Toddler Ruthless-Empire. Photo / Ngatanahira Reremoana
Letter of the week: Another needless tragedy
Yet another senseless death of an innocent child. We should all sear in our memories the terrible sadness in the eyes of Ruthless-Empire. His whānau are to be commended for their brave fight to save that precious little boy. Undoubtedly, Oranga Tamariki staff feel deeply for the death of a child, but without apportioning blame, there needs to be a transparent investigation and questions asked as how yet another child fell through the cracks with tragic results. Oranga Tamariki displayed no urgency enquiring into Ruthless-Empire’s wellbeing, and the family’s concerns were minimised several times. They seem to struggle finding a critical balance between too much intervention and not enough, with disastrous results. Has the 2022 restructuring and the dissolution of the Children’s Commissioner’s role hindered the organisation’s effectiveness, and removed any meaningful oversight into how they operate? We know that cohesive wrap-around services at an early stage are the most useful tools in preventing child abuse. We can no longer afford to be blasé about how these vulnerable children are treated.
Mary Hearn, Glendowie.
Bridging finance
Brilliant to finally read Garth Falconer (NZ Herald, Nov 3) a very competent urban designer, intelligently question the second Waitematā Harbour crossing: the $45 billion, 25-year build proposal from Waka Kotahi. Finally, someone who understands the value, cost and alternatives of what $45b could buy.
I have long wondered why there has been no review of, or promotion of, successful, value for money, overseas bridge examples to date. Garth details the Giorgio bridge in Genoa (2020) which would mean Auckland could build our bridge in the vicinity of $1.5b to $2b. Only 4.4 per cent of the cost of Waka Kotahi’s behemoth option!
A fresh look at this pivotal single piece of infrastructure, and how nationally important projects are conceived in future is long overdue.
Gary Carter, Gulf Harbour.
Housing costs
Referring to rising house prices as “recovering” is just wrong.
People are struggling to pay their mortgages not because of interest rates — I remember needing a second mortgage with rates up to 20 per cent to buy a house — but because houses are twice as expensive as they should be. It is the cost of housing, whether paying a mortgage or sky-high rents, that is the single biggest factor in the cost of living battle.
Bob van Ruyssevelt, Glendene.
Twice damned
Given the tragic death of another toddler, the staff at Oranga Tamariki are overwhelmed with dysfuntional family cases and are under constant attack from public opinion for uplifting babies toddlers and children.
However they are also under attack from the public for failing to protect these unfortunate children. They are therefore damned if they do and damned if they don’t act. If those who procreated these offspring did their job and truly cared for them then Oranga Tamariki would be redundant. Let’s put the blame where it lies and protect the children who never asked to be born in the first place.
Marie Kaire, Whangarei.
Food scrap
A Herald article raised the issue of multitudes of food scrap bins outside large apartment blocks. Further to this, why should all the ratepayers who compost domestic food scraps be forced to pay for a “service” they don’t need?
Many struggle to pay their rates, and we should be sceptical about any net environmental benefit from proliferating hundreds of thousands of moulded plastic bins, not to mention the impact of collection trucks burning fuel to collect this stuff. Was a credible environmental impact analysis done? I suggest that what we are seeing is simply virtue signalling from over-zealous green warriors in a coercive local government.
This imposed cost falls to ratepayers at a time when household costs are extremely high. The food scraps collection system should at least allow an opt out. This seems to be right up there with the orange road cones epidemic.
John Raine, North Shore.
Golden apples
I console myself with the knowledge that the All Blacks remain the best team in the world — when they have 15 players on the field.
It is like a Greek tragedy (or comedy). Melanion was clearly the fastest runner but he had to be slowed down by golden apples so he could lose to Atalanta. Whether it is the descendants of those Greek gods or, more probably, the ABs’ own stupidity, they are compelled to give opponents a sporting chance to win by always playing with fewer men.
Against France they were leading until the yellow cards. Against Ireland they gave up more yellow cards. Even Argentina were offered up a yellow card. In the final they had to go one better with a red as well as two yellows. Go back to the 2015 final, when victory seemed assured, they offered up Ben Smith to even the game — and almost lost.
If we kept all 15 men on the field for the full 80 minutes it would be tedious for the rest of the world. I am therefore concerned that the humble Ian Foster, who has laboured so hard to maintain this sporting tradition, is to be replaced by a coach who only seems to want to win.
Graeme Smith, Canterbury.
Taking responsibility
The people who failed “our baby Ru” are the people who killed him.
Others who failed him are friends, relatives and visitors who knew of the conditions in which he was living. The only action they took was to tell Oranga Tamariki rather than taking the matter into their own hands. Finally, Oranga Tamariki failed as they did not follow up on the information provided.
But Oranga Tamariki has a problem. If it does pick up a young child it gets criticised for moving the child away from its family, and if it doesn’t it causes headlines.
Parents and caregivers have the first and most important responsibility for the care of children. Only after that does the extended family and finally a government agency.
Nick Hamilton, Remuera.
We are told we are in a cost of living crisis so how important should it be to waste our money by buying fireworks to celebrate Guy Fawkes?
Dick Ayres, Auckland Central
Sidebar on the front of the Herald “How Taylor Swift Became a Billionaire.” Ummm, at a guess, because she sold lots and lots of records?
John Capener, Kawerau.
Celebrating Guy Fawkes night can only be likened to the TMO — Time to Move On — and be done with both.
Ian Doube, Rotorua.
I think the term is “deflection” when your front page news blames Oranga Tamariki for this beautiful little boy’s death. Whilst I am sure they fell short, the real question is who actually submitted him to blunt force trauma and why. One we accept this we can try and stop these deaths happening.
Jeni Peterson, Onehunga.
I urge the Green Party to step forward and talk to Christopher Luxon to suggest a coalition. Put social ideology aside. We need a relentless voice for the environment in Government now.
K. Taylor, Epsom.
The best education ever was to sit in class reciting out loud, all the times-tables and teaching us all to do maths in our heads. It is such a shame that for many years a calculator has been used for adding two totals together. Many times I have witnessed shop assistants getting a calculator out for a simple maths sum, when instantly I have worked it out in my head. In English it was the norm to be given a list of words to learn every night, how to spell and what they mean. These methods stand one in good stead throughout life. If technology tries to guess what you are saying and too much reliability is put in this system, then there will always be errors in what is learned and accepted.
Margaret Dyer, Taupō.
Rod McIntyre (NZ Herald letters) feels we can’t influence the big players on climate change. We could say the same about our nuclear-free stance, our Covid response, universal suffrage, the 40-hour week and many other issues. We don’t know what that influence might be — but that is no reason not to try.
Mike Diggins, Royal Oak.
I find it quite ironic that council controlled organisations were set up to be more business-like in their operations. Yet Auckland Transport would not be permitted in a commercial environment because it is not only a monopoly, it also controls all the competing entities: roads and as a result private transport, public transport, pedestrian transport and ferries and presumably road safety. At has far too much power and for a start it should be broken up.
C Johnstone, Grey Lynn.
The annual event means closures for some lanes on the city's harbour bridge.