Hospital issue is an Otago survival issue
This morning's story (29.10.24) "Hospital’s tertiary status at stake" further reinforces the danger to this region of the government not only failing to deliver on election promises, but increasingly considering a substantial further downgrade of the hospital.
This danger is not scaremongering. All roads in health planning now lead back to one person.
Commissioner Lester Levy has no allegiance to anything other than a blind drive to ensure his own credibility by taking money out of health. The flow on impacts of that matter little to him.
If health sat in isolation in this city, we might be able to ignore this. But it is at the heart of the city.
The university is the heart of the city, and the division of health sciences is the largest part of the university. When that is under threat, as it undoubtedly is, then the city is under threat.
The ODT is the voice of this city and it has done an excellent job in informing people of the risks and the implications. But it continues to do so behind a paywall which means that the vast majority of its readers cannot access this information.
I understand why they have a paywall. Good journalism costs, and people like me are prepared to pay to ensure that it continues to survive and thrive.
But the most damaging long-term threat to the ODT's survival is the long term economic deterioration of this city if these downgrades are allowed to occur. I would urge the ODT, for its own sake and the sake of the city it is the voice of, to rethink its paywall policy on the hospital and ensure that the full population are able to understand the threats they face.
Richard Thomson
Maori Hill
- Richard Thomson is a former Southern District Health board member.
[Paul McIntyre, Otago Daily Times editor, replies: "Thank you for acknowledging the ODT’s support of the new Dunedin hospital campaign, and also for understanding the reason why the newspaper has a paywall. The majority of our coverage of the hospital campaign has not been paywalled, in keeping with our commitment to fighting for the hospital to be built, as promised. We have decided that, for the rest of this year, all of our hospital campaign coverage will be free for all to read, as part of our contribution to the campaign."].
Taxing questions
I support Bill Verall’s thoughts on wealth distribution (Opinion ODT 15.10.24).
A recent New Scientist article on reimagining democracy included the following: "Today, most of us who think we are living in democracies are in fact living in systems closer to oligarchies, where the governing is done by small, usually wealthy elites". This rings a bell.
In my life I have seen top tax rates slashed, death duties gone, gift duties gone, stamp tax gone, local body rates changed from being based on property values to uniform charges, all enabling the wealthy to retain more of their wealth and increase it, but not benefiting the less well off.
No capital gains tax of course but GST has been introduced, a regressive tax falling proportionally more on the poor who spend all their income, than on the wealthy, who don’t spend all their income but have surplus to invest and so increase their wealth.
The country seems to have been governed for the benefit of the elite, not the whole community.
It seems timely to look at our taxation and governance so that the wealth created by the joint efforts of our people is more fairly distributed, as it was in the past.
Graham Dickson
Wanaka
Multiculturalism is the best way forward for NZ
I would like to comment on the recent opinion piece by Metiria Stanton Turei (Opinion ODT 18.10.24), in which she continues to describe New Zealand as bicultural.
She is prepared to make the concession that New Zealand is bicultural but will never agree that our country is multicultural, as this would mean that a large part of our population was not part of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Her belief is that the mono-culturalism displayed by non-Māori is a handicap: she would be the worst example of a mono-culturalist. She is quite happy to enjoy the benefits of the technological and social improvements introduced to this country by the despised colonists.
I am of Irish Scottish descent, and I am proud of the cultural and technological achievements of my cultural heritage, and to add to that, my descendants were treated far worse by the British Crown over a far longer time span, than Māori.
The meaning of biculturalism means the combining of the cultural attitudes and customs of two ethnic groups, multiculturalism means the combining of the cultural attitudes and beliefs of multiple ethnic groups.
If Stanton Turei cannot grasp a basic understanding of how modern New Zealand is, then we will never be able to assuage activist’s thirst for power and wealth.
How can a country which contains large numbers of Māori, Europeans, Filipinos, Indians, Pakistanis, and many more, not be a multicultural society? The continual whining , moaning and grasping from the activists of one culture undermines the progress of New Zealand into the future.
Dave Tackney
Fairfield
Rebuttal lost the original point of letter
After chastising Mr Moncrieff-Spittle for daring to hold a different opinion from them on Middle Eastern politics (Letters ODT 21.10.24), the good doctors Jutel and Jenkins repeat their arguments published in full on the opinion pages a week before, concluding with a few personal insults, but without addressing the important philosophical argument Mr Moncrieff-Spittle made against their demand that the university take a political stand.
The moral argument bears repeating. Institutions do not have the right to freedom of speech or thought; only persons have that right. By taking a stand on a political issue, institutions deny their members the right to freedom to think and speak differently.
Rosemary McQueen
Dunedin
Councillor backed
The DCC Infrastructure Services Committee meeting ‘Vandervis walks out of George St debate’ (ODT 16.10.24) was hypocrisy. Patting each other on the back, saying some felt bruised by public criticism, then vexingly attacking a dissenting colleague.
Cr Vandervis is correct, the pavers are "porous quality": dry cast pavers are porous. They dirty easier, a poor or inferior product for maintenance, compared to wet casts.
Cr Mayhem claimed comments were misleading and "the colourless shades of a grey set of tiles" were for the (3%) visually impaired. Actually, she’s mistaken, as colours were possible, solid, bright colours being easiest to see and light-coloured objects against darker backgrounds best.
Cr O’Malley’s antagonistic demeanour, not understanding what constituted valid points of order and difficulty making decisions, led to unclear direction. Presumptions of questions being "arguing rulings", threats to throw Cr Vandervis out and Cr Garey’s snide remark, justified his walkout as appropriate.
Tony Vink
Andersons Bay
