Fines are pointless without enforcement
Re Laine Priestley’s article (ODT 17.1.25) on Otago’s oldest parking fine turning 39 years old. What is the point of any type of fine or reparation order if the police and courts don’t have the funding, man power or legal power to enforce them?
This article highlights how weak our justice system is. Wouldn’t it be so much easier and more cost effective if we could track down all the non-payers using databases and bank accounts?
Oh right, there’s the Privacy Act and all those other protections.
Why? Here’s why
Rosemarie Smith (Letters ODT 16.1.25) demands to know why the ODT dared print an op-ed by Elizabeth Rata (Opinion ODT 11.1.25)?
Perhaps because Rata is a professor in Auckland University’s School of Critical Studies in Education, and her scope be straight and crooked thinking?
Rather than critique Rata’s explanation as to how we now have two views of the Treaty — historical and ahistorical — Smith’s entire letter is a claim Ngāi Tahu is not after "large swathes of the South Island".
Essentially this is a straw-man argument: Rata never said it was. It was a warning of certain consequences premised with an "if".
Why? Well, some individuals are making claims about sovereignty and co-governance based on ancestry. That is a path to political power that will destroy democracy.
It is clear to some people this elite is only interested in power, not people or poverty, and certainly not "equality" or "equity".
Finally, Mr Seymour’s Bill does not alter the Treaty. It does attempt to clarify the "principles", which first came into law only in 1985. Presently this job is in the hands of the Waitangi Tribunal and lawyers.
Why? Why not Parliament? No "hidden" agenda, is there?
Why ask questions?
Anaru Eketone’s korero (Opinion ODT 20.1.24) implies that Act New Zealand shouldn’t be asking questions in relation to the Treaty Principles Bill because it will cause trouble. This trouble should have been dealt with years ago by successive National and Labour governments and not left to fester into 2025. The Māori language version has been professionally translated, so Act MPs, I and others who cannot speak te reo can be comfortable with the translation.
Does Dr Eketone consider the right way to korero on the Treaty principles is not to disturb the current confused situation? Surely as a professor he should be championing clarity? A piece of clarity would be the Treaty of Waitangi was directed and written by British government officials under the premise that Queen Victoria would not countenance governance of New Zealand without sovereignty being ceded. The debate over the interpretation of words like tino rangatiratanga should not rise above the purpose of the Treaty, which is to treat all citizens as equal.
[Ian McGimpsey is Act New Zealand’s South Otago co-ordinator. Editor]
Reading matter
George Reddit (Letters ODT 13.1.23) must be very selective in his climate change literature. In the words of David Attenborough, climate change is "the biggest threat to security that modern humans have ever faced". Google any company such as BP, Caltex and Mobil: they are committed to mitigating climate change. Private arrangements with politicians and political parties are, of course, another matter.
New Zealand continuing to lag behind on waste
It was interesting to see two articles in this week’s World Focus (20.1.25) about how other countries are responding to mountains of plastic waste. Phuket, a popular tourist destination, has increasing amounts of plastic going into landfill as its tourism numbers rapidly rise. This is a problem we share.
In the Philippines 2022 legislation acknowledged the obligations which the manufacturers of plastic packaging have, and companies are "financially responsible for the collection and recycling of their products".
New Zealand continues to lag far behind other countries in how we treat our environment. Here overpackaging is the norm, often with unnecessary use of plastic. Maintaining landfills properly costs money, which future generations will have to pay for, while manufacturers and distributers bear none of the costs.
Despite this, at the end of 2024 our government quietly scrapped most of the plans to improve recycling, and for kerbside collection in urban areas (ODT 23.12.2024).
Human nature is to be lazy, which is why kerbside recycling in all urban areas is needed now. If this is provided locally people will be more likely to at least dispose of their rubbish appropriately.
My submission is now made but timing bad
I have made submissions to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment on the Regulatory Standards Bill, which is nothing more than a right-wing libertarian power grab that diminishes and degrades the rule of law, if it doesn’t destroy it altogether.
I particularly deprecate the miserable time allocated for submissions, over the Christmas and new year period, when the Bill’s sponsors are all enjoying long, taxpayer-funded holidays.
The Bill’s sponsors maintain their practice of failing to consult with iwi and treating the constitutional rights of tangata whenua with deliberate contempt.
The Bill represents the fourth attempt by the libertarian right to ram their ideological dogma through Parliament after three previous efforts failed.
Since the imposition of neoliberal rule in Aotearoa in 1984, democratic institutions and all three branches of government have become steadily more reactionary and less responsive to the popular will (not the populist will); as a result, Aotearoa’s social cohesion is badly frayed and civil government looks increasingly strained, developments that are entirely related to growth in inequality and poverty in the past four decades.
For its part, Aotearoa’s judiciary, which is the object of the Bill’s exhortations, needs no encouragement, whether statutory or otherwise, to interpret and apply law by application of neoliberal template that elevates individual property acquisition and holdings above any other value.
Do you recall?
Do any nonagenarians remember the social security tax paid in the 1970s? It was a dedicated tax for national health and pensions. [Robert] Muldoon got rid of it and put all monies collected in the consolidated fund. Time to bring it back? It was a small amount.
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