Jog on, aqua services are there for everybody
It turns out that aqua jogging, the mainstay of pensioners and pregnant people, is actually a careless act that seeks to take away diving opportunity from young people: "They didn’t build a diving pool for aqua jogging."
The dive pool is the most accessible pool for mobility issues, for which aqua jogging is recommended, but I suppose that isn’t an issue because ... "services should be there for the health and wellbeing of young people who want to stick around and stay".
Public services are for the many, not for the few. We all have an active interest in sticking around and staying — especially those who are enjoying a well-deserved concession rate. Jog on.
A small concession
I read, with interest and a degree of sadness and frustration, the article in today’s ODT (20.11.24) regarding complaints from diving schools about aqua joggers using the diving pool.
My husband is one such user. He is physically disabled and finds that aqua jogging allows him some relief from the pain in his legs.
Like other older people who use the dive pool for this reason, he relies on being able to access the stairs into the dive pool.
Every school holidays the stairs are blocked off to allow children to dive. Last holidays he struggled to get out of the pool, using the ladder as his only choice. In doing so he scratched his leg on the pool side and this injury led to severe cellulitis of his lower leg.
The Dunedin Disability Strategy (I was a member of the team who wrote it) states that all public buildings in Dunedin should be accessible to all people. This would mean that the accessible stairs into the dive pool should always be open for all to use.
The dive pool is the only pool deep enough for aqua jogging and should be able to be shared by all parties. It seems a small concession to make.
Needed more than ever
Also as a sixth-generation New Zealander, I’m troubled by Peter Oliver’s (and several other letters) uneducated approach to the Treaty Principles Bill (ODT 21.11.24) .
His suggestion that the Waitangi Tribunal operates without accountability is misguided. Like any legal body, its decisions can be appealed, ensuring no institution has unchecked power.
The tribunal’s role is vital, as it addresses societal issues with a flexibility that Parliament cannot. The Treaty principles were left undefined to allow the courts — accessible, impartial bodies — to adapt to changing societal contexts. Codifying them in legislation would limit this flexibility.
Furthermore, Mr Oliver’s rhetoric about Māori rights ignores the glaring disparities between Māori and non-Māori. Land theft didn’t just take Māori land — it robbed generations of the ability to build wealth and stability. This is why equity is so important.
The legal implications are troubling, and the political motivations behind the Bill are clear: to reduce Māori protections at a time when they are more needed than ever. New Zealand’s constitution is not untouchable, but we must be careful not to legislate away the obligations that define our partnership under the Treaty.
[Abridged — length. Editor.]
Hop on a plane
This is absolutely the best opportunity for all the Kiwi anti vaccine, climate change disbelievers, and all those other weirdos to seriously consider moving to America, the land of hope and glory. We will finally be rid of them and they can all suffer the consequences.
Story of girl’s education success applauded
Thank you so much Megan Ellison (ODT 20.11.24) for the story of how your family navigated the education system. It’s not easy when kids don’t fit the system, and the parents want to do the best they know for their kids, yet often get lost in that system, or run out of steam.
Your story said heaps about your persistence and the active encouragement and guidance roles you adopted as parents. Without detracting from your story, I’d like to highlight four other standard navigation tools you referred to: choose schools that (1) include children of mixed abilities and a variety of cultures, (2) have great leadership, and (3) have teachers that demonstrate a personal interest in your child; (4) encourage your child into extracurricular activities they can enjoy. I recognise, from my own experience as a parent and teacher that these are key strategies parents can pursue on behalf of their kids, whether or not they are having a difficult time making school work for them.
Service history
Why was the national anthem presented in te reo Māori only, and not in English at the Armistice Day service at the Dunedin cenotaph? We were all standing at the salute when the te reo verses of the national anthem were sung. We waited at the salute for a long time. Nothing was said, no apologies were given. It was a disappointing end to a lovely service.
[Sian Sutton, Dunedin destination manager, Dunedin City Council, replies: "We apologise to anyone disappointed by the anthem at the Armistice Day service. A technical issue meant only one verse of the backing track was played rather than two, so only the Te Reo verse was sung by the choir. We will make sure this is addressed for the next service." ]
Timorous soul, omnishambles and a disgrace
So Sandy Graham was mildly abusive to her employers and staff on occasion? So what? That puts her in line with almost every CEO in the country.
What absolutely incenses me as a ratepayer is that over $250,000 (ODT 20.11.24) of ratepayer money has been wasted on this matter because some timorous souls have had their feelings bruised. I note there has been no suggestion the insults were inaccurate or unwarranted. And, of course, if Ms Graham had been male, it never would have got this far
Language choices
DCC CEO Sandy Graham has been roundly condemned for her unkind language to and about staff and councillors, but in all the expressions of outrage at the words I have yet to see a critique of its accuracy.
In the thick of it
Please keep up reporting quotes from the DCC’s own Malcolm Tucker. So far, it has provided the best entertainment of the week. Everybody loves watching somebody else’s omnishambles.
Bringing disgrace
Sandy Graham is bringing disgrace to the DCC and Dunedin. Earlier this month it was reported her remuneration had increased: therefore it appears she is being rewarded for her bad behaviour instead of being sanctioned. In any other workplace such behaviour would not be tolerated and the offender would be out the door after the usual employment-related procedures. So, why were these procedures (a series of warnings) not implemented?
For a person to be paid nearly half a million dollars a year for this behaviour is totally unacceptable.
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@odt.co.nz
