‘Unfortunately, the Prime Minister Is limited in his ability to discipline David Seymour.’ Photo / Mark Mitchell
Letter of the week
Seymour must be reined in
Though I don’t wish this to become a habit, I must agree with Heather du Plessis-Allan’s analysis of David Seymour’s conduct toward the Prime Minister
(HoS, Apr 28).
He’s like the youngest in a family of older, talented siblings who garners attention by being annoying, and who seemingly doesn’t care that the desire for attention is negative.
Seymour isn’t stupid, so his deliberate targeting of the most contentious issues facing Aotearoa was bound to suck up all the oxygen in the coalition atmosphere.
The Government, still in its developmental stages, can ill-afford a discordant element because it witnessed the catastrophic effects errant ministers had on the Labour Government.
Unfortunately, the Prime Minister is limited in his ability to discipline Seymour as he is part of the coalition triumvirate, so must find another method to rein Seymour in.
Fortunately, politics is a give-and-take game with everything up for negotiation. It’s to be hoped that Luxon will find the one thing Seymour desires besides chaos.
Mary Hearn, Glendowie.
Teachers aren’t entertainers
Among the various reasons for high truancy rates in New Zealand schools, outlined was boredom.
The fact is teachers are not entertainers and to expect them to be so is asking them to be someone that they are not.
If their sole purpose was to entertain then why would they teach when they could perhaps aspire to earn as much as Taylor Swift?
Sometimes study is just hard grind with the satisfaction coming from achieving a goal. If the reason not to attend school is boredom then many students are setting themselves up for a lifetime of boredom in mundane and unfulfilling jobs. Or maybe they could just go to clown school.
A solution to the problem of poor attendance was to quote international research, which shows clear benefits to letting teens sleep longer in the morning. However, if this is the case then why has Singapore been touted as having one of the more successful education systems in the world with secondary schools starting their day at 7.30am?
Finally, there is the prospect of our perennial truant actually getting a job and the boss stating that they must start at 8am the next morning. How’s that going to work?
Bernard Walker, Mt Maunganui.
Memorable classes
Are teachers entertainers? No, but that doesn’t mean their classes should not be entertained.
I remember one summer physics class when the next teacher woke everyone up – including our teacher, who had bored himself to sleep in a hot room. I also remember an English class where the teacher asked “How do I teach you Shakespeare? We’ll make it relevant” and taught us to act.
A wise head once said, “We learn best in moments of enjoyment”, meaning if a group is entertained and having fun, they learn.
That’s not what they teach in college. If you don’t learn it on the job, you’ll be competent – but you will never be a teacher they remember.
From experience, I know that’s very true. I remember the storytellers. I remember those who taught us in spite of ourselves.
And I thank them for taking the time to learn, in their own way, to entertain.
Mike Diggins, Royal Oak.
Fraud victim
The woman who stole $377,000 from a 72-year-old man was a Destiny Church member, Ashara Kingi (HoS, Apr 28).
Obviously, she will never be able to pay him back. He can no longer do his charitable works supporting at-risk youth and caring for injured and unwanted animals because he has lost so much money.
Surely the Destiny Church, which has a lot of money, could pay him back and enable him to continue his good work, which would have given him huge satisfaction in his older years.
It is wrong that an older man is prevented by her crime from doing the work he loves.
Mikki Buckland, Papamoa.
Justice for Ru
As the six-month anniversary of Baby Ru’s death dawns the Herald on Sunday editorial provides a comprehensive summary of what is known about what happened to him (Apr 28). We learn that the police are continuing to talk to three people of interest.
First, why aren’t we using known science-based tools, such as the one developed by Profesor Rhema Vaithianathan of AUT, which show the strong predictive power of identifying children likely to suffer abuse? Baby Ru’s death (and other tamariki) may have been prevented by the prior use of such tools.
Second, how is this for an idea: Charge all three of the adults identified as people of interest and wait for the fallout.
Glennys Adams, Waiheke Island.
Fares fair
Correspondent Steve Russell (HoS, Apr 28) asks “What in God’s name is the difference between tolling and taxing?”.
The fact is, neither has anything to do with God, but everything to do with governments (central and local body).
Hence, the answer is simple. Taxes are unavoidable, if a person or enterprise qualifies to compulsorily pay them under relevant legislation.
But taxes can be reduced or minimised, if measures such as forsaking income to reduce legislated liability, or running the gauntlet of tax evasion hoping in vain nobody notices.
In stark contrast, tolls are completely avoidable by simply choosing alternatives, such as taking another un-tolled route, flying instead of driving to get to a destination and back faster, or travelling at a different time.
As for Cook Strait ferries being “tolled”, that is simplistic nonsense, being duplicitously used to try to make an invalid point. Ferry travel, like flying, is paid for by fares. Fares are not, as far as I am aware,” tolled” anywhere.
Graeme Purches, Matamata.
MPs’ pay rises
One does not have a problem with the pay rises that MPs will receive per se, as other groups will want similar increments or more.
As a long ago recipient of these increases, or not, by the Remuneration Authority, it is how they are applied that rankles many.
Because they are always increased percentage-wise, the higher your salary the bigger the increase and of course the lower your salary the less you get.
The fact that in this instance they have spread the increase over three years would appear to be an attempt to defuse the fact that in the last year of their three-year term they will actually be getting a 10 per cent increase over their current salary.
In these uncertain times we could well be in a big recession next year but, despite that, MPs will still get another salary increase.
It is said MPs perform a thankless task but the same could be said for the majority of back-office public service workers whose jobs are far more tenuous.
Reg Dempster, Albany.
One dead after motorbike crash in Kihikihi, Waikato