Medical students from the University of Otago have been denied graduation ceremonies after an overseas placement rort was uncovered. Photo / Jason Oxenham
That Otago students could decide that the gift of funding for an overseas cultural experience in medicine was simply providing funds for a vacation (NZ Herald, November 19) and the current NZ reaction to their fraud strikes me as pointing to a serious flaw in how
our culture treats the privileged.
If a poor Māori from Gisborne had stolen or misused $25,000 of government funds for a personal joyride, I believe there would be no question of he or she being brought up on serious charges. This crime was committed by bright, accomplished people embarking on their journey into the upper echelons of society. They are being "punished" by having to repay the funds, have graduation delayed, and being brought up before the NZ Medical Council. Oh my!
The fact that this has been going on for some time besmirches the character of the entire profession and should not be tolerated. It was clear the administrators overseeing the use of the funding were not doing even the most basic job of oversight. They are partly culpable and should be fired.
We have become a society where the poor pay heavy penalties for misbehaviour while the upper class can be expected to get off lightly. I think this is wrong and needs to stop.
Robert Hagberg, Orewa.
READ MORE:
• More than 50 medical students to be denied graduation after overseas placement rort
• University of Otago finds 15 medical students abused overseas placements
• Otago University investigates cheating at medical school
• Uni knew of possible med student scam months before inquiry
It is disingenuous, and disappointing, that Otago University Medical School is portraying the students who failed to meet the expectations of overseas placements as having ethical deficiencies. The more obvious explanation is that the university is incapable of fulfilling its duties to students of effectively managing its learning systems.
Moreover, the students themselves are probably right in not seeing the placements as representing especially worthwhile learning experiences.
Peter Stanley, Tauranga.
When these students who rorted the overseas experience requirements finally graduate, they should be sent to do two years in Northland, the West Coast, East Cape, Hawkes' Bay or the like, where the situation is desperate for adequate health care at the most basic level.
Perhaps even these areas could be considered for the experience requirement as they are close to Third World?
Hal Griffiths, Whitianga.
I am tired of reading yet again that Ihumātao was the subject of a Treaty settlement (NZ Herald, November 20).
Paula Bennett is quoted as saying, "There was a very fair Treaty settlement that was negotiated that was supposed to be full and final ... they need to move off that land."
There was also a very fair princess who kissed a frog but, like the Treaty settlement for Ihumātao, it is also a fairy story. Saying it often does not make it true.
After the Waikato land war, Ihumātao was sold at auction to Gavin Wallace in 1867. The Wallace family sold it to Fletcher. It has always been in private hands.
The Waitangi Tribunal cannot legally order the Crown to acquire or return private land that was confiscated to Māori. Ihumātao can never have been involved in a Treaty settlement.
Ihumātao, like Bastion Point and the Raglan Golf Course, is the wish of the people to let natural justice take precedence over the letter of the law. Hopefully the teaching of NZ history in schools will improve our collective understanding of "natural justice".
Grant Robertson is correct. There is a complex endeavour ahead.
Maurice Robertson, Torbay.
Reading about the Jetstar flight JQ203 being diverted to Christchurch (NZ Herald, November 19) leaves me feeling that Auckland Airport could have handled this incident more responsibly and avoided the significant disruption to Jetstar and its passengers.
I understand that a lot of international airports have formal curfews that are contracted to protect noise levels during certain hours for surrounding neighbours. Such curfews need to be, and are, strictly enforced.
Auckland Airport does not have such a requirement. Their "curfew" was merely their own internal interim arrangement, on Monday nights only, to allow some runway maintenance.
Auckland Airport would have been well aware of the approaching Jetstar flight and surely could have held back their maintenance teams for the few minutes extra to allow JQ203 to land.
Auckland Airport would certainly have done this if there was any emergency.
Rhys Morgan, Northcote Point.
Quentin Miller (NZ Herald, November 18) asks why, three weeks after the SkyCity convention centre fire, one lane of Nelson St is still coned off.
Here in Pakuranga we have a similar situation. Workers (one must assume, paid by the hour, night, week or month rather than by the job) have been adding an extra lane for an intersection on Ti Rakau Drive. With the painting of road makings, work appears to have been completed "weeks ago". But the new lane is still coned off.
