Actions and heartless, cruel consequences
Consequences must exist for those who don’t take steps to re-enter the workforce. So says Louise Upston, Minister for Social Development and Employment (ODT 3.2.25).
I cannot think of a more motivating consequence than the current miserable value of job-seeker support. $353/week for a single over 25 or $494/week for a solo parent. The new sanctions the government intends to introduce are unnecessary, heartless and cruel.
Political ideology seems a more likely rationale than accountability. Also, administering the new sanctions presumably comes at a cost?
Jenny McDonald
St Kilda
Respect due
Many years ago, a mayor I knew said it is the position, not the man that commands respect. I thought about this after all the fiascoes that occur at Waitangi celebrations.
When a minister of the crown attends, if the Māori don’t like him, they are still due the respect their position commands. I have always considered Māori respectful, welcoming, and generous. What has happened?
Their actions are only driving a wider breach, and distinct loss of sympathy for them.
Janice McPherson
Oamaru
Sick of the likes of
I would like to comment on the opinion piece from Metiria Stanton Turei (ODT 7.2.25) in which she attacks David Seymour for having the temerity to attend the Waitangi Day event in Northland.
David Seymour wants the Treaty principles spelled out in a way that people like Stanton Turei cannot distort their meaning and intent.
The silent majority of people in this country are sick of the likes of Stanton Turei, Willie Jackson, Moana Jackson, Television New Zealand, Radio New Zealand and others trying to tell us how we should think about the position of the Treaty of Waitangi and how it affects us.
Most of us have had a gutsful of hearing about it, and want it consigned to the pages of history.
Dave Tackney
Fairfield
Avoiding controversy
The ODT editorial of February 6: “If the Prime Minister thought he would avoid controversy by celebrating Waitangi Day near Akaroa, it shows how little he grasps the depth of feeling within Māoridom about the Bill and other government policies”.
Elsewhere in the same paper: “The thousands predicted to descend on the Waitangi political talks never arrived.”
Might the thousands that never arrived indicate that the depth of feeling within Māoridom is on both sides of the argument? Māoridom have never been a singular nation with a single voice, but rather a collection of tribes each their own voice.
It is arrogant to say how all Māori feel about an issue based on the usual noisy vocal minority. Have you heard from the silent Māori majority?
Bernard Jennings
Wellington
Life, the universe
Chris Trotter reminds us (Opinion ODT 31.1.25) that in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams’ ‘Deep Thought’ computer discovers the answer to the Ultimate Question about “Life, the Universe and Everything” is 42, and he suggests that this answer is less than helpful. On the contrary. As (hopefully) any primary school pupil knows, 42 is 6 sevens and 7 sixes. In other words, the answer is “everything is at sixes and sevens.”
Life, the universe and everything are in utter confusion. But Adams also gives us the best response to this news: since reality is forty-two’d, what we need is fortitude.
John Drummond
Glenleith
Sunday parking changes discourage shoppers
I am concerned about plans by the Dunedin City Council to end free parking in the central city and council facilities on Sundays (Editorial ODT 3.2.25).
I agree with Cr Carmen Houlahan’s view that this is mean-spirited to residents having to juggle rising rates and cost-of-living pressures. This could also discourage more people from visiting the city centre.
As a retail worker, I can sympathise with Sunday workers needing somewhere to park their cars while working.
To address the low turnover rate highlighted by Cr Brent Weatherall, employers and the council could come to an arrangement to provide CBD workers with subsidised parking.
While it is good to encourage people to use buses and bicycles, people like Cr Steve Walker need to remember that cars are still handy for wet days and for transporting groceries and families.
With local body elections looming in October 2025, councillors need to remember that many ratepayers also own vehicles.
Andrew Lim
Shiel Hill
Trump’s Gaza plan shameful and reckless
As an ex-American I am deeply ashamed of the American president’s advocacy of ethnic cleansing of Gaza.
American policy in the Middle East has not only been anti-humanitarian, ignoring the international rules of law and international order, it has also recklessly destabilised the Middle East.
The New Zealand government must be more robust and up-front in their criticism of US support for Israel in Gaza and the West Bank.
New Zealand should not consider being in military alliances such as Aukus with a country which has a habit of breaking international humanitarian law. It has now also proven itself untrustworthy by bullying its nearest neighbours, Canada and Mexico.
Marvin Hubbard
Normanby
Taking out the bad, hard criminals
President Trump’s serial mendacity has not changed.
He has sold the mass deportation of undocumented migrants on the basis that the first expulsions have been of serious law breakers.
Here is how he was recently quoted in The Wall Street Journal: “We’re getting the bad, hard criminals out,” Trump said. “These are murderers. These are people that have been as bad as you can get, as bad as anybody you’ve seen. We’re taking them out first.”
Colombians who were recently deported from the US had no history of criminal activities, the Colombian government said.
“It’s important to point out that they have no outstanding issues with the justice system, neither in Colombia nor in the United States,” Colombia’s foreign minister, Luis Gilberto Murillo, said. “They are not criminals. This information has been verified and confirmed by the relevant authorities.”
Bill Southworth
Port Chalmers
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