Waikato Expressway

Drivers and the entire community should welcome the NZ Transport Agency starting construction of the Huntly Section of the Waikato Expressway next year.

Seven of the 10 sections of the expressway are now either complete or under construction. The three remaining sections are the critical last pieces of the jigsaw and will allow the expressway to deliver the safety and economic benefits it is on the verge of.

Not building the remaining expressway sections, as indicated by the Green Party, would throw away an enormous amount of hard work and opportunity, and put lives at risk.

The current highways struggle to safely handle the volumes of traffic on them. State Highway 1 from Huntly to Hamilton had the highest collective risk of any highway in the country. From 2007-2011 there were 41 fatal or serious injury crashes on it. The Hamilton to Cambridge stretch of SH1 is also one of our riskiest stretches of road.

SH 1 between Karapiro and Auckland carries a huge number of people and freight every day. Freight volumes are forecast to continue growing in the future, which is positive for businesses and jobs.

The Waikato Expressway will make every journey safer on a multi-lane, divided highway and journeys between Cambridge and Auckland will take 35 minutes less.

The AA supports the Waikato Expressway being completed in full for the safety and economic benefits it will deliver. TREVOR FOLLOWS AA President and Waikato AA District Councillor

Satire and facts

In a democracy debate is an essential tool, but debaters need to get their facts right. Edward J Lye asserts that I have not been following events closely; yet he has blurred the distinction between my term ‘‘thinking voters’’ and the previous sentence on ‘‘fringe

INSANITY STREAK

parties of the Left persuasion.’’ Possibly he has grasped a real connection?

Edward J Lye may believe every book that he reads, but I have been critiquing Nicky Hager’s writing for decades. As well as making factual errors, he uses many fallacious techniques (argumentum ad hominem, appeal to the revered authority, bandwagon appeal, and asserted conclusions). In 2003, the New Zealand Herald published an essay column in which I critiqued a slipshod article on defence by Hager.

Lye should have seen at least four satirical letters of mine that have poked fun at John Key. Similarly, I criticised much in Helen Clark’s time, especially the misuse of public funds for electioneering, including the ERECF slush fund that paid out millions of dollars of taxpayer funds to the unions. I see Helen Clark as more competent than the current Labour front bench. Like Saddam Hussein, she had to keep a tight rein on fighting factions. HUGH WEBB Hamilton

Party vote matters

The critical and most important vote in this election, and all MMP elections, is the Party Vote. Every Party Vote cast and counted in every Waikato electorate counts toward the final result. Party Votes will decide which party or group of parties will be the government after September 20. Whether MacIndoe or Moroney wins Hamilton West and whether Bennet or Allen wins Hamilton East is of little consequence in the scheme of things, except, of course, to them. Your panel of people ‘‘with a passion for politics’’ (19/8) should concentrate on the numbers of Party Votes they predict will be cast for whom across the province. Electorate seats, votes and candidates are really just hangovers from the days of First Past the Post. DANNA GLENDINING Ngahinapouri

Pest Management Plan

It is very disappointing that we have a group of predominantly new councillors who want to further delay the ratification of the Pest Management Plan. What planet are these councillors on? How many of them made submissions on this (prior to being elected to council).

This process has been going on for almost 2 years and had cost all of us over $200 000. We all are not going to get what we want from our submissions. There is only so much money to go around and that is the constraining factor. Did these dissenting councillors seek more funding in the just completed annual plan? I say to you that you set in motion a review in a few years and in the meantime work on getting more funding. Council staff do a good job considering the funds they have available. The problem is not going to go away but get worse. LEO KOPPENS Hamilton

Domestic violence

In his comments on my letter on the Cunliffe apologies, Peter Trim, a self-confessed school principal, prefers to ignore the lighter side of my reflections and instead conjures up a dark side. While my memories of school principals were certainly of a humourless lot, most of them showed themselves to be good, male role models, particularly the men.

But, unlike Trim or David Cunliffe, a man of character would find absolutely nothing with which he could identify in the vile, bestial behaviour of some low-lifes whom society loosely labels as men. Indeed, it is unmitigated contempt that men of character feel for both male and female perpetrators of domestic violence.

