Many thanks for your enlightened editorial.<\/p>\n
Philip C. Garthwaite, Milford.<\/p>\n
Taxing issues<\/p>\n
The front page piece by Sir John Key told us such great revelations as \u201cTaxes drive behaviour and outcomes\u201d, but didn\u2019t engage at all with the major issues behind the tax ideas proposed by Labour, the Greens and the Opportunity Party: the rapidly growing class divide in New Zealand; the unfairness of the current system; and the macroeconomic effects of a system that has encouraged property speculation at the expense of the productive sector. <\/p>\n
He should be reminded about the tax increases that his Government introduced \u2013 the increase in GST and many others. Good on the parties for starting serious discussion of important issues.<\/p>\n
Michael Laurie, Eden Terrace.<\/p>\n
Short memories<\/p>\n
The mind boggles: Sir John Key talking about taxes and the left talking about raising them and the effect it would have.<\/p>\n
Key has a short memory. He raised GST from 12.5% to 15%, and also, he states that governments have to spend the taxes that they do collect wisely. His Government wasted around $22 million trying to change our flag. Was that a wise decision?<\/p>\n
Antonia Watson, the outgoing CEO of ANZ bank, has said in media interviews that the time has come for a capital gains tax.<\/p>\n
Sharon Marks, Te Aroha.<\/p>\n
Build more rail<\/p>\n
People in Auckland have been excited by the opening of the CRL. That $5 billion CRL is great for Auckland commuters, and it is good to get more cars off the roads.<\/p>\n
We in the north are now waiting for the same enthusiasm to have rail freight up here.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s get the big trucks off the roads. That will reduce road maintenance as these trucks hammer the northern roads. <\/p>\n
Richard Cole, Waip\u016b.<\/p>\n
Singapore comparisons<\/p>\n
Recent correspondents have raised comparisons between Singapore and New Zealand. Such comparisons are largely invalid.<\/p>\n
Singapore is a very small country; even with large areas of reclamation, still only a little larger than Lake Taup\u014d. Distances for infrastructure and governance are thus small. Its location is hugely advantageous for trade and travel. Its port enjoys a huge area of sheltered water.<\/p>\n
The Government is stable and very strict, with firm control of housing and superannuation.<\/p>\n
Almost half a million Malaysian workers commute daily from the north \u2013 a huge and flexible workforce that has aided development considerably.<\/p>\n
Thus, it is only in population size that the two countries are comparable.<\/p>\n
Colin Moore, Snells Beach.<\/p>\n
A new winning strategy<\/p>\n
Before the start of the South African tour, All Blacks coach Dave Rennie\u2019s new coaching group were clearly confident of delivering a winning style of play based on optimism and brutality.<\/p>\n
We were led to believe the All Blacks would demonstrate superior fitness, game strategy, skillsets and physicality.<\/p>\n
Sadly, the delivery against the best in the world didn\u2019t eventuate.<\/p>\n
Rennie and his coaching team need to rethink a winning strategy more in sync with reality.<\/p>\n
Also, there was a somewhat embarrassing miscalculation of South African strengths.<\/p>\n
Bruce Eliott, St Heliers.<\/p>\n
Fans\u2019 frustration<\/p>\n
For union and league: given the teams review the video of games played, why do they not seem to get the message?<\/p>\n
Thousands of fans are screaming from the edges of their seats throughout games: \u201cPass it out!\u201d Anguish after anguish ad infinitum!<\/p>\n
Given the entertainment value of the running game, the propensity to get fans out of their seats, plus points on the board, their approach is an unforgivable enigma. Fans out there need to get the message to management and coaching \u2013 enough is enough.<\/p>\n
John Pausina, Kohimarama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many thanks for your enlightened editorial. Philip C. Garthwaite, Milford. Taxing issues The front page piece by Sir…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12889,32896,13997,296378,185,29546,5338,296377,117,111,43,139,69,1118,5202,23125,8690,223,61,5427,6923,80],"class_list":["post-601347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-aotearoa","tag-editor","tag-editorial","tag-enlightened","tag-is","tag-letters","tag-makes","tag-mihi","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-part","tag-reo","tag-te","tag-the","tag-to","tag-unique","tag-what","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}