Letters: Christopher Luxon’s Waitangi speech; NZ needs equality for all; King Charles and Harry

What NZ needs is equality for all

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, in regard to Waitangi Day 2024, rightly stated that “More unites our country than divides us” (NZ Herald, February 6).

The article provided New Zealanders with numerous positive reasons to celebrate the holiday, including reference to governmental obligations in regard to the Treaty of Waitangi that were in the past respectfully intended to unite and not divide Crown and iwi.

Luxon, however, made a reference to what could well be considered biculturalism when stating: “The Treaty is our past. It has shaped the country we are, and the obligations it imposes on both sides will always be with us. But we must aspire to go forward not as two sides, but as one country.”

It is my understanding that today, New Zealand/Aotearoa is no longer bicultural but is, without doubt, a multicultural society with a current population from many ethnic and cultural origins.

Therefore this Waitangi Day, we New Zealanders are both ethnically diverse and multicultural. A fact that provides us all with a positive incentive to promote justified universal equality for all, if we are to achieve the unified goal stated in the final sentence of Luxon’s article: “Together we will create the country we deserve.”

Richard Ward, Remuera.

Ditch the notes

Christopher Luxon can see nothing wrong in repeating speeches at Waitangi year after year.

He also has to have notes to read from and appears incapable of making a speech without notes.

Unfortunately for Luxon, politicians, especially the Prime Minister, being able to make speeches without prepared notes is a basic requirement, unlike the business world he has been used to.

David Mairs, Glendowie.

Who are these people?

A Prime Minister’s “deliberate” rehashing of last year’s speech amounts not only to an insult to the Waitangi gathering, but a “deliberate” insult.

A Foreign Minister claiming meetings with unknown “ambassadors” as an excuse to scurry away from fronting up throughout the gathering.

An Associate Justice Minister who openly casts doubt on past decisions by an independent judiciary.

Who are these people? Who voted for them?

Peter Beyer, Sandringham.

Speech a success

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon would have been well aware that his speech at Waitangi had the potential to inflame further protest and uncertainty‚ or that he could go down the middle and be a voice for reasoned calm.

I think he succeeded in that. He acknowledged the Treaty’s beginning and its ongoing influence for our society; he acknowledged the Treaty’s great value in its ability to shape and inspire us as a nation.

Finally, he spoke what could be seen as prophetic, saying: “Together, we will create the country we deserve.”

I did not vote for Luxon, but wish him success in his role as Prime Minister.

Joyce Callaghan, New Plymouth.

Cruel colonisation

Correspondent John Ford (NZ Herald, February 6) celebrates that his Irish ancestors, who arrived in 1877, contributed through colonisation to the prosperity of this nation.

No doubt my Scottish ancestors - blacksmiths who arrived in 1837 and set up Vulcan Forge in what is now called Vulcan Lane - did too, as did the ancestors of other Pākehā who arrived before then.

However, John Ford’s claim that Waitangi Day should therefore be positive, rather than a day of grievance, ignores the cruel and often disastrous toll colonisation has taken on Māori, to which many of our ancestors were wilfully oblivious.

Raewyn Maybury, Tauranga.

NZ can be proud

Unity is not uniformity. Equal does not mean identical.

Here in New Zealand, we should be proud of the way we have managed to avoid such extremes as the racism of the South Africans and the traditional class consciousness of the English. But we must not become complacent.

Equal rights were guaranteed in the Treaty. We do not fully appreciate how unique this event was.

I know of no other instance of a potential occupying power making a binding agreement with the earlier inhabitants - whose ancestors were also invaders.

Jeanette Grant, Mt Eden.

Health reform

After reading the sad story of a GP clinic failing to observe abnormal tests on five occasions (NZ Herald, February 6), and hearing of other instances of GPs under pressure, it appears health infrastructure reforms can be likened to the sinking of the Titanic.

While the deck chairs were being rearranged, the people occupying them were overlooked.

Glennys Adams, Waiheke Island.

Charles’ cancer

I wish King Charles all the best with his cancer treatment. It is, however sad to read that it took a cancer diagnosis for Prince Harry to visit him.

Hopefully, this will be the start of a reconciliation and Archie and Lilibet can now get to know their grandfather.

Rosemary Balme, Howick.

If Trump won

If Donald Trump had won the 2020 election, he would now be starting the final year of his second (and final) term.

More importantly, the two major parties would now be looking at fresh faces to lead them through the rest of what looks like a difficult decade.

Greg Cave, Sunnyvale.

Off the mark

Could TV cricket commentator Mark Richardson please refrain from relating any more of his personal war stories of what was often (though admittedly not always) a stellar playing career.

We are more interested in what is live today on the pitch in front of him.

Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.