Bear in mind, between May 2025 and May 2026, 3275 businesses were placed into liquidation!
Hamish Walsh, Devonport.
What are public servants hoping for?
Did the 10,000 public servants who announced they would be striking next week in political industrial action just volunteer to be made redundant in the overdue resizing of the public service?
And can the next 10,000 please get ready to volunteer redundancy too? Government expenditure budgets will be very happy with the voluntary restructuring efforts and all voluntary sacrifices for the greater good.
Gary Carter, Gulf Harbour.
Our growing needs
I agree with Alan Spence (Aug 27) that the National Party is unwise in saying it will not increase taxes.
While I am not a member of the National Party, I have been a regular voter for the party, but not anymore.
When are we going to wake up as a nation and realise that we need more tax income to pay for all the health, education and infrastructure that the country needs attending to.
Future generations will be burdened with debt that will need to be repaid unless we can be brave enough to change our tax structure to meet our growing needs.
Charlie Potter, Pukekohe.
Fast-track solutions
The Prime Minister continues to run our Government with a corporate mentality, always looking to profit margins, instead of leading a nation that serves its people.
The election mantra of No New Taxes really means no improvements to education, health or infrastructure. It does mean the wealthy will continue to protect their wealth.
We can, however, shift the tax code, moving the burden of taxation more equitably.
The wealthy will still be able to send their children to private schools, afford fiendishly expensive private health insurance, and remain impervious to fuel and energy costs, which a minimum-wage job finds crippling.
And the Fast-track regulations really mean do whatever “the corporation” wants, without considering the communities that will be affected.
Behind Fast-track projects are the wealthy, doing little to improve any of the outstanding needs of the community.
If it were otherwise, there would be a Fast-track solution to our escalating homeless population, the consequences of deadly slash, a broken health system, Wellington’s water woes, and Auckland’s traffic, to name a few.
Diane Ponzio, Devonport.
Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry
Liam Napier made a good fist of explaining why Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry will be decided this weekend (Sep 2). But he didn’t mention 1937.
New Zealanders like me who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s heard our fathers and grandfathers haunted by the fact the Springboks had beaten the All Blacks here in 1937, and the All Blacks had failed to do the same over there in 1949, 1960 and 1970.
Subsequent Springbok teams in New Zealand were no more successful, losing series here in 1956, 1965 and 1981.
But the fact the Boks had done and we had not, still rankled with older rugby followers. There was a dark joke about it. “Name the greatest side ever to leave New Zealand’s shores?” Answer: “The 1937 Springboks.”
It took until 1996 for the All Blacks to win a series over there. That’s why Sean Fitzpatrick was pounding the ground at Pretoria. He knew his team had laid the ghost of 1937.
It remains devilishly hard for either country to beat the other in a series on its home ground. That’s why this weekend’s test matters and next weekend’s does not.
No one will remember who wins the money-maker in the USA, but if we win a series in South Africa this weekend, we will never forget it.
John Roughan, Campbells Bay.