Housing and Environment Minister Nick Smith needs to retire from politics before he loses the sight in his one eye. He hasn't seen the housing crisis in NZ yet. He's never seen a robot that could be sent into the mine down south to have a look round. Now Nick cannot see that we are 30 years behind some European countries in the handling of rubbish. In Europe they've been cleanly incinerating rubbish for that long and the exhaust is scrubbed clean and the heat generated makes steam to drive turbines to generate power. Houses are heated with the steam generated. Street surfaces in winter are heated by the steam to melt snow and so on. Yes indeed, we are 30 years behind. Buckinghamshire County Council in the United Kingdom commissioned a huge incinerator last year, which consumes all the rubbish it can handle - as much as 300,000 tonnes per year - and it combusts waste at more than 850 degrees Celsius and generates power which they sell. And in spite of the Nimbys, all is well there. It's time for our country to look at the clean incineration of our rubbish.

A Bourne, Bethlehem.