I am in absolute amazement that a professional in your position, with utmost influence over the population as a whole, can continue to applaud such immature behaviour shown by our local ratepayers' representative, CR Finlayson, in relation to his support of 1080.
Recently, at a council meeting in which I was present, and you were not (sending a representative to write notes for your story), I was horrified and saddened to see the unacceptable general behaviour of the councillors, snickering, making inappropriate comments, with general disdain towards the complainants, one of whom is a very sick man due to workplace poisoning. This meeting did not represent the democratic right of the people concerned, nor did it represent the majority of ratepayers sustaining council and the press.
The most prominent point that became obvious to me during this meeting, and now again with your most recent rant, is the level of disrespect towards the ideas and feelings of others, and that ignorance prevails on the issue of sustainable conservation. You, as an editor, and councillors, representatives of 150,000 people, are responsible for providing this unbiased information.
I agree that this issue needs to be publicly addressed, and sound information for decision-makers and the public, in general, is vital.
Let me remind you that in the first place, Mr Finlayson´s recent publicity stunt in swallowing water, which could very easily have made him quite sick (but because he had taken every measure to make sure that he was only drinking uncontaminated water) it is definitely not up to NZ standards when considering and respecting others.