Letters: KiwiSaver subsidy increases wealth gap; no real accountability for Covid-era decisions

NZ Herald

02-05-2025

John Trezise, Birkenhead.
MMP
What a great piece of writing by Bruce Cotterill reflecting on our MMP system of voting after 30 years of experimentation. I don't know many who support MMP for all the reasons Bruce digs into. A best-case start point is the reduction in MPs to 90; sensible if not timely. Will our leaders listen? Initially not likely because of self-interest.
Daily we see MPs not listening to understand but simply listening to formulate their reply. When the next election comes around a groundswell of community voices across every region could shift many with blinkers on.
Linda Melrose, East Tāmaki Heights.
Covid reflections
Sir Ashley Bloomfield, our former director-general of health, has recently reflected on his time leading the pandemic response, saying he wishes he had kept a diary. That may be personally helpful to him, but the more pressing concern is what we now know: the extended Auckland lockdown – lasting four months – could likely have been avoided if New Zealand had acted faster and paid a premium to secure vaccines earlier, as other countries did.
That delay cost us dearly. Businesses failed, mental health suffered and the economic fallout will be with us for a generation. But the damage wasn't just economic. The extended lockdowns and the harsh MIQ regime kept families separated, prevented dying relatives from saying goodbye, and stranded thousands of New Zealanders overseas – many of them citizens desperate to return home. That is not a success story; it is a national trauma.
Dr Bloomfield was very well paid to do his job. He was the most powerful unelected official in the country during the crisis. Yet there has been no real accountability for the choices made under his watch – choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and better international comparisons, were far more damaging than necessary. A knighthood is supposed to be a mark of exceptional service. In this case, it feels like a reward for presiding over one of the most divisive and economically destructive public policy periods in our history. We should acknowledge Dr Bloomfield's service. But given the human and economic cost of the decisions made, the awarding of a knighthood was – and remains – excessive. It should be reconsidered.
Champak Mehta, Remuera.
David Seymour
I see David Seymour is getting a bit of Trumpian-like practice in readiness for his takeover of the deputy prime minister duties at the end of this month. Declaring that the Government has too many ministers and ministries, which need some serious reviewing, has a familiar ring to it.
The question is whether he will be doing the hatchet job himself or will he enlist the soon-to-be redundant Elon Musk, as his duties with Doge are just about done? He managed to decimate the democratic system in the US in under 100 days.
I'm sure Act Party members and MPs would be proud to achieve what he did so efficiently and effectively in such short time.
Jeremy Coleman, Hillpark.
Public transport
In reply to a letter from Susan Grimsdell, there is no such thing as free transport. There is no public transport system in the world that does not operate without a subsidy. This subsidy has to come from Joe Public in the forms of levies on your rates or government taxes. If these people believe in free transport, are they prepared to see a large jump in their rates?
Auckland, unlike Wellington and Christchurch, does not have a central feed with everyone coming into a central point. Auckland being so long (Bombay to Warkworth) can not have or sustain an efficient transport system, thus making people rely on cars.
Auckland's congestion is a result of the stopping of all major road works in the late 80s, but kept increasing the population, and as a result you will never have adequate resolve to the density problem.
Trevor Green, Matamata.
Auckland's stadiums
Paul Lewis' analysis of the Auckland Stadium debate has sound merit. I was a supporter of Eden Park until I read the proposed upgrade keeps the number 1 stand as far away from the field as it is now by pretending to be closer with extra seating. I have been on the top deck of the number 1 stand and you cannot recognise the players or read the number on their back.
So rationalisation of Auckland stadiums makes sense. The Wynard Quarter location works for transport and proximity to hospitality and I understand it is cheaper – we certainly need a better value as New Zealand becomes more financially challenged. Perhaps a fixed-price contract like Christchurch stadium would be a good idea. Paul's humor was appreciated.
Gary Carter, Gulf Harbour. A quick word
As traffic congestion goes Auckland is ranked 22nd in the world, which is pretty high up when you consider the number of cities globally,and still makes our traffic congestion worse than New York.
Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.
A picture is not always worth a thousand words. However, Rod Emmerson's broken and despondent Statue of Liberty of May 1 was. How much poorer our reading life would be without insightful cartoonists such as him.
Bernie Allen, Hobsonville.
While Nicola Willis and the Government seem to be discussing the possibility of means testing KiwiSaver and Best Start why is there no discussion of means testing Superannuation? While lots of elderly people need Superannuation, there are clearly many rich people who don't. Why doesn't the Government means test Superannuation and spend the money in more needy areas?
Danna Glendining, Taupō.
I read with interest a letter by Emere Mcdonald (May 1) expressing shock that someone was fined $7000 for feeding some birds. Emere clearly does not understand feeding human food such as bread is very dangerous and can actually kill or harm all birds.
There are signs in Auckland stating this in many parks there. And the same signs also appear in most London parks. While I think a $7000 fine is a bit excessive it is not clearly understood by most people birds do not thrive on human food.
Michael Walker, Blockhouse Bay.
Nicola Willis questions, 'Is that (Best Start payments) really necessary when there's a two-income household?'
Making ends meet in the current economic climate is nigh on impossible for many two-income families working long hours on low wages. Does Nicola Willis even know how little anyone on the so-called 'living wage' earns?
Sarah Thompson, Papakura.
There has been much discussion recently on educational standards, but I have heard nothing about our quality of speech. From the Prime Minister down, including members of Parliament, school principals and many of our media, we are being continuously barraged with a plethora of 'ums', 'aaahs' and 'you knows'. How can we function efficiently as a society if our communication is sub standard? I would like to see our leaders set us a better example, along with more emphasis in schools on oral communication.
Trevor Brown, Opotiki.
The realities of current so-called 'reality' television shows are an opaque mixture of either real life and genuine human dramas or they are thespian staged, concocted and 'unreal' play acting. The faux variety productions have the negative effect of casting doubt upon the genuine article. The producers of these programmes have an obligation to issue a warning that some parts of their dramas are not actually true-to-life events and others are as they must accurately report, just 'based on real-life events'. Still others ... are fictional.
Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.
David Seymour wants to shrink the number of Cabinet ministers and ministries – including Racing, which won't go down well in a certain quarter. Do us all a favour, David – start the cull by stepping down yourself.
Peter Beyer, Sandringham.
Regarding the 'Total ban on prisoners voting spiteful' (editorial May 2), the current law that those serving less than three years in jail can vote and is true and fair for those people and our current electoral system. So is the sole reason to ban all people in jail from voting solely because the Government believes the majority of people in jail would vote Labour and it does not want their votes to be part of the next election? Am I wrong?
Murray Hunter, Titirangi.