If Ron Marks, as Mayor of Carterton and a former minister of the Crown, can’t get any sense out of the New Zealand Land Transport Agency [Waka Kotahi] and Kiwi Rail what hope is there for us poor tax and ratepayers?
I don’t know who the transport agency answers to, but it doesn’t appear to be any member of the elected government, which is totally at odds with how a democracy is meant to operate. Hopefully, a new government can rein them in along with other departments [Education?] running off doing their own thing, wasting vast amounts of money at the same time. We elect the government, which is supposed to tell the departments what to do, not the other way around.
Time for a change.
Graham Dick
Masterton
Use empty buildings
One of the saddest sights and encounters I have experienced was in a charity shop recently – a man dressed in biblical clothes and pushing a grocery trolley came up to me asking where a local service could be located. We have a lot to answer for, because we have failed in our duty of care as a society when it has allowed mentally unwell people to exist in this state of poverty and unwellness.
Community care is all good and well on paper, but in reality, accommodation is unaffordable, as are long-term solutions. We have empty buildings. With a little bit of creativity and finance, they could be used as long-term boarding facilities in partnership with social networking groups.
Cheryl Cavanagh
Masterton
Doesn’t wash
I don’t think I have ever been as angry at a Government as I am with the current one. Who dares come out with a campaign slogan “in it for you” when the country has an incompetent Health Ministry, incompetent law and order, an incompetent Ministry of Transport, Ministers who don’t show any respect for their position, and others who are so far out of their depth they shouldn’t be in the job.
Infrastructure is crumbling before our very eyes.
They think it is more important to spend millions of dollars changing the road signs to a language that just a few of us speak and change the names of every government department to something that no one understands [and often gets lost in translation] rather than try and fix the 9-hour wait some people have at the hospital, the appalling road conditions, and school children struggling to read and write.
The continual take, take, take from certain sections of our community and the divisive nature in which the Government gives it to them makes me feel like an “other” in my own country. The Government does not treat its citizens as “New Zealanders”. It divides us off, treating us differently, too gutless to stand up and say “all for one and one for all”.
Our local MP tries to bring himself down to the level of his people with his ‘Gidday, let’s have a yarn” campaign.
But his impression doesn’t wash with many of us. A man who is just about Minister of Everything, tells us his hands are tied over the controversial local speed limits. The Government cannot interfere. Rubbish!
Graeme Burnard
Gladstone
[Abridged]
Giving it air
It seems that our airport is once again the cause of much financial debate.
The Ratepayers Association has been making noises about costs and the lack of management around the re-selling of plots when it was first thought that many were interested.
As one who generally supports our council, I’m a little perturbed that there seems to be a reluctance on their part to give public updates on some issues.
Our local paper could and should be used to keep all of us informed. I’m sure that I’m not alone in thinking we would all benefit from a column that focuses on such local issues and which asks questions of those that hold the pursestrings of our community.
Richard Dahlberg
Masterton
