Oh me, oh my, but there are a lot of you
The number of candidates standing for the Dunedin City Council is mind-boggling. My count is 54 for the 14 vacancies on the council and 16 vying for the one spot as mayor.
If the positions were voluntary, I do not believe that many would be standing. The remuneration for a councillor is about $73,000 and that of mayor a little over $172,000.
A great incentive to put your name forward and hope that you get enough votes to be one of the 14 councillors, or better still be mayor.
There were only 48% of eligible voters that actually voted in 2022 and this percentage is not likely to change this time.
This does not help most of the candidates in getting enough votes to be a councillor for the first time. Being known is the biggest help and sitting councillors have the best chance of being re-elected as past results show.
The mayoralty, however, is up for grabs and it will be interesting to see who we will get.
Ross Davidson
Wakari
Experience wanted
I totally agree with Keith Hotton (Letters, 7.8.25) and I am sure a number of other readers, that candidates for the mayoralty in a local body election need to have served at least one term as councillor.
What a complete waste of time having someone in the top position who has not a clue about the issues raised around the council chamber.
How many business firms would choose a school leaver to manage its business over its long-term staff members?
Yes, we are a democracy, but surely that also means electing someone experienced in running a council, not some Joe Bloggs with lots of friends and dosh to promote him or herself, but who has never set foot in the council chamber, let alone been well-versed in the issues to be discussed and voted on.
Lois Galer
Dunedin
Vampire candidate
Lovely photo on the front page (ODT 7.8.25), but aren’t there enough clowns in the council at the moment?
Russell Gutschlag
Wanaka
Eliminate cruelty
I cannot let the letter from James Hall (7.8.25) go without a chance for some further thought.
Blaming the lack of people putting their name forward for public office on the many reactions to the behaviour of Barry Williams is an oxymoron.
Mr Hall listed the community work supported by Williams — sports commemorations, fundraisers and the like. He stated, "one poor decision does not a man make" . Decision? It was a straight values behaviour — abuse, publicly, of a fellow human being; a woman; a woman of colour.
Too many people in our society place more value on high profile and monetary generosity, rather than how decent they behave to others, especially those who are different.
To use a popular turn of phrase among current politicians, I am sick of it.
Frances Anderson
Alexandra
St John volunteers provide care busy hospital staff cannot. PHOTO: ODT ARCHIVE
Volunteers bridging gap, supporting hospital staff
Regarding the decision to cancel St John volunteers across the health system, I am unsure whether hospitals are aware of the role filled by volunteers.
I am unsure whether hospitals are aware of the role filled by volunteers.
As a volunteer in a busy medical ward, I provide care which nurses and health assistants cannot with their present workload.
Volunteers sit with patients and their families, reading newspapers, doing crosswords, talking, colouring, providing some relief and distraction, actually listening to patients.
Health as defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) is more than the absence of disease but a complete social, emotional,
physical and spiritual state of well-being.
Volunteers bridge the gap, supporting staff, providing
"nice-to-haves" which were formerly considered with the purview of complete nursing care.
By sitting beside someone experiencing altered health in an unhurried way, volunteers empower patients.
The wellness and self-efficiacy improves and nursing staff are supported.
Catriona Speight
Abbotsford
Declaration is another rotten apple for Gaza
The recent signing of the New York Declaration at the UN by New Zealand in which there is a call to recognise Palestine, is a disgrace. It is a version of Palestinian statehood that is fundamentally anti-Palestinian, and plays directly into Israel’s settler colonial project.
The statement calls for the demilitarisation of a Palestinian state, which is to be created leaving the Palestinian Authority in control. This body is collaborative with the Israeli state. According to the statement the war will go on until Hamas disarms, which will leave Palestinians entirely defenceless in front of violent Israeli settlers and the IDF.
Also, under this statement UNRWA must hand over its services to the Palestinian Authority, which would dismantle any protection from international institutions. It also condemns only the resistance of the Palestinians, without condemning Israel’s actions. Its statements on Palestinian suffering are passive, without providing the context of the agency of the Israeli government.
All of this narrative engineering bypasses the adopted Resolution of the UN of September 2024 — that New Zealand also signed — which clearly condemned violence and gave Israel a year till September 2025 to leave the Palestinian territories without delay, with accountability for Israel’s breaking of humanitarian law.
New Zealand has signed another rotten apple. The goal of this is to extend Palestinian suffering. It is a distraction that continues the tepid response of Western governments of which we are unfortunately a part.
Ann Mackay
Oamaru
A fair question
How do you stay current on the electoral roll when you are homeless and don’t even have a letterbox?
Bill Irwin
Nelson
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@odt.co.nz
