It was a pyrrhic victory, issue is not going away
The Treaty Principles Bill has reached its conclusion with an overwhelming majority of parliamentarians voting against it. The liberal left and Māori elite were ecstatic and bullish with the result of the vote.
The real losers from this Bill are the National Party and Christopher Luxon, because there are a great many National voters who were very keen to see the Bill enacted, but following Luxon’s gutless appeasement he has revealed a lack of understanding or empathy for the majority of voters, a stand which will come back to bite him when we go to the polls next.
This issue is far from dead, and the liberals/Māori will find that the vote was a pyrrhic victory, as they have revealed to the electorate just how mired in ideology and anti-democratic dogma they are.
If the vote had been a conscience vote I am sure the result would have been very different.
Open debate
Kieran Ford (Letters ODT 10.4.25) states that "open debate is vital in any democratic community". But he took great exception to Stan Randle’s letter (2.4.25) and castigated the ODT for publishing said letter. Is this a case of open debate, but only if the views expressed fit with my view of the world?
Mr Ford might be surprised to find that Mr Randle’s comments might resonate with a great many people. Perhaps some are still not yet mature enough to acknowledge and debate views that are opposed to theirs?
Mr Ford then espouses factual accuracy. In his letter he "suggests" that a mandate for karakia in council or university may be found in the Treaty. I have read the preamble and all three articles of the Treaty of Waitangi (both the English version and Sir Hugh Kawharu’s back translation) a number of times. My reading and comprehension skills are not below average, but any mandate he is referring to escapes me.
Must be challenged
I cannot let Ewan McDougall’s criticism of David Seymour’s Principles Bill stand (Letters ODT 14.4.25). He and many others have presented this Bill as a direct challenge to the Treaty of Waitangi signed in 1840. This has suited their anti campaign.
But it is no such thing. Seymour is not challenging the original Treaty only its misinterpretation by the Waitangi Tribunal in the 1980s.
This issue will not go away until it is properly understood and discussed by all parties. We all want an enlightened inclusive and successful society.
What about the staff?
Your RNZ article “HNZ made multiple breaches during birth: report” (ODT 11.4.25) describes a case of foetal distress, evidenced by a cord blood pH of 7.04. No amount of “birth planning” could have anticipated this.
Fortunately, observant and fast-responding midwifery and medical staff intervened in a clinical situation likely to lead to a fresh stillbirth, or worse, a neonate with chronic and irreversible hypoxic encephalopathy who would, unlikely, ever fulfil its genetic potential.
The article is accompanied by a photograph captioned “Totally violated", but nowhere is there mention of gratitude to the staff present at that delivery who saved this baby’s life.
Pro-active, boots ’n all approach applauded
Hats off to Megan Fairley, and her fellow Cadbury ex-colleagues (ODT 12.4.25), for they are to be applauded.
Every Saturday, since 2020, in the former Cadbury staff carpark, these folk have steadfastly gathered, coloured gumboot in hand, to accept donations, and raise funds in the name of mental health, for Gumboot Friday, Life Matters, and other charities.
After the closure in Dunedin of Cadbury, and subsequent redundancies, Megan and her group had taken note of the toll exacted on former colleagues/friends.
Some, to the point of taking their own lives, when the thought of losing their job, and fear of finding suitable, subsequent employment (which many did, only to encounter workplace bullying and/or harassment), simply became too much, a bridge too far.
Megan’s words, say it all really: "When you lift others, you rise yourself, that’s what’s helping keeping people like me going – that carpark."
When will we learn that it really is that simple?
Thank you to Megan, and her team. You are among the people who really do have influence, in making the world a better place.
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