MOVER AND STIRRER: Jim Green of Whangamatā has written to dozens of world leaders and takes great pleasure in the replies. Photo / Alison Smith
MOVER AND STIRRER: Jim Green of Whangamatā has written to dozens of world leaders and takes great pleasure in the replies. Photo / Alison Smith
From his Whangamatā living room, Jim Green likes to give credit where it's due - a philosophy that has amassed a pile of replies from the Office of our Prime Minister to 10 Downing St in London.
The collection is in response to letters he's penned over four decades and is a narrative of not only Jim's sharp eye on current affairs, but the power of the pen.
"They're not complaints, I just write if I want to ask anybody any questions," he says.
This has included a who's who of New Zealand politics, senior ministers, sporting bodies and world leaders. Margaret Thatcher, Boris Johnson, Tony Blair, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Don Brash, Ministers of Police, heads of rugby unions - you name it.
Jacinda Ardern has been congratulated for her leadership through the Covid-19 pandemic level 4 and invited to join Jim and his wife Christina for a cuppa and a takeaway jar of Christina's homemade pickle, if the Prime Minister should find herself in Whangamatā.
"You can easily send an email, but for the sake of four minutes and a little stamp, it goes down well. People know you're making an effort."
While many reply when Jim writes in support of their views, Jim has a folder of "grouch files" in which he's politely asked for answers when lawmakers appear to be above the law, or making policies he does not like.
"I wrote to Jacinda and said 'how come we're always being told we're all one and yet some people don't have to pay their school fees'. I got a four-page letter back explaining how it wasn't like that at all. I then wrote to the Minister of Education and said William Shakespeare would have been proud of that one."
When Anne Tolley was photographed wearing high-heeled shoes on the bonnet of a vehicle, vowing to crush boy racer cars, Jim told her what he thought.
"I worked at Waihi goldmine for six years and health and safety was drummed into me. They taught me 'if you're going to do a job, stand back for three to four minutes and assess the danger'. So I wrote about health and safety, but I never got a reply."
Police Minister Anne Tolley smiles as she inspects the Nissan after it was crushed in Lower Hutt. Photo / NZME
He wrote to senior police in 2003 when the Herald published a photo of an Auckland motorway at a standstill while motorcycle gang members without helmets rode for a funeral, asking who would pay if they got hurt.
"I've got two sons in the police force. I think they're doing a fantastic job, but when it comes to law and order, the law is the law," he says.
Police referred his letter to ACC for comment, who in turn told Jim ACC payments could be withheld if injuries were sustained during a criminal act. However, failure to wear helmets was "in fact not deemed a criminal act but a transport offence and therefore wouldn't be disentitled by ACC".
The author closed the letter with: "We share your frustration."
On law and order, Jim wrote to Don Brash in 2004 when Brash was leader of the Opposition, delivering National's Law and Order policy in an address to the Sensible Sentencing Trust.
"I wrote a simple letter and got a four-page reply."
Jim has a reply from Twickenham Rugby Union over English Rugby's view on South Africa's apartheid regime until the early 1990s.
Twickenham's secretary replied on June 1, 1989: "You probably realise we have to walk a tightrope on the South African issue but the Rugby Football Union is firmly of the opinion that, in a free society, an individual player should have the right to make up his own mind in these matters."
Jim is among those who got a letter from Todd Muller as leader of the Opposition. "Mr Muller ... hopes you have been keeping well in recent months. Thank you for taking the time to write and keep in touch," his correspondence assistant replied.
Prime Minister Ardern's office also managed a reply despite a large backlog of hard-copy mail during the time Parliament was closed in lockdown.
"Jacinda very much appreciated receiving your kind words and wants me to thank you for being one of our team of five million - we couldn't have done what we did without your help! Thanks again for writing."
A reply that makes Jim giggle was the one from the Tasmanian Government, when Jim wrote congratulating the lack of litter he'd seen while on a holiday. It was a sweet little letter half the size of all the others.
