Letters to the Editor: Article on rough sleeping could provide politicians with an insight into the problem

I am intrigued by the campaign for voters to keep the left out of government by party-voting Act or New Zealand First and giving National your electorate vote. I believe that the aim of this campaign is to harm the National Party as much as it is to reduce the chance of a left-wing government.

National is almost certain to lose a large proportion of the seats it won from Labour in 2023 and this VoteSmart 2026 campaign is aimed at reducing or even eliminating the dominance of National in a right-wing coalition, with Act as the party most likely to gain the most.

The longer-term aim seems to be to weaken National as a centre-right party and make Act the dominant party in future right-wing governments.

John A.D. Anderson, Stanmore Bay.

Same full-page ads

Over and over every day, and twice last Saturday, the same old full-page ad telling us to split our vote to increase the overhang in government, increase party votes for Act and New Zealand First but decrease party votes for National.

It’s hard to believe how much has been spent on daily full-page advertisements, telling us how to vote as if we didn’t have the intelligence to decide who we would like to run the country for the next three years.

Surely this shows what is wrong with MMP. I agree with Steve Liddle from Napier that the Transferable Voting system Ireland uses would be a far better idea.

Robin Harrison, Takapuna.

Portfolio puzzle

Chris Hipkins is adamant that the Greens will not be taking the finance portfolio from Barbara Edmonds should the left win the election.

So, how are the Greens going to carry out their election promise/mantra to tax the rich?

David Pickford, Whitianga.

Sheep trick

A current National Party campaign ad depicts a partially shorn sheep. With the request not to leave the job half done. Does this ad indicate that National has achieved only half of its objective, which is to fully fleece, by all means possible, all New Zealanders?

Eamon Sloan, Wellington.

Treatment of vulnerable

“The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members” (attributed to Mahatma Gandhi). By this standard, how well has the current Government served its people over the past three years?

The number of children (especially Māori, Pacific and disabled children) living in financial hardship has increased significantly, unemployment has increased, homelessness has increased, support for the disabled has been reduced, wages are stagnating and inequality has continued to grow. Do we want more of the same? Are we willing to allow this to continue?

Karla Rix-Trott, Raglan.

Time of unrest

According to official Eurostat statistical figures, European grocery and food prices have increased by over 25% in the last five years. Our equivalent figure is quoted as “over 20%”!

These galloping household expenses have been sufficient to bring rioters onto the streets all over the continent.

Are we, more mild-mannered Kiwis, not just a little bit tempted to do the same?

Larry. N. Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.

Entrenched inequality

The desperate tone of the political ads in this week’s Herald on Sunday can, in fact, be read as an inadvertent concession by the parties that paid for them that the sheer closeness of the election can be laid at the door of the coalition’s mean-spirited erosion of the social contract. Most egregiously, in the strategy to permanently entrench sexual inequality in our economy, by sabotaging pay parity for exploited women workers. Shame on anyone who profits from their poverty.

Janet Charman, Avondale.

What would Trump do?

In the American election, Trump is saying: Think about your choices as if you were voting for me – vote Republican!

Perhaps one way to decide how to vote in New Zealand is to ask how Trump would vote if he could in New Zealand and then consider voting for the opposite camp.

Frank Olsson, Freemans Bay.