Letters to the Editor: We would be better off with a publicly-owned power system
Breaking up the gentailers
Why on earth does Winston Peters want to “break up the gentailers”? He wants us to believe that somehow market forces will take over and deliver fairer power prices to us all.
His simplistic solution will only make things worse.
What we really need is the return of the Electricity Department – where the power grid our forbears built is still owned by their descendants, namely us, the public!
I will support any politician with the courage and integrity to do this.
And while they’re at it, maybe the Ministry of Works should also be restored. Public servants with the public good at heart would do a much better job than the current system, where we are being exploited by private entities on a daily basis.
Winston is old enough to know better!
Vivien Fergusson, Mt Eden.
Fuel for thought
Sometimes a crisis can be turned to an advantage, and Christopher Luxon’s post-Cabinet press conference on Monday, with Nicola Willis and Shane Jones to update the Government’s forward-thinking and planning around our fuel situation, was masterful.
Opportunities to demonstrate leadership of this quality do not come around often and I suggest that National, Luxon and Willis will benefit greatly from this crisis.
Look for the opposition, particularly Labour, to be left out of frame in this news cycle like happened to the Opposition during Covid.
Who would have thought?
Gary Carter, Gulf Harbour.
Better in black
Well done to the boys in black for an epic football match and sensational victory against Chile on Monday night.
It’s clear that New Zealand play better in black! And why shouldn’t they? It’s on-brand for all of New Zealand’s high-performance sport.
It’s time to quietly retire the awkward “All Whites” branding and send New Zealand into the Fifa World Cup proudly in black, simply as New Zealand Football.
Mara Weiss dos Santos, Gisborne.
Time to tackle homelessness
A common view is that the homeless street-sleepers are drug addicts and deserve little sympathy and therefore any money given to them will only further their addiction. This may or may not be true but it deserves further investigation on two counts: first, the pittance they get from begging would hardly pay for any drugs in many cases, and second, Auckland has a comprehensive rehab centre that could house and provide tuition to get them back into the workforce.
However, if they are not drug addicts and have a genuine reason for their situation, someone in the Government needs to take responsibility for their rehab back into a useful life, either by sponsorship, in coordination with the Salvation Army, IHC, City Mission, state housing, Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga, Compass community services, the church etc.
To sweep them under the carpet as this Government is doing does neither it nor these unfortunate human beings any favours.
Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.
Swedish influence
Watching a chap cut grass on a tidy bit o’ Swedish kit, a Husqvarna ride-on mower, got me thinking of all the big brands made by that country of just 10.6 million people.
Other global brands include Ikea, H&M, Volvo, Saab and Spotify.
Volvo builds the Polestar EV, which holds the range record of 1500km on a single charge, and Saab produces warplanes, like the Gripen, and cars and trucks using functional design. Husqvarna chainsaws are known for their quality and affordability.
Now turn to New Zealand, with half of Sweden’s population and we struggle to name a single global industrial brand other than Fisher & Paykel. Whittaker’s, New Zealand Merino and Pic’s Peanut Butter are far from industrial giants. Bungy has become a global brand.
So, can New Zealand get a leg on the manufacturing ladder with some products needed by the world and priced sensibly? Even Lego, a Danish company started in 1932, is the largest toy company in the world by sales. Denmark has a population similar to New Zealand’s.
Surely the Government can kickstart some new industrial products that compete globally, as is happening with rocket launches?
Even canned food brands are being canned as not lucrative enough.
What about a challenge for products from young entrepreneurs that can boost New Zealand’s industrial sector?
Rob Buchanan, Kerikeri.
War is war
Alan T. Kelly paints a grim picture in his letter “Modern war at the click of a button” (March 30). I suggest the old days of soldier versus soldier were no better than our present plight.
The past thousand years of warfare have seen the soldier gradually move further away from his target: sword, spear, arrow, catapult, rifle, artillery, rocketry, and drones. And soldiers have been slaughtering civilians en masse for as long as there have been soldiers. The siege and concentration camp warfare of old was just as hellish for civilians as modern push-button warfare.
Andrew Tichbon, West Auckland.
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