More idiotic ideological nonsense that creates great scars on the countryside and totally ignores the effects on the environment from land transport.
The only group that benefit from this is transport companies allowing for bigger, faster trucks tearing up the surface on our main highways. Are National unaware of what is happening in the northern summer due to the burning of fossil fuels they are determined to add to?
This policy ignores reality and simply endorses the reasons why we will never combat global warming as long as we bow to the rule of the internal combustion engine. We can have nice expensive roads to drive on but just don't get sick.
Mr Luxon spoke of the frustration of following behind a great beast of a logging truck and waiting to pass it.
If a fraction of the cost of the announced budget went to upgrading the rail links between the quoted project areas, we could get these dinosaurs off the roads and save millions of dollars, let alone the environment, in the process.
Investment in rail transport is a no-brainer, which National and Act struggle with. The problem is rail does not supply political parties with donations and votes, nor does it generate an upfront cash return. What it does is long-term investment for the benefit of the country.
W. N. Brook
Wakari
Global boiling
In the ODT of 29.7.23, Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-general, is quoted as saying that "the era of global boiling has arrived".
In this morning’s ODT (1.8.23) it is reported that a National government would spent billions on new roads. Hello Mr Luxon, have you not noticed that the Earth is boiling?
Denise Hesson
Wakari
Manuherikia musings
Gerrard Eckhoff urges a rural push back in the Manuherikia. Does he really represent the views of the farming community?
He states that farmers know best and the urban greenies need to butt out and let science do the talking.
Bring it on, let science rule the day. These elitist claims are exactly the reason there is a rural/urban divide.
Retired runholder John Rowley then proudly suggests in the ODT that the answer lies in constructing a massive storage dam upstream from the present Falls Dam.
Secure our farming future, and dam it good. If this is farm leadership at work, then you are living in the wrong century.
You want a groundswell of public pushback, then you got it right here in the Manuherikia. And it sure won’t be a farmer-led revolt.
Peter Grant
Oamaru
My thanks go to Murray Neilson and his excellent reply to Gerrard Eckhoff (ODT, 1.8.23). Having been put in his place is it too much to ask for Mr Eckhoff to stay there?
Pete Jenkins
Galloway
Congradulations and thanks to Murray Neilson for his brilliantly erudite analysis of the Manuherikia River. Perhaps he could demystify for us the erstwhile "Three Rivers"?
Ian Breeze
Broad Bay
New logo exciting symbol of new possibilities
IN the clamour opposing changes to the university’s name and associated symbols, the voices of those celebrating the imaginative reworking of these designations into something that speaks to our times in ways that resonate and inspire can easily be lost. Silence can be read as consent, so it is important that people like myself stand up and thank the visionary gifts offered by Kai Tahu members Megan Potiki, Paulette Tamaiti- Elliffe, Susanne Ellison and other representatives.
While the new logo has been lampooned, my response to this new symbol suggesting the flow of information and knowledge between cultures and peoples, over time, like the ebb and flow of tides, was to feel genuinely excited — far from a stuffy institution, the new Otago logo contains the fluidity, the movement, the energy from which collaboration thrives; it speaks of new possibilities, alongside time honoured processes. Suzanne put it eloquently: the flow/ the big movement; the dispersal and the flow in.
Similarly, the new name Otakou Whakaihi waka ( a place of many firsts) is exciting: not just what has been, but what is still to come. A vibrant institution, made up of talented staff from around the Pacific and the world, doing research and teaching that inspires, alongside dedicated administrators who are the glue that binds it all together. My sincere hope is that the current financial and leadership woes can be resolved, without the loss of those very centres that have made Otago unique and drawn students from around Aotearoa and the world.
Kia kaha, kia haka, kia kaha. Respect, compassion, open ears and open hearts are needed at this time. Otago will survive and will ultimately be the better for it. Thank you again to these brave and learned women of mana whenua.
Marianne Quinn
Dunedin
BIBLE READING: I can do everything through him, who gives me strength. — Philemon 4.13.
