Election after election I have wished I could vote Labour. Yet time and time again they come up with some crazy policy. It may be clever way of getting the city vote ‘because we can't see the splinter in our own eye'. On numerous occasions raw sewage is spilled into rivers and sea. Plastic bags and domestic rubbish ends up everywhere. Doggy poo in parks and on beaches. Plant pollution, rampant, noxious; spreading growth that will change those grand green spaces we now enjoy, forever.

The export of ground aquifer water is something we all object to. In proposing a water tax Jacinda Ardern knows she's on thin ice: the policy has been declared, no going back. When questioned the water bottlers are the first mentioned. If the policy is altered Labour loses the city vote and the numbers they represent.

Start taxing the producers and two things will happen. We hamstring our competitive edge and we open up a Pandora's Box of claims and counterclaims. And if you can't see where all this is heading; then we shall all pay the price. I wouldn't entrust the regional councils to walk my dog, let alone clean up our rivers.

J Trounson, Pyes Pa.