I ask myself "why?" Ruling out the need to protect extraordinarily slow-drying road-marking paint, wage payments continuing until the cones have been removed or just straight incompetence, I am left with few options. The most obvious one appears to be that the company who owns the cones has nowhere to store them and so has to leave them there blocking off a lane until they have another job somewhere else where they can redeploy them.
Lindsey Roke, Pakuranga Heights.
If the serious allegations against NZ First Foundation show political donations have breached the Electoral Act then Simon Bridges and the National Party have a golden opportunity to decisively rule out the possibility of a coalition agreement with NZ First following the 2020 general election.
This initiative by Bridges would be a great chance to boost his leadership poll ratings and for the National Party to gain back the government benches next year.
Gordon Clout, Taupō.
Sandra Coney (NZ Herald, November 19) bewails the prospect of central government forcing its will upon Auckland Council in determining the fate of its port assets.
Any intervention affecting the port pales by comparison with exactly the same tactics used by John Key's government in the 2009 formation of the Auckland Council.
Amalgamation of the eight Auckland local authorities was rammed through without any vote of the stakeholders - the ratepayers of Auckland - in spite of the fact that it was the ratepayers' assets (not the government's) that were being dealt with.
What price democracy? when the single most significant transaction in 150 years of local government in New Zealand could proceed without any mandate of those holding title to the assets for the community most affected by the amalgamation decision.
For the future we must do democracy ... better.
Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.
Mary Tallon (NZ Herald, November 18) seems to be disappointed that the dreadful old concrete toilet block on Mt Albert was demolished and replaced by something more modern and hygienic.
I'm more likely to regard the impressive new facility as a gift from the authority, along with the new off-road carpark complete with mobility parking (which does get used). Normally the carpark would be full as many people drive to Mt Albert to walk themselves and/or their dogs but they are currently denied access because protesters are blocking the entrance. Do they have the right to do this?
She also states that the authority is planning to denude all 17 maunga. The removal of a relatively small number of trees on Mt Albert, with hundreds remaining untouched, plus the planting of several thousand more would seem to refute that.
Dianna Roberts, Mt Albert.
I am not a boomer, too old to be one. The criticism of that generation is totally unwarranted. So-called boomers' parents had either served in a terrible world war or served in many ways here in New Zealand.
The disruption, to not only their lives but to the whole country, cannot even be imagined by those who didn't live through it.
Those born to these parents - the so-called Baby Boomers - were born into a period of rationing and shortages of almost everything.
Most of the appliances that are taken for granted today weren't available - or those that were couldn't be afforded.
And then the awful on-going psychological effects that again cannot be imagined by those who didn't live through it.
But they got on with life and today we all are beneficiaries.
Jim Radich, Hillsborough.
On Venus
What a wonderful role model Michael Venus is to all NZ tennis players and to the rest of us. He has worked so hard for many years to finally achieve so much success. Lyne Hopkinson, Tauranga.
On Andrew
The credibility and reputation of Prince Andrew must now be about zero. He'd be best to quietly and discreetly retire to a remote island somewhere. Glenn Forsyth, Taupō.
On teeth
What business is the cost of our prime minister's dental surgery to any person? Sandra Farrell. Pakuranga
On royals
It was correct protocol for Dame Patsy Reedy, the GG, to greet the representative of the Queen, Prince Charles. This is not the role of the PM. Russell O Armitage, Hamilton.
Are Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton related? A sorry state of affairs. Bruce Tubb, Belmont.
On trees
Why don't these guardians plant trees in extinct volcanoes without trees first? Steve Lincoln, Botany Downs.
On coalitions
It was Labour and National who sat down together and wrote the rules and passed MMP into law. If any of National or Labour supporters are unhappy with results that MMP has produced, they know whose door to knock on. Ray Lichtwark, Rotorua.
On positives
Matt Heath (NZ Herald, November 18) is so right. Wake up New Zealand and smell all the roses around you. Heather Milnes, Clover Park.
It's understood a NZDF aircraft and multiple helicopters are involved.