Equally weird is the set-up in education. Minister Erica Stanford has discovered the one true path to educational excellence - structured literacy and maths. She has decreed that it will be taught in all schools up and down the country by the beginning of next year. Simultaneously, Associate Minister David Seymour announces his 50 soon-to-be privatised, for-profit, charter schools can do what they like - no rules.
But even more weird is Seymour’s gobsmacking audacity in the creation of his already morbidly obese Ministry of Regulation. Thirty staff becomes 91 just by magic and they are to be paid almost twice the going rate in the public service. You destroy bloated bureaucracy by creating a bloated bureaucracy. That makes sense - it takes one to know one.
And let’s not forget these examples: cancelling the ferries with no plan B; knowing that bootcamps don’t work but doing them anyway at a cost of $500,000 a kid; solving the huge problem of not enough state houses by stopping building state houses; managing our emissions by mass planting of pine (should work a treat on the coast); cutting taxes when economic commentators across the spectrum said don’t do it; reducing emissions by building lots more roads which will increase emissions.
But what about their continual romper-stomper assaults on te ao Māori? It’s next-level vile as well as weird. That’s a whole story in itself and it’s deeply disturbing.
The Government is determinedly making “weird” the centrepiece of its actions - no sanity required or desired. Look out for the formation of a faction or gang among themselves, “The Wierdos”, with the tagline “gonna stomp all over you”.
Bruce Holm
Minimal impact
1440 minutes in a day. The time it takes to drive through the controversial Grey St area, 1 minute. I’ve decided that isn’t too much of my time impacted. Took longer writing this letter.
Dave Henderson
Service appreciated
Re: City’s healthcare crisis (Gisborne Herald, August 28).
I am thankful for the years of after-hours service my family received from 3 Rivers when we needed them in emergencies - and also saddened that we have to take a step backwards and now go to A&E for after-hours medical services. I do, however, understand why they have done this and support their decisions in doing so, or we will have more staff burnout and, in the end, a greater reduction in services.
Shelley Hannah-Kingi
Lovely walk interrupted
Hello to the woman who was walking a little pug-type dog on a leash on the beach on Sunday, September 1 at around 9.30am. The first day of spring! My wife and I were having such a lovely walk with Gus, our dog, off-leash. Warm, sunny, fun, chatty, relaxed and easy, until we met you.
I decided not to engage verbally with your rather insistent demands that I leash Gus. It wasn’t that easy to leash Gus, as your dog continued circling you (as dogs on leash, on the beach, typically do). And you couldn’t keep him still, even though he was the one supposedly controlled on-leash. And, of course, Gus kept going round you in circles following your dog.
I would like to explain a couple of things: Firstly, if you had just let Gus have a sniff of your dog’s bottom and possibly a little inappropriate lick elsewhere (as dogs do) and let us pass as I suggested and continue our lovely walk down the beach, Gus would have come running after us, his family (as dogs do).
Secondly, possibly more importantly, the area just past the Adventure Playground and all the way to the river mouth on Midway Beach is an area where dogs are allowed off-leash. If you don’t want to encounter dogs off-leash in an off-leash area, maybe you should stick to walking your dog around the on-leash areas in Gizzy.
If you don’t think that beach area should be off-leash, maybe you should petition the council and leave law-abiding dog owners like us alone.
Maybe your little dog would enjoy some freedom off-leash himself - after all, he is a dog.
If you want to discuss this further, reasonably, feel free to contact me via the editor.
Hugo McGuinness
