An insipid ostrich party and its missing views
What is with the insipid National ostrich party? Every other party in Parliament has a view on race relations, but all National has is a statement from its leader to not support this Bill past its first reading. No reason why, except he thinks it is not the right way forward.
Former National attorney-general, Chris Finlayson says "it’s not going to be a particular pleasant experience". I don’t vote for MPs to have pleasant experiences; I want them to work hard for the people of New Zealand.
Act New Zealand has been consistent in their advocacy for an all-equal-under-the-law approach and are prepared to open this festering sore and give it a chance to heal with both a parliamentary and public debate. The National MPs sticking their heads in the sand do not help solve this increasingly divisive problem; talking does. Even talking past each other at least allows the public to know where each group stands.
The first reading showed the feeling of the Māori and Green parties' anger; nothing new there. What would be good is for all parties to actually tell us "what is offensive about defining these principles in law"?
Ian McGimpsey
Owaka
[Ian McGimpsey is Act New Zealand's South Otago co-ordinator. Editor]
A Treaty breach
I agree with much of Friday's editorial (15.11.24). However, I disagree with the editorial's criticism of the actions of Te Pati Maori in Parliament. The Waitangi Tribunal has outlined how the process of bringing this Bill to Parliament was itself a breach of the Treaty. As Chris Finlayson points out, the proposed Bill is of such an extraordinary nature that it cannot be expected to be dealt with by mere debate.
It is right for Te Pati Maori to dramatise opposition. They waited until speeches had ended before using a traditional challenge. I think your editorial did not take sufficient account of the importance in this extraordinary context of ritualised disturbance.
Kerry Enright
Maori Hill
Haka appropriate
Pāremata (Parliament) is a most appropriate place and setting for haka. I note that the haka last week was respectfully offered after debate was completed. Haka highlight deep matters of the heart ahead of decisive action or decision-making.
Last week's haka in our House of Representatives represented the many voices raised all around Aotearoa to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Toitu te Tiriti.
Mavis Duncanson
Dunedin
Strong response needed
Political extremism is dangerous in whatever form and has no place in a modern civilised society .
Parliament, established in 1854, is the highest court in New Zealand and the threatening and disrespectful behaviour, by some, that played out in the House including the public gallery, last Thursday, should not be tolerated.
There is no such thing as customary rights or special privileges when it comes to aggression and intimidating activity within the chambers of Parliament. The rules of conduct govern all MPs, have evolved over time and are comprehensive and Speaker Gerry Brownlee's last resort response suspending the House was sadly his only option.
Of course the perpetrators will have their usual sense of impunity and self-righteous entitlement to do as they please. A soft response from the Speaker will only serve to sanction and embolden future outrageous outbursts and open up a pandora's box for future improper theatrics.
Bruce Eliott
Arrowtown
Shh . . . whisper it, long live the silent majority
Dave Tackney(Letters ODT 11.11.24) in his explanation of the outcome of the US election, extols the role of the ‘‘silent majority’’. And he is right. In any free democracy the silent majority is the most powerful political force known.
But what he did not allude to is that not only do they have the power and right to change governments, they also have the power to retain them. And, furthermore, were the force that put that government in power in the first place. I would loudly cry ‘‘long live the silent majority’’ from the rooftops if not for being so silent.
Terry Lake
Oamaru
Never was, never will be
Yet again an ODT correspondent (Hessel Van Wieren 14.11.24), makes the error of describing the US as a ‘‘democracy’'.
It isn't, never was and was never intended to be. It is a constitutional republic: the constitution doesn't mention democracy, even once.
Central to the misunderstanding of Mr Van Wieren and countless others, is the idea that the US came into being on the same day. It didn't and the various states sought and were granted admission over hundreds of years.
Wyoming,when admitted, had under 250,000 residents. Nearby California already had over a million, which led to the situation where Wyoming's presidential preference would be swamped. Who would join to immediately be cast into oblivion?
Rob Harris
Masterton
A new opera
Georges Bizet, the composer of Carmen, also wrote an opera entitled The Pearl Fishers. If he were alive today he might be inspired, after the US election and the reaction to it, to write a new opera — The Pearl Clutchers.
Jack Pritchard
Palmerston
An AI-crafted word salad of fee excuses
Grant Robertson may have come to the University of Otago Senate with a "heavy heart", but it didn’t stop him recommending that his proposal to hike fees up the maximum allowable of 6% was accepted.
There must be a handbook available to Mr Robertson and other chief executives such as local body staff, containing a selection of phrases that can be assembled via AI to create a word salad assembling justification for such increases. "A matter of timing", we are "still in catch-up mode", the "effects of Covid are still lingering", "all universities in New Zealand are under the same pressures of falling rolls" etc.
But the University of Otago has four major components of its balance sheet. We constantly hear of the demands of the sector to get more cash out of government and it is hard to see why there would be strong support when universities have falling international rankings. Anyone asking why?
As far as tuition fees go, put bluntly, the basic aims of universities have been distracted by the adoption of ideological mythology into actual science as well as other degrees, and while this is still promoted and practised, the question should be asked why a foreign student wanting to get, for example, a quality dentistry education, should pay a significant proportion of their fees to be part of a "Treaty-led" business.
Thirdly, capital expenditure remains as a major component with an apparent belief that more buildings and more land somehow equate to actual need.
Lastly, however, the operational expenses of the university continue to rise in areas such as PR, communications, registry overheads and this mysterious and costly journey into political correctness and ideological aims.
I just wonder how the first VC of the university, Sir Robert Aitken, would have viewed the current trajectory.
Russell Garbutt
Clyde
[Abridged — length. Editor].
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