Letters to Editor
Alcohol laws
I am writing in response to Senior Constable Deb Hann’s On the Beat (The News August 28) and in light of the government’s decision to loosen alcohol laws.
Deb Hann couldn’t be more clear when she points out that police are the ones who see the heartbreak that follows alcohol fuelled crashes. “We all have a role to play in keeping our roads safe,” says Deb. I agree, and I’d go further to say we all have a role to play in minimising alcohol harm.
The government’s decision to loosen alcohol laws is a shameful betrayal of New Zealanders. As someone who gave an oral submission on alcohol harm, sharing the devastation it has caused in my own family, I am appalled to see once again that the alcohol lobby’s voice has been valued above the voices of ordinary people.
Alcohol
Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee says “most people who drink do not have a problem with it’”. That is misleading. The reality is clear: one in six adults drink hazardously, 17.5 per cent binge drink monthly, and 72 per cent of the harm comes not from “alcoholics,” but from so-called normal drinking. Alcohol causes 900 deaths, 1250 cancers, 30,000 hospitalisations, and costs New Zealand $9.1 billion every year.
Yes, I welcome one announced change — banning delivery to intoxicated people — because it was something I personally asked for. But in the face of this enormous harm, it is nothing more than a token gesture.
Alcohol is our most harmful drug. By loosening the law, this government has chosen industry profits over people’s lives. That is not leadership. It is cowardice.
Louise Allen
Cambridge
Letters to Editor
Rates and more rates
A few years ago we were told we would have to pay separate rates for water usage and the less we used would mean we would pay less rates. What a joke. We are a couple of pensioners who use far less water than most families but still have to pay approximately $350 a year on top of our rates.
We have had to cut back as have many other people especially young families – I don’t know how they manage. A 15 per cent increase in rates is pinching money from ratepayers. I and lots of other people, I am sure, are going to make sure anyone who wants to be on council had better do better than the existing ones. The ones on council at the moment must think we can print money just like they can. My rant over.
(Abridged)
Brian Pitchford.
Te Awamutu
