Today's Letters to the Editor from readers cover topics including importance of voting, tree planting at Cenotaph, Winston Peters and Palestinian statehood.
Voting turnout must get to more than half
To say voter turnout is tracking well (ODT 1.10.25) is debatable. Perhaps it’s ‘‘slightly ahead of expectations’’ if you set your expectations very low.
Voting is important. As people in the US, Russia and Israel are discovering to their cost, many politicians are light on concepts like compassion, well-being and telling the truth.
Voting may be a chore, especially with 54 candidates standing for DCC councillor roles. However, because it’s so important it’s worth making the effort to make good choices.
With just over a week to go until voting ends, 11% of Dunedinites have voted. That’s in contrast to Gore on 28.9%, Christchurch on 19.7% and Auckland on 11.9%.
We can do better than that. If you haven’t voted yet please do so. Rank at least a few candidates you like. We can’t let our leaders be decided by less than half of the voters.
Alex King
Dunedin
Design flaw
Whoever designed our latest Dunedin City Council voting papers needs a wake up call. You need perfect vision to find the boxes to put the numbers in. And now I’ve done that, where is the list of the closest free box nearest me to post them?
Barrie Kendall
Caversham
Choice obvious
I see (ODT 1.10.25, ‘‘Milburn Inland Port Progressing’’) that wannabe Mayor Andrew Simms couldn’t understand why Cr Jim O’Malley, amongst others, championed the Milburn location as opposed to the Mosgiel site. The reasons are pretty basic and obvious.
Firstly, Mr Simms has not seemed to have grasped the fact that this is not an inland container port. It is going to be a freight transfer hub. This is where freight will be transferred to rail from road. That means that a significant amount of heavy trucks will not be thundering through the streets of Mosgiel and Dunedin.
Secondly, for the the poor rate and taxpayers, their hard earned cash will not be required for Simms’s pet project, the Mosgiel heavy truck bypass. Not to mention the obvious savings on Dunedin’s road maintenance budget, as heavy trucks cause over 95% of road damage.
Thirdly, he hasn’t appreciated the increased safety for all road users, cyclists and pedestrians. Then of course the savings in carbon emissions. Are we not suppose to be carbon neutral by 2030?
All we need now is a similar facility north of the city, somewhere around Bushey just north of Palmerston. Then we won’t need to waste even more money on the intersection at the bottom of Pine Hill Rd.
P M Graham
Dunedin
Sensible responses
In response to Mary Robertson (2.9.25). Some facts. Firstly, my name is spelt the Irish way, Marian. Secondly, I didn’t actually say I didn’t approve of Smooth Hill. Thirdly, a rubbish tip on the Peninsula with its slip prone, narrow winding roads through leafy suburbs would pose as many infrastructure problems as trucking it to Winton.
Finally, the ability to ask sensible questions should always be welcomed.
Marian Poole
Deborah Bay
[Marian Poole is a Dunedin City Council councillor candidate.]
Gardens broadleaf hedge divides opinion
I was deeply disappointed to read that the unauthorised planting in Queens Gardens is to be ripped out. I work nearby and was delighted to see the planting and visualise what I assume is the intention of an eventual low hedge surround for the park.
It would provide a barrier for both traffic noise and wind which would enhance the area for those often seen picnicking and playing there, enjoying the freedoms that those represented by the Cenotaph fought and died for on our behalf. It would also help prevent children using the park from running directly on to the road, whilst still providing a view of the Cenotaph.
Leave the plants alone to grow. They will enhance the beauty, the safety and the comfort this taonga provides for us to enjoy, while also being reminded of the sacrifices made by our forebears.
Joanne Neilson
Kew
On the other hand
Thank God there are still organisations and individuals such as the RSA and Bob Barlin. The Cenotaph was erected in memory of those individuals who paid the ultimate sacrifice and a reminder of others who were wounded or incapacitated. As members of my family were.
As Mr Barlin pointed out, a Cenotaph is an empty grave and is hallowed ground; a point totally missed by Mr McKnight and in fact an insult to all of those individuals on whose memory it was erected. Further, if some young hoon was caught doing wheelies on the same ground he would immediately be arrested for damaging public property.
I would like to see an apology to all those that he has grossly offended by his ignorance and vandalism.
Ken Steel
Roslyn
Winston did what he ought
Winston Peters has done exactly what he ought to have done, refuse to jump on to the populist bandwagon of blind, unqualified support for the plight of the Palestinian people without some reservations as to where this is heading, or who is actually pulling the strings.
Without condoning some of the counter-measures Israel has taken, it might pay to recall that on October 7 almost two years ago, the same Palestinians who now cry foul celebrated in the streets, oblivious of the hornet’s nest that Hamas had dragged them into.
The sight of self-righteous, virtue signalling activity in United Nations, staged walkouts etc, smacks of outrageous levels of hypocrisy on the part of numerous nations with human rights records of their own as bad, if not worse, than that of Israel. The pity is that this conflict has acted as a distraction in respect of the just battle for the independence of Ukraine.
Winston Peters’ circumspection and refusal to jump mindlessly on to the bandwagon of world opinion without some mature consideration is to be commended .
Ian Smith
Waverley
Alternatively
The main defence of Peters’ and the coalition’s cowardice in refusing to join the 80% of the world’s nations now recognising Palestine is the presence of the so-called terrorists, Hamas.
If Aotearoa was invaded by a nation which, like Israel, imposed apartheid, built illegal settlements on stolen land and inflicted an horrific genocide, we would respond with twice the fury and violence. The invader would not sleep.
Why is it so different? First, because of the West’s historical racism toward Arabic peoples. Second, geopolitically, Israel is a willing pawn in the American Cold War with Iran.
Third, the only way Netanyahu stays out of jail in Israel is to keep this war going on for as long as he lives. And fourth, Trump and his billionaire investors want a golden Trump Tower with magnificent sea views, built on the bones of the innocents.
Ewan McDougall
Broad Bay
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: letters@odt.co.nz
