Letters to the Editor: Let the big banks rip off the Australians instead

Double whammy! So why is our Government still using an Aussie bank?

The coalition could set an example to the citizens of New Zealand by switching to our very own Kiwibank.

I applaud Phil Whitehead’s suggestion that customers simply need to switch to Kiwibank, instead of spending $12 billion of taxpayers’ money on NZ First’s weird plan “to buy back the BNZ”.

The Government could be the first switch. Let Westpac rip off the Aussies instead.

Pauline Doyle, Napier.

Labour Party policies

In response to the article by Jonathan Ayling, it seems to me that no matter what policies the Labour Party decide upon, they would be unable to implement most of them.

This is because the Green Party will demand an early end to fossil fuels – which will destroy the economy – and Te Pāti Māori will demand that a group of people who are selected by mysterious means be granted a major influence on the Government of the country.

If New Zealand First decide to join the coalition, rational government will be impossible to achieve.

Bryan Leyland, Pt Chevalier.

Home school backdown

Act and NZ First are squabbling over who deserves the “credit” (shame, more accurately) for the backdown on proposed home-school regulations which called for increased government oversight of children not in a registered school, brought on particularly by the examples of Gloriavale and Tom Phillips. The minister admits that our level of oversight is extraordinarily limited compared with other countries. (In the Phillips case, there was none at all.)

Home-schoolers have complained about potential invasion of privacy and the Government telling them how to run their households, arguments which the minor coalition parties apparently find convincing.

No evidence of concern for the welfare of the children, of course, who may or may not wish to be home-schooled, but as long as the politicians score their political points, all’s well, it seems.

Richard Porteous, Mt Eden.

Lessons from BNZ Sale

The sale by politicians of our Bank of New Zealand has proved to be a tragedy, and Australians to be better at business banking than us. Even Brian Gaynor missed that the assets of the BNZ included 70+ bank buildings in superior locations.

To calculate a market price, they used the capitalisation of profits with a low rate from their Australian advisers (when profit was low). The buildings were ignored – but not by NAB! Our GST legislation was used to sell them from the exempt GST bank, to a GST investment company and claim a cash refund of the GST content.

So the New Zealand Government repaid to NAB part of the purchase price, NAB then on-sold some of these buildings as going concerns, with rental agreements free of any GST or tax payments.

The lesson I learned from this follow what Fonterra has done: trade your way out of past problems with an experienced, sensible CEO, who can say no and avoid bank bad debts. I am among Kiwis who have bought NAB shares.

Simon Withers, Warkworth.

Politicians and entitlements

Louise Upston and the rest are undoubtedly entitled to allowances, such as the $1000 she takes every week for living in her own freehold home in Wellington.

However, there’s a different issue here to be considered – the question of right and wrong. She is part of a Government watching many of us struggling to survive.

Citizens – the ones who supply the money for her $320,000 salary and her $1000 weekly allowance – are barely coping. There is no sign that she and her colleagues care one tiny speck about that, as they vote to make things more difficult for the poorest among us to get the very allowance they claim themselves.

Maybe it’s within the rules, but it’s not right.

Susan Grimsdell, Auckland Central.