Today's Letters to the Editor from readers cover topics including heritage protection, the fate of Aurora and cultural considerations.
Not only done but also manifestly seen done
It was with absolute delight that I read Cr Sophie Barker’s response to my challenge to the DCC over heritage protection (Opinion ODT 12.7.24).
Allow me to point out to Ms Barker that when you enter the political arena you are likely to be “tackled” over your ball-carrying abilities, especially as it relates to personal preferences - to carry on her analogy.
Experience allows me to point out the following: many years ago, I was precluded from speaking at an ORC meeting due to having expressed my opinion publicly over air quality in Alexandra, prior to local government elections. The current ORC councillor Garry Kelliher was recently precluded from representing fellow constituents as he was a water user during debates on the Manuherikia River due to a perceived conflict of interest.
Now Cr Barker, herein lies your problem. A long established legal principle, enshrined in administrative law states: “It is not merely of some importance but is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done - it should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done”.
Ms Barker is therefore hoist by her own petard. Nor do all other “heritage heroes” appear to see the need to promote their own contribution.
I don’t challenge the integrity of Cr Barker, just her understanding of the vital need to maintain public confidence in due process.
Finally, can I ask Cr Barker what rights of ownership does the DCC allow an owner of a heritage building here in Dunedin and does she understand the principle of not sitting in judgement on plans she helped draw up?
Gerrard Eckhoff
Alexandra
Hugs required
Recent political poll results show a solid majority support for the policies of the coalition government, a nine-point rise for Mr Luxon as preferred PM and a significant drop for Mr Hipkins, putting him firmly in the political wilderness.
In the interests of health and safety, I sincerely hope that media receive the professional counselling they require for such devastating news to them and that your cartoonist Yeo gets all the hugs required.
Gary Cole
Fairfield
Food vs fibre
The p1 headline ‘‘Farmers fear loss of food producing areas’’ (ODT 13.7.24) reflected the same old controversy: food verse fibre in the battle for land use on more intensively farmed livestock and arable lands.
Only this time it is due to an organic farm in the west Otago area. A forestry block 2km away was sprayed for land preparation for new plantings. Most beef and lamb farmers tend to use chemical spray for weed and pest controls as well as pasture clearance for replanting in these areas, also with resultant spray drift.
Cutbacks in replanting of forestry are liable to affect our source of biofuels for energy production. It has got to a stage where a farmer wanting to plant a woodlot has to go through the hoops to let them do so.
Yet forestry is one prime answer to climate change, and we are fast running out of time to slow it down.
Jim Childerstone
Hampden
Gardeners needed
Thank you to Colin Child (Letters ODT 13.7.24) about a garden of rhododendron plants on Barnes Dr.
Winston Peters, our deputy prime minister, 28 years ago set up 200 Task Force Green work forces to do gardening and odd jobs. There is now, I think, only one Task Force Green left, working for the Dunedin City Council.
Task Force Green planted those rhododendrons many years ago.
If Dunedin is to beat Christchurch's title as the Garden City of New Zealand then we need more gardeners.
Anthony Skegg
St Clair
The public purse and overpaid charlatans
So the DCC are using consultants to help decide the fate of Aurora. We all know how this will go. If they decide to sell, the phrase ‘‘well, the advice we have received indicates’’.
What a cop-out. We voted these people in to make the hard decisions, not to spend more of the public purse on overpaid charlatans just to absolve themselves of any responsibility.
Graham Bulman
Roslyn
Let the public decide
One of the main reasons given by supporting councillors for the sale of Aurora is the huge cost of two new power lines to feed the expanding Wanaka region.
After reading Sue Kedgley's article (Opinion ODT 9.7.24) it is clear that any potential new owner will have no intention of investing in these lines.
The only potential owner with a kitty in the billions of dollars will almost certainly be an overseas corporate or pension fund which will hike the line charges.
It will sit on Aurora for a few years, then sell it to a similar investor and bank a profit in the hundreds of millions.
This process will repeat again and again like the Wellington case.
The conditions of sale will need to guarantee constructing the two Wanaka lines in a specified time frame. This will obviously reduce the price expectations for Aurora and may make the sale unviable.
Notwithstanding all of the above, it would be undemocratic and irresponsible to sell Aurora before the next local body elections in 2025.
The public should decide, not a handful of councillors.
Robert King
Wakari
Ancestral rights and team work
I do hope your correspondent Metiria Stanton Turei awoke early enough last Thursday to see the outstanding UEFA semifinal between the Netherlands and England.
If she did, she may have reflected on how the makeup of both teams represents the new societies emerging in Europe and Britain as a result of massive migration of people from Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East. Nearly half of both teams reflected that movement of peoples, and the victorious England side would have been the poorer had its line-up not included names such as Bellingham, Saka, Mainoo, Guehi and Ollie Watkins.
Recent migration into Europe is, as in other continents, only the latest in a series of movements of peoples going back thousands of years. The channel did not prevent England from being invaded and colonised by the Romans and the Normans with the result that the English language has been impacted by both Latin and French. Present-day citizens of any European country represent a range of ethnicities and cultures and speak an array of languages.
Isolated countries like Australia and New Zealand did not experience this global movement of peoples until much more recently and some, like Mrs Stanton Turei, have yet to adapt to it. She pursues the notion (Opinion ODT 12.7.24) that a special place with special rights of influence should be reserved for those who claim an association with the people who were here first.
Even she has difficulty defining who those favoured people may be; apparently, they need only ‘‘regard themselves as such’’ (Aboriginal) or be ‘‘accepted as such by the relevant Aboriginal community’’.
Imagine the reaction if Ollie Watkins, after scoring the winning goal were to return to England to find that he had lesser political entitlements than someone who could find an ancestor who was around in the time of Boadicea.
Mrs Stanton Turei would doubtless fail to understand that such discrimination is exactly what she advocates for Australia and New Zealand.
John Bell
Dunedin
[Abridged - length. Editor]
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@odt.co.nz
