Better options exist than messing with Town Belt
In support of Barry Mollison and Jason Bauchop (Letters, ODT 12.12.25), yes, please leave the Town Belt alone.
As a long-time resident of the area and frequent user of the stretch of road in question, both on foot and in vehicles, I can attest that it is already a beautiful part of the green belt and works extremely well for both cars and pedestrians.
I note a stated aim of the Town Belt Management Plan is to reduce carbon emissions in the Town Belt. The reality is that people will continue to drive across the Town Belt to get into town, so closing Queens Dr will not reduce carbon emissions — it will simply move the emissions elsewhere.
I note also in the plan that identifying opportunities for shared routes and active transport is desirable. However, well-formed pathways already exist and there is ample scope for activities, active transport, and use of green space, without the need to exclude motorised traffic.
I strongly believe that the Dunedin City Council could spend $15,000 far more wisely in that area. Resurfacing Arthur St (which is deteriorating badly), cleaning mud tanks, weed control, berm mowing, and track maintenance all seem to me to be more worthwhile.
I would urge drivers who regularly use the part of Queens Dr destined to be closed to voice their concern regarding the closure of this valuable route.
Getting shirty
As far as I know, wearing a statement T-shirt in public (ODT 11.12.25), is a human right and is also covered under the right to protest legislation. Freedom of speech is part of a democratic process.
Historically, the Labour coalition government first declared a climate emergency in 2020, internationally ratified by the Paris Agreement. The current National-led coalition government has two out of three members who would rather not participate and one who wants to stay in. The Climate Change Minister has just fast-tracked legislation to disengage from New Zealand’s Paris climate commitments.
Dunedin City Council promotes a "climate emergency declaration". Their Climate Change statement recognises intersectionality issues, but has a lot of work ahead. Dunedin Airport is a public service with joint ownership by the Crown and the DCC. They declare loyalty to Dunedin’s zero-carbon sustainability-planning city goals. Clearly, "climate change" issues are a complex thing.
Presently, it is not technically an offence to wear a logo or slogan in public, apart from quite specific laws on gang insignia. It is legitimate to express a opinion or fact as long as it is not offensive, obscene, promoting illegality or hate speech.
The "It’s a Climate Emergency" T-shirt design has been worn in all main airports, plus on the steps of Parliament without an eyelid batting.
I am wondering why Dunedin seems singularly to have a problem with this?
[Abridged — length. Editor.]
Wakey wakey
In the not too distant future Bruce Mahalski and the editors of the ODT will wake up and realise that climate alarmism has disappeared. It was never real, it existed only in the climate model projections for the future.
China, USA, India, Russia, Argentina and Indonesia have abandoned net zero, Britain will do so after the next election and Europe will follow. The financial world has also abandoned net zero: Blackrock & Vanguard has removed climate requirements on loans, as has Nestle on purchases.
Only Bruce and the Dunedin City Council will be slavishly trying to decarbonise the whole world. Good luck with that, but not at our expense.
[Abridged; Editor.]
Various glaring examples of exceptionalism
What has happened to Gerrard Eckhoff? (Opinion ODT 16.12.25). The BBC did not mislead the public: Donald Trump did instruct his mob to go to the Capitol and fight like hell — but not in the same sentence.
The BBC reported it as he meant it — because that's exactly what happened. People died and Mike Pence was lucky not to be hanged.
Trump is a pig-ignorant, vindictive egoist who refused to call off the insurrection until his daughter Ivanka intervened. He facilitates ethnic cleansing in Palestine, empowers Putin in Ukraine, and terrifies the media.
Justice under the law is dispensed by the judiciary but it is parliamentarians who write the law. The executive governs the country. Whether New Zealand is a fair and just society is another matter entirely.
One thing is for sure: if British government tried to govern by according different rights to those of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Norse Viking, Roman and Norman French ancestry Britain would be in an even bigger muddle than it is today.
Brexit is glaring example of what happens when some people believe and are encouraged to act on their "exceptionalism". Israel is another.
Nothing or less is worth more in final reckoning
Thank you Lois Galer for your robust letter to the editor (ODT 6.12.25).
I and many of my colleagues concur with you and fear for the landscape of Dunedin, also how these new blocks will impact on living standards and the sense of wellbeing of Dunedin people.
Joanna Theodore, a heritage architect, wrote in Architecture Now about the Gordon Wilson flats in Wellington. Her comments can be applied aptly to our noteworthy heritage buildings.
In short, she writes how demolishing is a despicable act of waste — the rest of the developed world would sure be laughing at us.
Demolition, she said, would fly in the face of international initiatives, such as the retrofit first policy now adopted by three London boroughs, and gaining traction for wider adoption in the foreseeable future. This policy is designed to discourage new buildings and encourage a circular economy, reliant on building reuse.
In addition Joanna says how developers are required to consider a whole life carbon assessment early on in the feasibility stages of a project and assess varying degrees of retrofit, prior to considering demolition and rebuild.
Joanna's poignant point struck me when she wrote it was emblematic of our throwaway culture, which is exacerbating the climate crisis.
"It is astounding that a university organisation, that offers an environmental science degree and promotes it by asking: ‘How can we make a meaningful difference?’ could even consider such an environmentally unconscious act."
She provided the graph from MBIE’s Procurement Guide to Reducing Carbon Emissions in Building and Construction 2021, showing that building nothing or building less is the most effective way to reduce carbon emissions.
