Letters: Immigration, school rugby, water supply leaded Covid cases and logging slash
Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read. Vicky Ngo Ngocis on course to graduate with a double degree at the age of 14 - but has been told there is no pathway for her to become a Kiwi. Photo / Dean Purcell. A young child maths prodigy who was adopted in New Zealand cannot become a New Zealand citizen due to her age despite having the ability to attend university at age 13 to study maths. And she in all likelihood will become a New Zealander with much to offer the country. Yet, when National was in power they freely gave New Zealand citizenship to the American billionaire Peter Thiel after a stay here of only 12 days. Immigration needs careful management but there would seem to be so many loopholes in the policy. Money it seems often talks. Paul Beck, West Harbour. If the 2020 Auckland 1st XV rugby competition continues the way it commenced last Saturday, we are in for some wonderful rugby, sportsmanship, and school rivalry support that is a credit to the game The game between Auckland Grammar and Sacred Heart ( played at AGS ) epitomised school rivalry at its best . For those unable to attend, the match was televised live so the country was treated to a spectacle. Two superbly fit teams, producing top class attacking talent, matched with hard but clean defence. Seeing boys from either side helping an opponent to his feet after a punishing tackle made any old boy proud. Then there were the respective school support teams; each trying to outdo the other; but when either side was kicking for goal, complete silence; sportsmanship that could well be recognised by supposed more mature crowds around the country. Des Trigg, Rothesay Bay. The one whose head should roll now is Watercare chief Raveen Jaduram. He has been employed since February 2014 earning the most ridiculous salary and Auckland's water system is in a shambles. Lorraine Mulligan, Forrest Hill. Re the leak of the list of Covid patients currently in quarantine, once again Todd Muller is drawing on his limited repertoire of negative adjectives to describe the Government's alleged incompetence. This leak could have been purely an accident of frail human behaviour, and we can hope that in the future such mishaps will be eliminated by AI robots running all the public service. But it is more likely to have been a deliberate release by a mischief-maker inside the health ministry wanting to embarrass the Government (again). Let's find some suitable adjectives to describe this person, including "criminal" and "disloyal". B Darragh, Auckland Central. Given Labour's long list of non-starters including the likes of Kiwibuild, a CGT, child poverty eradication and airport light rail, rather than "Let's keep moving" its 2020 election slogan should be "Let's start moving". Mike Wagg, Freemans Bay. There's always something of interest in Liam Dann's opinions, which are clearly set out and easily understood by readers. He looks at all aspects of the economy and includes its impact on everyday life. His column on Sunday set out clearly what the past decade's economic drivers were: more cows, more residents and more tourists. Our economy at the time under the National Party's nine year rule flourished, it seems but, as stated by Dann, pushed our environmental and infrastructure limits. Over the years we've watched, usually during the reign of National, this desire to push for economic gain by increasing migrant numbers (lowering workers' wages), but leaving infrastructure unchanged. Even under Jim Bolger when migrant numbers came in in their thousands over a very short time, schools and hospitals were just supposed to cope with what they had. We saw little, if any, money going into restructuring the country to cope with these sudden numbers. It was no different under John Key's government even though he showed an ability to talk the talk and align himself with the underdog. So it is pleasing to see Dann putting the challenge out there for the need to recharge our economy today. The world has changed. We have to question how we can contribute differently. This must include the hidden effects of climate change which is already making its impact on our lives. Emma Mackintosh, Birkenhead. The further occurrence of waterways and beaches on the East Coast being laden with forestry slash shows a contrasting attitude to the environment. As a waste product, forestry slash can be paralleled to dairy farm effluent or wastewater from cities and industry. If those sectors had a similar mass pollution event, there would be immediate and justified outrage. Yet, for some reason, forestry gets a free pass to keep polluting. It is not hard to see why: forestry is protected as the saviour to climate change hence a blind eye is being turned to this type of environmental vandalism. The local council is simply an apologist for this pollution, taking their sweet time to prosecute with no effect on improving practice. The government, and respective ministries, are absent without leave. Greenpeace and Fish and Game are ideologically silent. Surely forestry slash makes waterways and beaches degraded and unswimmable as well? The technical difficulty in dealing with slash is no excuse. No other industry can play the "it's too difficult or expensive" card with pollution. MP Boardman, Browns Bay. Pattrick Smellie argues that a merit of a wealth tax is that it addresses an inequity by allowing "no escape" from tax for people who generated wealth from otherwise untaxed sources (presumably capital gain). The illogicality of this argument is that a wealth tax would re-tax wealth which originated from already taxed sources, and thus doesn't address the inequity at all. If you consider that capital gain should be treated as income, then by all means argue for a capital gains tax. However, a wealth tax, which takes one person's assets simply because they have, and gives to another because they haven't, is nothing short of communism, and has no place in New Zealand. Carl Bergstrom, Glendowie. The Green Party's Poverty Action Plan proposing widespread welfare payment increases indicated the jobless would receive $325 weekly after tax. What message is that for unemployed youth, extended education and the workplace shunned, a life of idle bliss? Higher taxes would fund their proposals, certainly virtuous, but if implemented in entirety, a tipping point could arise impacting fiscal stability and job creation. Regarding jobs, recall the Greens' initiative to compromise the oil and gas sector with major job losses ensuing. A social priority more compelling than substantial welfare increases, the urgent need for state funded rental construction for the disadvantaged, an added bonus, the mass creation of jobs NZ so desperately requires. P. J. Edmondson, Tauranga. An update for all my friends playing the Todd Muller drinking game. One sip for shambolic, two sips for shambles, and, new today, three sips for shabby. Doug Hannan, Mt Maunganui. Winston Peters and John Roughan both have it wrong on that hot potato, light rail in Auckland. Winston has it wrong because he treats the proposal as only a route to the airport, whereas it has been promoted by the government as facilitating intensive housing along the corridor to the airport. He is right though that the airport connection would be better served by a spur extension of the current rail system, which would achieve a usable route to traveller destinations, unlike a slow light rail trip with multiple stops and traffic delays. Roughan has it wrong because he has effectively bought into light rail without considering all the above impediments and the need for a better alternative. He ignores light rail being costly and disruptive during and following construction without delivering adequate benefits. A better alternative would be to look at better ways of delivering bus services, including inner city routing development to address congestion. Even better would be enhanced light rail using a combination of tunnels and overhead sections, such as the Vancouver Skytrain, but can we stomach the cost of that? Marshall Piercy, Devonport. Regarding Saturday's Canvas article on our obviously smart and talented microbiologist, does it matter what colour her hair is or what shape her body is? It shouldn't and is a sad reflection on the low calibre of person who attacks her on Twitter. If Paleo Pete is who they follow and look up to we are indeed in a dark place. We need more people like Siouxsie Wiles and fewer anonymous Twitter trolls. James Archibald, Birkenhead. Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read. Crews were called to the scene around 8.20pm.