LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

• Published date: 26 January 2023
• Publication title: Northland Age, The

I realise that since the then mayor, Wayne Brown, took the Little Theatre away from the Dramatic Society, we no longer have a live theatre community in the Far North. And that means we no longer have the people who were proud and willing to bring ballet to Kaitaia and do the work needed

Is there nobody in this town that can do the same these days?

Sylvia Bryan

Kaitaia

Workplace imbalance

Mr Tan may not have been correct in following due process when dismissing employees at Carrington Resort (Northland Age, January 19), but he is certainly correct in saying the ERA (Employment Relations Authority) is heavily biased towards the employee.

Ask any employer in the country and they will agree with Mr Tan. While there is no set number of warnings required by NZ law, the ERA is mandated to ensure a fair process is followed. Their notion of fair requires three warnings: one verbal and two written.

But here’s the rub: every time an employee commits a new offence, the warning process has to start all over again. If someone is caught smoking cannabis, they must be warned three times. If after being caught smoking cannabis, they are then late for work, the warning process has to start all over again.

My sympathies are normally with the working man, but in this case there is an obvious imbalance that needs adjusting.

Mark O’Rourke Chamberlain

Kaingaroa

Systems falling apart

Looking back 90 years, I see the population of our finite planet has more than doubled since I let out my first squawk. An age from the Tiger Moth to astronauts on the moon. The last sailing ships to 20-knot huge container ships.

Amazing advances in medical science and agriculture. The desire to accumulate wealth before we die and let others use it hasn’t altered much over thousands of years. Man knows how to become rich but still uses the ocean as a drain and degrades the atmosphere with carbon, burns or cuts every forest, as well as allowing the super-rich to exploit the masses as it’s been for thousands of years.

The planet has had enough with air pollution now rapidly changing climates. Overcrowding and failing crops cause wars.

Why does Putin want Ukraine back? Powerful nations aren’t interested in small Pacific nations but want to get at what’s swimming there under the ocean.

Political parties seeking to perpetuate what’s degraded life for the masses and made a few so rich that they can dictate to governments is starting to fall apart as world population looks at possible human extinction and...