Councils have role in supermarket shortage
Last week Nicola Willis announced the government initiatives to increase competitiveness within the supermarket industry in New Zealand.
Needless to say, that among the main contributors to the cost of living crisis have been the extraordinary profits that supermarkets are enjoying thanks to their duopolistic position.
Although not completely new to us, it was surprising to hear that it could take up to four years and more than a million dollars to cut the red tape to obtain the relevant permits to open a new supermarket.
No wonder we have not seen the arrival of a third party even though the New Zealand supermarket industry must be among the most profitable in the world.
I applaud the decision to create a fast track for a new supermarket that comes to the country and the other initiatives to solve this problem.
However, I cannot comprehend why the local councils have not implemented anything similar when the problem affects everyone in New Zealand. Local councils should be made accountable for their lack of action to help solve the cost of living crisis.
I challenge councils to respond to the announcement and contribute with more positive initiatives, such as revising and eliminating existing land covenants that prevent new supermarkets being built in certain parts of the city.
This is the opportunity for Dunedin to become the most attractive city in New Zealand for a new supermarket to come, for the benefits of all of us.
Defence spending
I have read in the ODT that our government wants to spend $2.7 billion on new war equipment such as airplanes, helicopters, drones etc.
The government’s Minister of Defence, Judith Collins, wants to "beef up our defence system and give it combat ability".
New Zealand is a peaceful country: who are our enemies? In whose war does Judith Collins want to use this deadly equipment?
If such money was applied to social services, housing, education, health services and looking after the old, the sick, the unemployed and the poor, as New Zealanders we might feel that we live in a country we can be proud of and which we would want to defend.
Hate and war
In reply to Francis Noordanus (Letters 22.8.25): the behaviour of the Jews leading Israel is morally repugnant and criminal. Yet according to Daniel Levy, a British–Israeli analyst, commentator, author, and former advisor to the Israeli government, most Jews in Israel back their actions: genocide in Gaza and annexation of the West Bank.
Appealing to the New Zealand government to fight antisemitism while condemning people like Dugald MacTavish (letter 15.8.25) for his "sentiments" that Jews in New Zealand might speak out, as some prominent Jews have — e.g. Jeffrey Sachs, professor at Columbia — Francis Noordanus is fertilising incipient antisemitism.
Perspicacity or paranoia, in demanding MacTavish to desist . . . do I detect an underlying "sentiment" of arrogance?
And just to add, nobody could hate more than the Israeli leaders hate the Palestinians — they tell us often enough.
I suppose you have to, when you want to take the rest of their country.
What more evidence needed to take action?
Mr Prime Minister, what haven't you seen or heard or thought about during the last two years that needs more time and evidence before you can make up your mind about the callous murderous actions of Israel against the Palestinian peoples.
It really doesn't take much time to take in the haunted eyes of the little children starving to death, the babies never getting a chance at life, the parents living amongst the rubble and having to flee yet again at the whim of a man who thinks the lives of his comparatively few people are of much greater value than the nearly 60,000 Palestinians killed by the IDF.
So Mr Prime Minister, make a principled stand on behalf of the people of Aotearoa. Not one more bomb, not one more innocent life taken.
Heartening act
It was heartening to read what Sophie Francis-Ross did to help clean up the homeless camp (ODT 19.8.25). Motivation certainly leads to action, including the businesses providing practical items. I'm sure the homeless people were a little uplifted, knowing more people in the community do care.
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: letters@odt.co.nz
