How propitious are our circumstances
People insist that global warming is now out of control and we are all doomed unless we take urgent action. We have heard this talk for the last 30 years and yet things keep ticking along just fine for many people.
Sure there are still extremes of weather but history tells us this has always happened and in some cases whole civilisations have been wiped out either by extreme weather or by people short of suitable soils to grow their food or the required neccesary water waging war to take over new lands to increase their resources and wealth.
As a result we often find that much land was ruined and left as unsuitable to continue growing food and people moved on. What we are now seeing is a small increase in atmospheric CO₂ and this is bringing many benefits to previously unproductive land which is now growing vegetation not seen for many centuries.
We are also seeing a huge decrease of electric vehicles being manufactured because they are proving not to be as good as all the hype that was used to sell them We in New Zealand are very fortunate we have abundant capacity to build more hydro storge dams for power generation and to also use the water for irrigation as well.
Let us play to our strengths and acknowledge we are also a lucky country with the ability to supply top-quality food by pure nature to discerning overseas buyers.
Justify that
I would be most appreciative if the Dunedin City Council could please clarify how a 20-second passenger drop-off outside the Dunedin Hospital on a disability carpark is worthy of a $750 parking fine?
I would also on this matter ask how the government could reason how to increase the fine for parking or dropping off in this instance on a disability carpark from $150 to $750, a 500% increase, in today’s economic climate.
[Paul Henderson, acting customer and regulatory general manager, replies: "The DCC applies parking infringement and towage fees set by the government. Nationally, all territorial authorities are required to apply them. The new fee structure that came into effect on October 1, 2024, was the first increase since 2004. The DCC has worked to communicate the change to the public, including through the news media, on social media and with signage at mobility parks. The misuse of mobility spaces has been a longstanding issue, particularly for individuals who need to use the parks but are unable to access them due to illegal stopping or parking. Whenever stopping or parking on a mobility parking space — even for a short time — the driver or their passenger must have a valid mobility parking permit displayed on the vehicle, or they risk receiving a $750 fine."]
Not pleased
I was totally sickened to open my ODT (27.12.24) only to see more footage of the most crass and cruel humiliation of animals and the physical pain they suffer in the form of rodeos.
I am quite disappointed that our newspaper persists in providing detailed coverage of these shocking displays from a minority of our community who have no conscience, nil compassion but an alarming agenda of ridicule and inflicting pain upon our vulnerable creatures.
As for the "cowboys’’ who participate in this sick form of entertainment I find abhorrent. They disgust me.
Power vacuum has constitutional consequences
This isn’t a rant about the spiralling electricity costs consumers are facing (rant-worthy as that may be), but rather the price that citizens of Aotearoa are paying, and potentially will pay into the future, for the Prime Minister’s power-at any-cost sellout to Act New Zealand and New Zealand First.
We are all aware of the Treaty Principles Bill promoted by Act, and the ensuing division and anger it has created, but there is much less awareness of an equally nefarious proposal, the Regulatory Standards Bill, a draft version of which was recently out for consultation.
The Bill represents potentially an even greater threat to our current democratic processes than the Treaty Principles Bill; key features are the removal of the ability of the judiciary to interpret and provide oversight of legislation, entrenching individual and corporate rights over the greater community needs, and the creation of a hand-picked board to in effect replace the role of the judiciary.
This Bill is straight out of the failed neo-liberal playbook that Act is so beholden to, and yet has the potential to profoundly impact the role of government and courts in creating legislation for the benefit of all. It must be stopped.
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@odt.co.nz
