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Otago Daily Times

Letters to the Editor: Queenstown, Luxon, and clean energy

Today's Letters to the Editor from readers cover topics including Queenstown's master plan, the depths of the Prime Minister's hypocrisy, and realising our greener potential. Met a ghost from the past just the other day Despite the frenetic development, Queenstown has no master plan. Land prices were spiralling out of sight. Speculators were buying so they could sell to the next wave of speculators. One of the major problems that the city fathers faced was employee housing. The fast multiplying accommodations would require new employees but there was insufficient affordable housing. Lack of suitable permanent housing will encourage temporary "hires" with attendant decline in the level of service [which explains why I can't get a consistent regular decaf flat white trim]. Still Queenstown enjoys an ever increasing popularity. We have heard that New Zealanders will no longer go to Queenstown because it is too expensive … Sound about right? Well, it surprised me, because this was written in 1985 by John and Bobbye McDermott in their guide book, and it seems right up to date! Interesting reading I have just finished reading, in The Guardian Weekly , an analysis of the rejection of the Liberal-National coalition's policies, and the ousting of Liberal leader Peter Dutton, in the recent Australian federal election. To quote: "Sensing a shift to the right across the electorate, Peter Dutton and the coalition finalised policies to slash the federal public service and root out 'woke' ideology in schools and social policy. They fine-tuned messages about the Indigenous welcome to country and accused Labor of dangerous overreach in the transition to renewable energy." Sounds eerily familiar. Admin costs While you report the Family Boost admin costs of the government are $14 million, there are also the admin costs for the recipients to consider. They'll have to keep track of all their expenses for their children and present them in the required format and then justify them. Allowing each family an hour a week at $25 per hour adds up to $38 million for these six months. That's time that could be better spent doing anything else. So, the total real admin cost is about $52m, and the real net benefit is just $10m. I suspect this deters many who could benefit. As with prescription charges, the government's penchant for the complexity and bureaucracy of targeted benefits causes silly results. C-words So, pearl-clutching Tory women are apparently aghast at a journalist using the c-word to describe their callous destruction of pay equity. This move, which is one of many that are punching down on the poorer members of society for the benefit of mansion dwellers, Champagne quaffers and caviar gobblers, is an intrinsic part of a "sorted", coalition's cruel campaign. I have another c-word for their core values and their actions. Crap. The Prime Minister recently revealed the depths of his hypocrisy when Pope Francis died. His official message of condolence emphasised and commended the value Pope Francis placed on the welfare of the vulnerable, and of social justice. At home the Prime Minister has many opportunities to emulate the Pope. Instead he does just the opposite. Employment equity hearings, some nearing settlement, were cancelled without warning or public consultation, and retrospectively, for some of the lowest paid workers. The legislation has made future settlements more difficult to achieve. By targeting the lowest paid workers the government is also targeting those vulnerable people many work for: dying people, those dependent on domestic and personal assistance to live independently, people with disabilities, children who need extra help at school, and young people who need counselling and psychiatric services. Then the Auditor-general released his damning report into the way Oranga Tamariki withdrew funding from services working with children at risk. How can the Prime Minister look in the mirror, when he calls himself a Christian? Powerful debate Tony Williams' letter ( ODT 16.5.25) was correct in many details but he forgot to mention that many of the minerals for electrical/electronic products are mostly mined in countries of poorer nations. Westerners conveniently don't mention or know this. The waste produced from all this mining and disposal of all the end-of-life batteries, wind turbines, generators of energy including electric vehicles is massively more difficult to recycle and damaging to the environment than oil or gas ever was or is. Modern wood-burning boilers that have virtually no emissions are available to produce heat and power. They are the most efficient and friendly to the environment source of fuel we have and while the fuel is growing it benefits the planet and the ecosystem of flora and fauna. It is a falsehood that pine trees destroy the land: they actually make the land acidic. Many plants, including ferns and many native trees, love acidic soils. They are the oldest genus of trees on the planet and for good reason: they are a nursery tree for slower growing native and deciduous introduced trees. We are lucky to have the spare land to grow our energy but like sheep we follow a worldwide trend to generate electricity and heat without realising the greener potential we have right here and the clean burning technology available as well. [Abridged — length. Editor.] Going for growth Tony Williams' letter echoed some other recent letters have advised much the same. Except, without growth we'd all still be living in caves. There would be no wheel, no houses and certainly no EVs. Economic growth only comes from population increase and from technology advances and the distribution of that technology throughout a population. Technology enables any business to sell their widgets at a lower price, or to more people or at higher quality or sell an alternative that supercedes their competitors' offerings in some way such as the wheel might have done versus the sled. Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@