Gisborne letters on Grey St name change, plan not public, divisive Treaty Principles Bill

Sir George Grey served as Governor of New Zealand from 1845 to 1853, and from 1861 to 1868. The days of celebrating harmful, discredited colonial officials must surely now be over, writes Ian Procter. Image / Auckland City Libraries

Letters to the Editor

OPINION

Restart by changing name from ‘Grey’ St

“We are not against Māori wards” – a headline of comforting words from Prime Minister “Lucky Luxon“.

Action always speaks louder than words.

Words on anything Māori are as volatile today as in the era of Governor Grey, when he ordered the invasion of Waikato to destroy Māori representation through the Kīngitanga. That has now proven to be a failure, as recent events at Ngāruawāhia have shown the world.

Māori representation wards or not, ratepayers must have credible representation. It must be credible enough to rectify “The Grey Street Gamble” (or shambles, as some have protested).

If Gisborne District Council would like to improve that experiment, it could start with supporting a name change. I suggest a rename to Kiri Te Kanawa Street. I understand the world-famous Kiri once lived along there.

The days of celebrating harmful, discredited colonial officials must surely now be over, or are we all still too colonised?

Ian Procter “Still too colonised”

In whose interests?

Re: “Regional economic plan one of best I’ve seen” – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon (Gisborne Herald, Sept 14).

Seems bizarre, but perhaps par for the course in Tairāwhiti, that a regional economic plan would be given to central government before there was any opportunity for the public to even see it, let alone comment on the contents. Though I guess that strategy makes sense if it was written by Trust Tairāwhiti in the interests of certain sectors and businesses, instead of the interests of the region as a whole.

Manu Caddie

Anything is possible

The eight percenter popinjay David Seymour must be well pleased with the progress made so far on his deeply offensive Treaty Principles Bill, despite the fact that 91.4% of voters didn’t vote for it.

Also not voting for it beyond its first reading in Parliament is Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. He says it’s divisive. It’s so divisive for him, he has allowed the bill to go to select committee for a full six months instead of shutting it down in 24 hours as he could have chosen to do.

There is a filthy game being played here. The six-month timeframe allows Act and others to mount a massive disinformation campaign on the New Zealand public, the likes of which we will never have experienced before. The point of the campaign will be to build a public majority in favour of a referendum.

What do Luxon and Winston Peters (who has already hinted that he could change his mind) do then? Oh, it’s the will of the people they will say, democracy in action, therefore we need a referendum.

Anything is possible with these shysters in charge.

Bruce Holm

A ‘do-nothing’ alternative

Alternatives for failing health system (Gisborne Herald, Sept 14 column) makes for sad reading. The medico author Art Nahill informs us he has taken early retirement because he “can no longer bear to patch people up only to discharge them back to the same toxic environments...”

I am minded of previous public health doctors and nurses who did their 40 years without public anguish... Burn-out and shell-shock medical conditions were little understood before Baby Boomers came along and mental health became a growth industry along with couches and valium.

Nonetheless Nahill offers readers a panacea: “an army of community health workers” to promote health and wellbeing. Pretty much what Truby King did with Plunket babies, Nurse Maude with bicycles and Patrick Twomey in the Pacific for leprosy; all without a paid army.

I now wonder what has happened to Plunket Rooms and Salvation Army outposts? Why do rural hospitals no longer attract dedicated health professionals? Is it because in those former less “enlightened times”, service or duty ranked ahead of personal advancement and comfort?

Anyway, I do believe government minister Dr Shane Reti and his Cabinet colleagues are working towards another solution. An easy do-nothing solution. Simply sell the New Zealand health system (land and buildings) plus ACC’s multibillion-dollar investments to the shareholders of, say, US healthcare giant AIG.

The generations now following declining numbers of Baby Boomers can expect to pay for their own health with insurance premiums, thus ridding the Government of a problem and an expense.

Winston Moreton