Justice, ordering Israel to ensure aid and services reach Palestinians under siege in Gaza.
Unlike President Reagan, who was prepared to intervene and call a halt to Israeli military activity in 1982, for example, Biden pretends to be powerless when a single phone call could stop the conflict.
Graham French, Woolston