And it follows that the vast majority of men and women in

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Waikato society will feel deep sympathy for victims caught up in such abhorrent behaviour but, to feel a sense of shame, demands either that one feels some empathy with the perpetrator or is extremely patronising. Despite Trim’s protestations, it truly beggars belief that anyone could muster up even an ounce of empathy for those subhuman life-forms committing such behaviour. Ergo, people like Trim and Cunliffe need to be very careful where and how they profess shame lest they trivialise the issue of domestic violence. ROGER CLARKE Te Awamutu

Fighting suicide

Re: Article by Steve Edwards Silence the Killer – Teen Suicide

The figures released recently by

WAIKATO TIMES - THE WAY WE WERE

At its meeting yesterday the Waipa County Council took up a definite stand in regard to its attitude on war memorials, which are now the discussion of many parts of the province. When the communication from the chairman of the Raglan County Council seeking delegates’ attendance at a public meeting in Hamilton to discuss the project of a war memorial wing to the Waikato Hospital was read, immediately Cr Cavanagh spoke strongly in favour. Nothing could be of more service to the returned men, who had every right to be given the maximum of consideration. Judge Neil MacLean have shown a drop in the number of suicides but the number is still too high. Steve Edwards has highlighted one community’s response to addressing the silence around suicide. Too often the facts are replaced with myths and rumour. Silence is the danger and we need to speak more openly about suicide, provide education and information.

Judge Neil MacLean, Chief Coroner, would agree. Judge MacLean will be talking about the need to talk more openly about suicide in Wellington on October 31.

Supporting Families has organised a conference – Suicide: A time for openness.

The conference will be an opportunity to learn about how others have sought to build resilience in their communities. Judge MacLean will share his thoughts about the best way to talk openly about suicide, other speakers will share information and advice.

More information about the conference can be found on our website supportingfamilies.org.nz. FIONA PERRY National Coordinator Supporting Families in Mental Illness New Zealand

Pensioner housing

I wish to register my protest against the sale of pensioner housing.

I consider the cynicism of a council that gave a nearly one million dollar pass to a Rugby Union Club on its rent arrears, and currently discounts rent by a half million dollars annually to the same Waikato Rugby Club, absolutely appalling.

We additionally provide free transport to supporters, to and from, said Rugby games presumably because they will likely be unfit to drive due to alcohol consumption.

Many pensioners have worked all their lives to contribute to our lovely city.

Many worthy folk have not made vast fortunes in their lives, because they lived in a time before greed was made a virtue and the measure of a man became his bank account not his integrity.

Our social providers are A persistent decline in the popularity of dairy farming in New Zealand is confirmed by statistics of the Dairy Production and Marketing Board, said the chairman of the New Zealand Cooperative Dairy Company, Mr F. L. Onion, in Hamilton today. Mr Onion, who was speaking at the annual meeting of the company, said the board’s statistics showed that there were 49,300 dairy suppliers in the 1954-55 season compared with 34,000 today, a drop of 30 per cent. This was an even heavier rate of loss than had occurred in the United Kingdom over a similar period. exhausted and cannot continually take up the challenge of providing what our rates & taxes used to! Central government has an $81 billion dollar debt to contend with, so they won’t.

Shame, shame, shame on you who voted for this.

How does it square with the four wellbeings? I suppose the elderly aren’t worth including? CAROLYN MCKENZIE Candidate, Hamilton East Democrats for Social Credit

Thank you, St John

Last week I had an unfortunate medical event in my Hamilton home, that required emergency help.

There has been some recent negative publicity over unsatisfactory service some have experienced from the St John Ambulance, and I feel a need to report on the excellent help provided to me.

To the very supportive 111 operator, who handled the call in a sensitive and helpful manner, thank you.

To the three very concerned and competent ambulance officers who arrived, well-equipped and thorough in their actions, thank you.

To ACC whom I understand funded the service, thank you.

I acknowledge that some others may have, in their extremely stressful moment of need, not received the help they expected. However in my case this service was top quality and all people involved in providing such facilities deserve high praise. ALAN WALLACE Hamilton Students and staff should have an equal role in making all decisions about the running of Waikato University and Hamilton Teachers College, says college principal Charmaine Pountney. She told the university council meeting yesterday all council decision-making bodies should have equal numbers of students and staff. Any good university would acknowledge all participants, whether paid or unpaid, were of equal value. The council was debating a student request for representation on the council’s promotions advisory committee. The request was referred to the council’s staff committee.