Violence needs action and immediate redress
The coincidence of the exposure of the corruption within the highest levels of the police force with the Survivors of Abuse in State Care protest over the lack of recognition in real terms of their formative pain should not go unnoticed.
Domestic violence and gender-based vitriol in public offices should be cause for immediate action against the perpetrators. In sharp contrast, our hypocritical society is quick to condemn the equivalent disrespect of a domestic animal.
We should be honouring those who continue to suffer from systemic misogyny and abuse without hope of being believed or relieved. We should show heartfelt respect for those who risk all - house and home, livelihood and reputation - to expose their victimisers. We should have appropriately funded strategies to assist victims to rebuild their lives.
All perpetrators would benefit from having to face up to the extent of the harm they have inflicted by, for example, spending time in our increasingly overcrowded and under-resourced charity organisations.
Redress begins with outlawing the demeaning treatment of women. Our formative experiences become those of our children with the inevitable repercussions for their health, education and contribution to society.
Marian Poole
Deborah Bay
Missing the point
Your letter writer Brendan Murphy (ODT 10.11.25) has missed the point that John Highton (Opinion ODT 27.10.25) was trying to make, to the effect that the attitudes and values in this country have changed and to the detriment of our cultural wealth, strength and integrity.
But as Mr Murphy implies there is a mess we should clean up; and it didn't happen overnight. Over 60 years ago I became aware of the habit of a local farmer who released his sheep dip into a nearby stream destroying all the stream life seasonally.
What has changed? Nitrates, pathogens and other damaging conditions have ruled out drinking and swimming from all of our lowland waters and it seems there is no concerted attempt to clean up the mess.
Then there is the inept way governments of all stripes handle housing and poverty. The cost of food is indeed a worry for many. Electricity has become expensive and problematic. Households are having to skimp on winter heating and many businesses have closed because of the cost of energy.
The Bradford reforms and latterly sell-offs by the Key government have done nothing to help. More asset sales are in the wind. All past asset sales have been a disaster for mum and dad New Zealanders.
Most disturbing, the once brave and independent New Zealand has turned its back on carbon and methane reduction. And reducing a generation of tobacco smokers.
Yes there is a mess to clean up.
David Blair
Port Chalmers
Brendan Murphy's comments on John Highton's opinion piece do not address its content. Instead, he provides an ad hominem attack juxtaposed against his mother's home-grown homilies. He is entitled to give an opinion but could have used his opportunity to provide observations as counter arguments. Unfortunately, a waste of publishing space.
Stephen Chalcroft
Belleknowes
Free entry
I was interested in the photo displaying souvenirs from the 1925 South Seas Exhibition (15.10.25) because my great grandparents had a home beside Logan Park, where the exhibition was staged. My now deceased father used to tell us that when he was boarding with them (to go to OBHS) he used to climb their fence and get free entry to the exhibition.
Helen Ward
Waiheke Island
Extraordinary day for the Ordinary Cycle Club
It was good to see an article about Oamaru’s forthcoming Victorian Heritage Celebrations, featuring Annie Baxter on her penny-farthing (ODT 8.11.25).
Oamaru does not have a ‘‘Penny Farthing Club’’, however - it has a long established ‘‘Ordinary Cycle Club’’.
For clarification: ‘‘ordinary’’ bikes were what we know today as penny-farthings (they received the name because of the difference in the size of their wheels); ‘‘safety’’ bikes are similar to what people think of as ordinary bikes nowadays.
Today the Oamaru Ordinary Cycle Club will be holding various events, catering for those who appreciate penny-farthings and steel bikes.
Hazel Agnew
Oamaru
Top league
What a great entertaining series the rugby league Pacific Championship was, absolutely brilliant. Congratulations to the Kiwis on the win but also congratulations to all the other teams involved and great to see the fans right behind their teams driving around Dunedin with flags flying.
Ashley Boorer
Andersons Bay
Treaty in tatters because it was neglected by all
Your editorial (7.11.25) makes several claims about the Treaty that conflate modern political rhetoric with historical and legal reality.
The Treaty ceased to have legal force after the Constitution Act 1852 superseded it. That Act was repealed in 1986.
For the next 100 years, the Treaty was functionally irrelevant while New Zealand developed its governmental and legal system.
‘‘Crown obligations’’ exist solely because Parliament created them through the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975, not from the Treaty itself.
Calling the Treaty our ‘‘foundational document’’ ignores that our actual foundations are the Constitution Acts of 1852 and 1986.
If the Treaty were truly foundational, it would be entrenched in these. It isn’t mentioned.
The ‘‘partnership’’ concept is Waitangi Tribunal interpretation, not Treaty text. Article 1 ceded sovereignty to the Crown; Article 3 made Māori British subjects.
That’s not partnership, that’s subjects under Crown authority with certain protections.
The claim that ‘‘legislation states the education system should honour the Treaty’’ is circular reasoning.
Parliament put those words there. Parliament can remove them. The 1975 Act doesn’t mandate Treaty references in other legislation. Each was a separate parliamentary choice.
If the Treaty were truly ‘‘essential’’ to both parties, the physical document wouldn’t be in tatters from neglect.
Its condition reflects how both parties treated it historically: as an artifact, not a living covenant.
The Treaty only ‘‘lives’’ because the 1975 Act revived it after a century of irrelevance.
What Parliament revived, Parliament can let rest.
Bernard Jennings
Wellington
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