Nats should invite Shaw to form Govt

I would urge Bill English to pick up the phone and invite James Shaw to form the next Government. Shaw is a sensible man who genuinely wants to see a clean, green New Zealand. Even most die-hard National supporters would acknowledge that having clean rivers and playing our part on carbon emissions and climate change would be admirable. In actual fact the two philosophies compliment each other. A clean, green NZ will help the farmers and horticulturists maintain top dollar for their exports.

Tourism will also benefit and this as we all know is a major export earner.

Shaw would be much less disruptive and confrontational in Parliament than Winston Peters. A National-Greens Government would be excellent for New Zealand and portray us as a progressive modern society on the international stage.

Glen Stanton, Mairangi Bay.

Choice of Government

For 20 years NZ politicians have surprisingly managed to form reasonably good Governments in spite of MMP. But New Zealanders need to understand they do not get to choose their Government in an MMP election. That choice, between two radically different options, will now be made by one man. And this will be the norm, not the exception, forever under this voting system. Ron Baker, Lynfield.

Salute to Labour

I would like to extend my congratulations to Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party colleagues on an extremely well-run campaign. It was conducted with flair, honesty, integrity and passion. Passion for New Zealand’s environment and people.

You will go from strength to strength bearing in mind the knowledge that this penny-pinching, patronising, arrogant National Party is not the choice of us all!

Your time will come, Jacinda, as NZ needs your vitality and vision to rescue it from conservative narrow mindedness!

Pat Hick, Waipa.

Winston’s choice

What’s it going to be, Winston? Are you going to lie down with leakers and liars? Can you find a fiscal hole big enough to bury the hatchet? Are you okay if your whanau rarks up Federated Farmers over a drop-in-the-bucket tax? So billions of bottles of water can benefit your overseas investors? So the glacial pace of restoring rivers and lakes stagnates further? Will you divert attention to a fictional urbanrural divide while the rich-poor gap truly rips the heart out of NZ communities?

Will you take a back row seat with the elite status quo? Or will you be up front in a Government that puts the future of all New Zealand first? Lori Dale, Opotiki.

English mandate

In her dignified speech Jacinda Ardern showed she is a wise woman for being cautious about forming a Government from a weak position where she may simply be used as a pawn for others’ personal ambitions. Bill English has a clear mandate to form the Government. Unlike Labour-Greens, Winston Peters shares core principles with National on the issues of law and order and equality before law. He has always opposed the politics of racial appeasement.

Poverty affects Kiwis from diverse backgrounds. If anything, poor white and low-waged white working class Kiwis are the largest marginalised demographic. Winston can ensure a strong Government that protects and serves all vulnerable NZ citizens without discrimination.

Rajiv Thind, Brisbane.

Generational divide

So, the electorate has spoken again, and what it speaks of most clearly is a generational divide. A baby-boomer generation that once spoke of hope and enlightenment, fed on a diet of free education, plentiful jobs and cheap housing, has become a generation of smug self-interest and avarice; a generation that has set out its political stool to guard its wealth against all-comers — including its own children and grandchildren. Sadly, it is now clear NZ will only become a progressive force again once that conservative block is dead and buried.

Stephen Brown, Mission Bay.

Peculiar result

I thought we lived in a democracy but when the leader of 9 per cent of the voters can call the tune to 47 per cent of the voters that hardly seems like democracy.

Mr Peters should feel honoured the leader of that 47 per cent is prepared to deal with him and his 9 per cent.

The MMP “system” has thrown up a very peculiar result but not a democratic one. It is a sad, sad day. Surely there is a better, fairer “system”.

Terry Small, Clevedon.

‘No Party’ Party

Election’s over. Once again the spectre starts of point-scoring debates in Parliament, where issues of best governance are irrelevant. Party politics has run its course. I’d like to see a “No Party” Party (NPP?) established by individuals who wish to represent all New Zealanders as well as their constituents or special interests. People who aren’t seat-warmers voting how they are told to, and who can debate the wide range of options that should always be open for debate. Polarised politics does not work for anyone, except those behind the scenes who make up policies and can hoodwink members to continuously pass legislation that remains blinkered.

Wade Cornell, Waiatarua.

Maori Party

It’s fairly clear the Maori Party MPs, had they been re-elected, would have gone with Labour, so it’s a bit rich of them to talk about Maori going back to their abuser. The party was formed to punish Labour for the Foreshore and Seabed Act. In this they were successful, in the process helping to inflict on us the most useless Government since the 1931 coalition. They should now congratulate themselves on a job well done and fade away gracefully.

Warren Drake, Orakei.

Real MMP

Saturday is the day when equitable MMP was finally born. We are away from the corporate party perspective. This bullying sway dictated the contribution of the significant public support of other parties in our democracy. The cost of this has been expensive to the Maori party.

Jacinda Ardern has shifted our politics away from the entrenched old boys’ network with the gerrymander two-party hangover; breaking its geriatric back.

I wish all the key representatives well in their quest to meet their supporters’ desire, I hope they have the skill to collaborate in a way that allows them to have a proportional role, to advocate their mandate in a real outcome to voters’ manner. We must accept our fortune in Aotearoa and thank our ability to have such gear-jamming fairness in our representation. Have Jacinda, Winston and James got the oil?

Richard Ghent, Freeman’s Bay.

Falling standards

Will it be more of the same as over the past nine years? Will more of NZ’s land and water be sold to overseas companies? Will homeless people increase yet again? Will our health and education systems suffer even more? Will our young, hardworking “looking for a first home” families be able to afford one? I could go on.

Winston, whichever way you go, please think long and hard about how best to improve the disgusting low level of basic standards the National Party has let this lovely nation of ours drop to.

Kay Robinson, Henderson.

Message of change

Despite the economic success story told repeatedly by National (helped by a few lies), a majority of New Zealanders and especially Maori have managed to send the message that we need more than a strong economy and we need change.

Labour at the lead, Greens and NZ First all have important policies to contribute in a coalition Government.

Barbara Darragh, Auckland Central.

Majority vote

Whilst considering his next move Mr Peters, in the name of democracy, would do well to remember that although National achieved the greatest majority, more than 50 per cent of the country chose not to vote for the party.

Leigh Bowden, Sandringham.

National rule

After nine years National has condemned future generations to never owning their own home. The number of homeless has skyrocketed as has the price of butter and milk. Power prices and inflation are on the rise, wages have stagnated and the PM was caught out with his housing allowance. So what do Kiwis do? They continue the malaise. The gap between rich and poor is widening and Kiwis do not seem to care. We must be masochists.

Brent Innes, Milford.

School questions

Emmerson’s cartoon portrayed an ironic truth: “Pupils made to say sorry to Warriors”. In spite of all the election frenzy which claimed the rest of our weekend, the peculiar actions of Blockhouse Bay Intermediate still echoes with me. If these two pupils were reprimanded for innocently asking valid questions, the reaction by the deputy principal is bizarre to say the least. If this school wished to avoid awkward (if honest) questions, then it should have told all pupils beforehand not to ask them. But if these pupils deliberately asked pointed questions in a cheeky or provocative way, that’s quite a different scenario. Sounded like just a Warriors’ PR exercise anyway.

How can you teach children to be candid, honest and truthful if a teacher is judge and jury over what an adult in authority deems to be “disrespectful”?

Aileen Hart, Havelock North.