Vamping it up over blood-sucking leader
Well, whammo. The ODT has opened its 2026 election campaign, heavily against the government, with a totally biased editorial (9.8.25).
Painting the government as either blood-sucking vampires or lords of darkness, the editor attributed Wellington’s doldrums to Nicola Willis’ "right-sizing" of the public service. No mention of any other possible causes to balance the dark picture, such as Covid lockdowns which also zombiefied many other CBDs in the rest of the country, or the Left’s massive hiring of public servants during their term in office, thereby hiding unemployment and driving up costs for no return.
The editor knifed "dark lord" Seymour for his efforts to reduce regulation and free up business, again with no reasonable balance. Anyone can see at least a few benefits in cutting the obvious overload of red tape that we all complain about.
Maybe because Labour is keeping its policies secret there is little to comment on, but if Saturday’s ODT is anything to go by the editor is nevertheless planning on subjecting readers to a heavy dose of socialist-leaning anti-government indoctrination over the next year or so.
[The editor has no such plans. Ed.]
On the other hand
Great editorial (9.8.25), thank you.
Team players
Congratulation to Bill Acklin. You proved yourself to be a loyal and honest team member, brave enough to speak up when you felt that our mayor was being targeted unfairly (ODT 24.6.25). You get my vote along with Mayor Jules Radich, deputy mayor Cherry Lucas and just four more of the other present councillors.
If only Aaron Hawkins’ supporters, and some of those who think they can do a better job as mayor, had been voted out at the last election, our present mayor would have had more support from a respectful, co-operative and united team.
In every group individuals will have differing opinions but those who hold positions of power must be willing to listen to the people who they serve, discuss the best options and make the right decisions so that basic projects can be completed and at a reasonable cost. Most "nice to have" projects should be rejected after their first hearing.
With this upcoming election all voters need to research and vote wisely.
Voters take note of future ODT reports and Letters to the Editor during the next few weeks.
Each of us has a responsibly to vote wisely.
Both Dunedin City Council and Otago Regional Council really need experienced people who are respectful, wise and committed to working for the people who they represent rather than themselves.
Happy birthday to him
Every day I look at the birthday list to see who is mentioned and enjoy some of the quotes of the day. On July 21 I discovered that Christopher Luxon was born on this day in 1970 and I thought he is just a young person. I then read his quote of the day: "Let me be clear, I'm wealthy, I'm, you know, sorted." It sounded very self-satisfied and made me wonder what does he mean by this comment?
This country’s distinctive original language
Last month Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden announced a change to our passport design. (That is, our distinctive, classy, internationally-recognised passport). The plan is to swap the word order so that the English words are first "as it is the language most widely spoken by the New Zealand public".
English might be the predominant language of Aotearoa, but te reo Māori was pre-existing: it is, and will always be, the first language of this whenua.
Brooke van Velden is clearly the young face of the government, but she speaks with an old, stale, colonial voice.
She would be wise to better understand what our young people are experiencing in 2025. I recommend she attends an amazing week-long event coming up in September, Polyfest.
In Dunedin alone, 173 groups have registered for Polyfest. Thousands of tamariki and rangatahi will perform, from the early childhood centres, primary, intermediate and high schools. This is where she could hear the voices of young New Zealanders and the beautiful, powerful language of this land, te reo Māori.
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@odt.co.nz
