Your mates are fine; as for the rest of us
Recent callous and despicable decision making by the government indicates they are incapable of governing for everyone and are only interested in their sorted mates.
By shutting down access to emergency housing, where do they think people will go? The right-wing playbook says the market will provide. If that were true then we wouldn’t have a housing crisis.
Shelter is a basic human right but this government doesn’t understand its obligations.
As for the school lunches debacle, the previous system benefitted whole communities but tunnel vision is all that this government is capable of.
Many commentators blame parents for not feeding children while failing to acknowledge how much families on low incomes have to spend on housing and other costs of living.
The decision to stop earlier bowel cancer screening for Māori and Pacific communities by saying their decision is based on need indicates they are incapable of making evidence-based decisions.
We need intelligent people in government not entitled fools.
Speaking of lunches
Congratulations to all parents who still send your children to school with lunches made at home. Well done. When did it become the taxpayers’ responsibility to feed other people’s children school lunches?
Has there ever been a more self-entitled generation that expects everyone else to care for their own children, when they have a lot more handouts than every generation before — yet we all survived and so have our children.
Today there is parental leave where for so many months a partner is still paid, there is the Working for Families, payment supplements for rent and other benefits available that have never been in place before. It is the parents’ first and foremost job to provide for and feed their own families. It is not up to the taxpayer.
Can I suggest to everyone to go back to basics and care for your own. There is joy in growing your own vegetables and making homemade meals.
Bins query
I read recently in the ODT that the DCC were letting us change our bin sizes. Great I thought, I will change my green 140-litre one to a larger 240 size. This was the size I was renting from Waste Management until it was removed mid last year when the new bins were introduced. It worked well for me as I have a lot of hedges and need a larger bin for clippings.
I contacted the council on how to go about the change, and was told to come into the main office or the small one in South Dunedin (which I went to) and they would sort for an extra fee of $88.
Now here’s the part I don’t get. The larger 240l bin is only emptied fortnightly. It’s not hard to do the maths: 140l weekly equaling 280l per fortnight , and no $88 fee. Needless to say I still have my small bin.
Why can’t the larger bin be emptied weekly like the smaller one? Where’s the logic in all of this?
Chris Henderson, Dunedin City Council waste and environmental services group manager, responds: "Our new kerbside collection service provides a 140l wheelie bin for both food scraps and garden waste, which is collected weekly, and the option of adding an extra 240l wheelie bin (in addition to the 140l bin) just for garden waste. The 240l bins cater for people with very large gardens, cost an extra $88 and are collected fortnightly to avoid footpaths becoming too crowded on collection days. We don’t permit food scraps in the larger bins as they would quickly become too heavy, risking damage to the collection truck’s arm and potentially creating a health and safety risk."
The bins are there for all our convenience
Walking my greyhound along John Wilson Ocean Dr on a beautiful late afternoon reminded me that it really is all right here — sun, sea, beach, walkers, runners, swimmers and surfers looking for a perfect wave. But there’s something else here also: cans, bottles, burger wrappers, chip boxes, pizza boxes, milkshake containers, tissues, and sauce sachets.
After picking it up and putting it in the bins conveniently placed every 100m, sadly, there’s fresh lot the next day, and every day after that. A simple question to the dumpers: why can’t you pick your rubbish up?
Damage averted
In reply to John Alderson (Letters 1.3.25).
It was "the great American rank and file" who voted for Trump to give him the landslide victory he got as they could see the horrendous damage being done to their country under a Biden/Harris administration.
Civics should be compulsory at all schools
Civics education is where students learn personal communication skills, political systems and the ability to critically think about civic and political life. But how can students learn this if it is not compulsory?
In the 2023 election there were 2,858,896 voters, but 3,688,292 people enrolled. From 18-24 there were 242,536 voters and 326,998 enrolled to vote. That means 84,462 18-24 year olds enrolled but did not vote.
If civics education was compulsory, more people would understand the importance of voting and could help New Zealand’s voting percentage come up.
If civic education was compulsory it could help students with many things, such as personal communication skills, knowledge or political systems and the ability to critically think about civic and political life.
Having civics education can help us understand the rights and responsibilities of New Zealand citizens. If everyone understands law, politics and voting, hopefully we can have a more informed government that represents all the people.
It burns
If you get rid of wood burners, then people will have to use electricity to heat their homes, which is fine unless there is a power cut but of course, the cost of it. Not everyone can afford to switch to solar power.
Water heist
Who stole the Lindis River? It’s gone. Perhaps it has been taken for safe-keeping by those wonderful custodians of all things improperly explained, the "irrigators", who seem to look after and over all such issues from a point of self-described benign munificence. Those same ones who have the Manuherikea in their custodial sights. When is a river not a river? When it is in Central Otago.
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@odt.co.nz
