It may come as a surprise to the younger generations, but there are plenty of folk who struggle with many aspects of technology others take for granted.
Mobile phones can be challenging, particularly the size of the buttons and access to the apps. Some find sending emails on a computer difficult and slow, get confused between uploads and downloads and upgrades, and still like to print messages if they can work out how to change the ink cartridge.
Using an ATM for ready cash — not everyone works solely off credit or debit cards — also presents obstacles, as do self-checkout units in supermarkets, and don’t even begin to think about phone banking.
When we shrug our shoulders impatiently over those who seem too slow and roll our eyes wondering why they can’t get "a bit more with it", we are blocking out a significant chunk of people, those with often considerable life experience at the heart of their communities.
Crikey, some of them even write letters by hand and take them into a NZ Post agency to buy a stamp and pop in the mail.
NZ Post’s announcement this week that it will cut nine of Otago’s community post shops, seven of them in Dunedin, strikes directly at this more elderly demographic and at Kiwi heartland. Included in the list are the Brighton Store, Prince Albert Rd Dairy, Maori Hill Dairy, Brockville Four Square Supermarket, the Kaikorai Valley Night n’ Day, Albert Town Tavern and Weston Four Square.
NZ Post assures customers it is committed to providing a sustainable mail service. But it says it needs to review its deed of understanding, last evaluated in 2013 when it delivered about 800 million letters annually. That has now fallen to about 160 million letters a year.
It also says that, since 1989, the deed has compelled the agency to have at least 880 retail service points around New Zealand.
As a state-owned enterprise, NZ Post is expected to be profitable. There is no doubt its core business is in decline, but as a government-owned, and ultimately taxpayer-owned, operation, it must protect the country’s communities.
It should not leave any Kiwis out in the cold, especially our most vulnerable and least mobile citizens.
Good behaviour expected
The elected members of the new Otago Regional Council have been left in no doubt by their new chairwoman she expects them to behave in the term ahead.
Former Act New Zealand MP, regional councillor and Dunedin city councillor Hilary Calvert was the sole nomination for the chairwoman’s role. After not standing three years ago, she was the highest polling candidate this time in the Dunedin constituency.
She is already talking about focusing on better value for money for ratepayers and the necessity of treating their hard-earned cash with respect.
In an interview this week, she emphasised the importance of all councillors pulling together as a team and being respectful to one another. She also said the future was looking bright for the council.
"If those in Wellington have aspirations to legislate us out of existence, they will need to do so knowing how a great regional council can contribute to the political and legislative framework in New Zealand," she told this newspaper.
That is an encouraging message, but the word "environmental" could easily have been slotted in between "legislative" and "framework". While she has not said a great deal so far about the environment, she did say a priority was to reduce the rates burden while keeping the impetus of the region’s environmental efforts going.
Cr Calvert has a plan for a less hierarchical governance system and fewer committees. She proposes councillors will oversee portfolios, each of which will have a lead and a deputy. That would foster better understanding of areas of work, build on individual strengths and ensure constructive connections between councillors and staff.
Councillors will no doubt be pleased to have some clear guidelines and expectations, given the fraught future regional councils may be about to face.
