Letters to editor: Tect cheques, Maori wards and gender neutrality

Tect chairman Bill Holland said the change was subject to a five-week consultation process with consumers who were entitled to receive cheques. Photo / File

Keep TECT cheques
I read with interest the article on the Tect cheque. My comment would be that the cheque is very useful at an expensive time of year. I suspect that the proposal has a lot to do with the current government's thoughts on the wholesale power sector and how overpriced power seems to be. This comment leads me to the question with no cheque payouts will Tect/Trustpower decrease their power prices? I have a strong feeling that will not be the case.

Margaret Rowland
Pyes Pa

Move should be opposed
For five or six years, I have annually submitted to Tect in regard to changes to the annual payment method being either the status quo, a cheque, or direct to a bank account, or direct to the power account or donated to the non-profit organisation of your choice and every year the trust would not change but did advise that they were also looking at other options.

But low and behold a bombshell (News, January 25) that they are now proposing abolishing the annual payment altogether, and I am aghast at the proposal.

An inducement of $2500, costing $145 million, (58,000 consumers x $2500) and $360pa for the following five years, providing of course that we vote in support of the proposal, significantly undervalues the consumer's asset, in this trust.

Also the statement in the article that nothing would change if this became an election issue, later this year, when three trustees are up for re-election, that if three opposing the proposal are elected, is not correct, in my view, as the chairperson could well be changed as they have the casting vote as there are only six trustees.

Based on the information provided to date this looks like, in my view, an attempted takeover of an asset that currently benefits 58,000 beneficiaries, while also benefiting the community and should, therefore, be opposed.

Mike Baker
Tauranga

Time for a change
With gender neutrality now being the in-thing. Isn't it about time that the award ceremonies, Oscars, Baftas and the like, replaced the best actor and actress categories with a single award for best actor and likewise with the best supporting actor?

After all the other awards are gender neutral. It would shorten the ceremony and half the boring "I'd like to thank the world speeches" and indeed enable more time to cover news of our own PM's impending exciting event. On second thoughts...

Robert England
Papamoa

Well said
Very well said Margaret (Letters, January 24) regarding Maori wards. Surely the time for tokenism (in both fields) is well passed. This is the 21st century.
Pamela Lewis
Mount Maunganui

Maori wards about fairness

Does anyone truly believe "We are all equal"? (Letters, January 24)
Is that what the statistics tell us concerning Maori health, housing and education, to name a few, not to mention representation in local government? Quite the opposite.

Do we all really have "equal opportunity"? When the "all" are lined up on the mythical "level playing field" under honest scrutiny the well-resourced European majority are highly trained (they've got the resources and have had them, rightly or wrongly, for generations) and Maori, mostly, are not.

Does democracy ensure justice for all?

After 1840, under a supposedly democratic government, Maori lost their resources and their right/voice to govern. These unjust losses ensured they were impoverished and rendered as despised beneficiaries in their land.

Do those who have never known that degradation really know how to govern Maori better than Maori themselves?

No one system is perfect, and any system needs adjusting to ensure that honour and justice, the founding principles of the treaty and of our nation, are upheld.
Maori Wards are an honest attempt to do just that.

A. Manley
Katikati