KO rent and MP benefits: Letters to the editor, June 6, 2026

Saturday, 6 June 2026

Gloria Stockdale sees a simple solution for Kāinga Ora to avoid arrears (file photo).

Pay up

There is a simple solution for the problem of State House tenants not paying their rent. If they are on a Benefit, take it out automatically on Benefit day. Problem solved. Every one else has to pay their rent or mortgage on time, why shouldn’t they?

Gloria Stockdale, Hamilton

Minister Louise Upston ‘cannot see the moral wrong or indecency’ of collecting an accommodation allowance, Russell Armitage writes.

Want to share your thoughts? Email editor@waikatotimes.co.nz with your full name and (not for publication) address and phone number. Letters should be no longer than 250 words.

Entitled MPs

Thank you Waikato Times and other Stuff newspapers for reporting the shabby Louise Upston accommodation case. Greed and self-entitlement are alive and thriving in NZ as Minister Upston shows. But how very sick it is.

Your recent revelations of a National Party Minister taking $52,000 of tax payer money as an 'accommodation supplement' for the time she is in Wellington while owning an apartment there has to one of the most extraordinary acts of greed and unashamed claims of entitlement ever committed by a Member of Parliament. It is so hypocritical and what is worse Louise Upston defends it and cannot see the moral wrong or indecency of her actions.

How out of touch she is. She has to go. It is this sort of arrogant, self-serving behaviour by an MP that brings down Governments.

Stuff and all of the media must keep up the pressure and campaign to get rid of her.

The only thing Tony Molloy and Gwynne Dyer seem to agree on is that Iran’s regime is ‘revolting’. Pictured are people walk in Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar.

All of us who are appalled and outraged by this disgraceful behaviour and he comments about it must write to Luxon and the papers and on here to say so.

Russell Armitage, Hamilton

Dyer’s Iran

Gwynne ‘Lord Haw-Haw’ Dyer’s column on the Iran situation was possibly ghost-written by Ayatollah Khamenei, full of the sincere undertakings of leaders for whom dissimulation is a religious way of life.

A regime that deliberately destabilises the Middle East, and therefore the world, by creating, arming and directing warmongering proxies like Hezbollah, Houthis and Hamas, all with American money, is not to be trusted with nuclear weapons even for the ‘rational fatwa’ of deterrence purposes claimed by Dyer. A nuclear weapon possessed by such a regime would make effective retaliation impossible.

The big question of the WEL Energy Trust elections is whether we want a rebate or community grants that are decided by trustees, Brett Murphy writes.

The only trustworthy sentence in that opinion piece, and one that contradicts much of his earlier words, is his penultimate paragraph: “One big reason that everybody else stands by and lets the US and Israel pound Iran into the ground is that the regime is revolting: murderous, tyrannical and corrupt.”

If the long-suffering people of Iran are not freed from that evil, the Israeli/American intervention will have been only half successful, and that will be in part down to the partisan politics and personal dislikes in a time of war of people like Lord Haw-Haw.

Tony Molloy, Morrinsville

Power rebates

The Wel Energy Trust elections are upon us and the political class are out in force looking to get their snouts back in the public trough.

Hamilton City’s debt is over 1 billion dollars and former Mayor Paula Southgate will attempt to re-enter the political realm with the ousted Maxine Van Oosten whose leadership skills helped generate this milestone.

It’s time for an adult conversation about the distinction between nuclear weapons and nuclear propulsion, Hugh Webb writes.

Waikato Regional Councillor Angela Strange who is facing losing her job will aim to fill her husband Jamie’s vacant seat as a trustee after his promotion to the Hamilton City Council. Not content with running the region into more debt through the failing Te Huia train she will now try reverse psychology by promising to increase your discount.

Wel Energy Trustee Alan Chew went back on his word when, after campaigning as the More Discounts and Grants team in 2023, actually took $16.5 million off power consumers money to increase grant funding in contrast to Mike West and the “Your Discount Team”, who would release the funds back to the consumer.

The real question is do we want our money redistributed to organisations of the trustees’ choosing or returned to us in these tough economic times giving us the power to make that decision.

Brett Murphy, Hamilton

Debt keeps going up at Hamilton City Council and that’s putting it in a difficult position, Colin Jones writes.

Nuclear question

The PM is making much ado about leaving New Zealand’s nuclear free legislation undisturbed while he is prime minister. Maybe we can “kill two birds with one stone” if the November election brings in an administration with more than a superficial understanding of maritime defence concepts. He has made a little cosmetic progress: Yesterday he pronounced the word as “nyukular” today he correctly said “nuclear”.

Obviously, Mr Penk is wanting people to have an adult conversation about the distinction between weapons and propulsion. Conversely, it seems that our unpopular populist PM prefers to cozy up to the proponents of nuclear disinformation. No sane person wants populations to be attacked with nuclear weapons (or even see war crimes committed with conventional weapons), but informed debate cannot be held when the participants cannot distinguish between weapons and propulsion.

In today’s military argot, there is no such thing as a diesel-electric submarine, they are merely submersibles which must either surface or come up to periscope depth to snort air and recharge their batteries. Nuclear propulsion enables submarines to stay submerged at clandestine depths for weeks and months at a time. Therein lies their force-multiplying usefulness. It is a classical case of defence by posing a difficult-to-challenge counter-threat. Can the adult debaters please step forward?

Hugh Webb, Hamilton

HCC crunch coming

‘The Coalition is restricting our democratic rights,’ Frankie Letford writes.

HCC accounts should be a wakeup call for all ratepayers. It is clear that previous councillors have been ill informed of the true position.

From 2021 rates have increased by 59% to $304m but the debt by 141% to $992m. The debt-to-income ratio has increased from 139% in 2021 to 218% 2025 and projected to increase to 239% in 2026. At over 250% HCC will be unable to borrow or roll over the borrowing from LGNZ.

HCC has been kept alive by Govt either grants or interest free loans that must be repaid. HCC has been budgeting that Development Contributions will repay some of the debt. However, the DC income has decreased by 43% since 2021.

Peacocke was promoted as affordable housing. But the DC charges make it uneconomical for property owners to subdivide. Without this DC income ratepayers will have to pay.

The new councillors are having to deal with significant issues. HCC must stop spending until they fully understand the issues. No more cycle lanes, pedestrian crossing or other nice to haves.

Colin Jones, Hamilton

Rights ‘terminated’

Look at how much the Coalition is under the lobbying of big business. There is the shocking revelation that Fonterra and Z Energy successfully stopped citizens from suing them after a hidden email was discovered by the Ombudsman.

The liquor industry has successfully got a bill in September so the public cannot object to a new liquor shop being opened. In Ōtara they proliferate and there are the obnoxious drunks to prove they don’t need more, but under this government they will get more. Hairdressers, corner dairy and clubs will become retail sellers of alcohol and ask for extended hours and we can’t object. Hamilton City Council was successful in restricting the number of outlets, they won’t be able to if this Bill goes through.

One by one the Coalition is restricting our democratic rights. The fast track has allowed anti environmental development, such as no cameras on fishing boats while they scrape the sea bottom, mining in conservation areas etc. It’s awful to watch your democratic rights being terminated by this government.

Frankie Letford, Hamilton