Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Education Minister Erica Stanford. Photo / Mark Mitchell
PM’s brainwave: An artless future
Another brainwave from Christopher Luxon, and it’s only August.
By all means defer art and music education in order to improve maths and reading results in schools. (As a music teacher myself I can confirm that music reached perfection hundreds of years ago, so any further practice or study is by the by. We’ve all heard quite enough ukulele, thank you.)
But why stop there? Why not channel the arts more generally into work that offers concrete rewards, just like the chocolate biscuits that statisticians live on?
Step One: Repurpose the NZSO’s brass section in order to re-clad the Interislander ferries.
Step Two: Deploy the impressive thighs of NZ Ballet in the construction of highways to Whangārei.
And Step Three: Our fine painters and sculptors are the ideal candidates to majestically conceal the country’s abundant potholes. Think creatively, New Zealand!
Should Chris’ dream come true, soon every NZ child will be equipped with a merry little calculator, tapping out cheerful rhythms from 9 ‘till 5. It will make a sound that’s not quite mindful. Just mindless.
Tom Rodwell, Parnell.
Greens here to stay
Bruce Cotterill says in his article that when he was young and stupid he considered voting for the Greens (Weekend Herald, Aug 3).
Does he consider youth and stupidity as correlated? We see plenty of politicians who combine stupidity and old age. Look at the American political scene. The average age of senators is 64 and 54% of them are over 65, when normal people retire.
Many of them are not known for their wisdom. Concern, vision and hope for the future is often greater by the young. The idea that the welfare of our citizens is unbecoming for a Green voter is misconceived. The essence for environmentally concerned people is to preserve nature for our children and their children.
Part of this is to ensure we have a fair society free from strife and poverty where all can live a decent life. Being passionate about nature aligns well with a concern for a fair society. The two are mutually enhancing. All political parties have their cycles. The Greens are here to stay.
Frank Olsson, Freemans Bay.
Wake up
Bruce Cotterill’s article was sadly right on point. The Green Party has become a random minorities mouthpiece, while Rome burns.
It is quite unrecognisable from its origins, which I and numerous other environmentalists were immersed in and committed to for many years. Its direction and authenticity are muddled and unimpressive.
This seems to be due to the selection of candidates who have chosen its umbrella to shelter under, while they flap around on their personal bandwagons. Party members no doubt chose them on the basis of their confidence, passion and “variety”, rather than their knowledge of and commitment to environmental issues and solutions. There are a few exceptions to this, but unfortunately the “me” has overshadowed the messages from most surviving Green MPs.
Knowledge, constructive messaging, consistency, values, and discipline are what the public want from a Green Party. I beg the party to listen to the pleas from voters and wake up.
Stewart Harrex, Palmerston North.
Sport and gender
Saturday’s editorial in support of trans inclusion in an Olympic event gives an emotive cry out of support but medical opinion regarding physical unfairness was not stated.
In fact those against are all likened to extremists, using emotive language to show their concerns. I too am “vociferous” in my belief that they should not be allowed to compete against women athletes and it has everything to do with human rights.
I believe, as many doctors have stated, no matter what we want or need to be, we are still born with a physical frame, for a male form it is a stronger body. It is why men’s sports belong to them and are not played against women.
It’s why targets set are different, women’s lower than men’s. One could say study the human body carefully before “vehemently and vociferously” creating a scene. It’s a cop-out and not fair.
Emma Mackintosh, Birkenhead.
Defence policy
It seems we are now part of an automated targeting system that can potentially kill anyone anywhere.
The New Zealand Defence Force is engaging in “global information domination” exercises with the United States and AI is being used in the service of weapons and their delivery systems to speed up the targeting process (Weekend Herald, Aug 3). Palantir, the surveillance firm which backs Israel’s war on Gaza, is supplying satellites enabling the US and its allies to perfect a “kill web”.
In March we learnt that the GCSB had been secretly hosting a foreign partner’s signals intelligence system designed to locate remote targets. Analyst Nicky Hager delved into the top secret documents released by Edward Snowden to conclude that the system was almost certainly the US NSA’s APPARITION programme, which is capable of analysing transmitted signals from very small satellites, such as those used in internet cafes in Afghanistan. We could well have been part of the US programme for locating suspected terrorists and summarily executing them.
It is time the public was consulted about our defence and foreign affairs policy, which has strayed far from the peace and “nuclear-free” ideals we used to be proud of.
Maire Leadbeater, Mt Albert.
Defining performance
Audrey Young’s ratings of the performance of the coalition Government had me muttering “you’ve got to be joking” – particularly the high rating given to Simeon Brown (Weekend Herald, Aug 3). Then I referred to my pocket Oxford dictionary which gives a colloquial definition of performance – “a ridiculous action”.
So in that case I’d give Simeon Brown a 10 for his plan to raise speed limits and build more roads, thereby ensuring an increase in crashes resulting in injury and death. A 10 also for his ability to ignore the best evidence and research.
Barbara Grace, Grey Lynn.
Power profiteers
Once again Rod Emmerson with his cartoon showing electricity-generating pigs rorting the public and gorging in their trough of profits hits a serious issue on the snout (NZ Herald, Aug 8).
When the nation’s publicly-owned power production was privatised, there were well-informed warnings that this would result in excessive increases in prices as companies took advantage of a captive market. The public was against this rash move driven by neo-liberal economics, but was ignored.
Well, haven’t the porkers come home to the sty. Except the increases happening recently have been well in excess of the worst predictions. The news that several large processing companies in towns where they are the main employers are being forced to close because of this power price gorging is devastating for those communities and the economy.
Power price profiteering is out of control and we are all suffering - guinea pigs in a nightmare free market experiment. This brutal behaviour by power companies must be stopped.
Only the Government, as it was a government which created the pig trough in the past, can do this. This power price crisis is the most serious challenge for PM Luxon and the current coalition. It overshadows all others.
Russell O Armitage, Hamilton.
Children’s Minister Karen Chhour seems to base her determination to repeal Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act on personal experience and anecdotes, defending her opinion with vague references to “court cases where this has been an issue”. She ignores the evidence of public health experts, researchers, lawyers, psychologists and iwi who are united in their belief that repeal would be harmful for the children Oranga Tamariki is supposed to protect. Chhour objected to being called a “puppet” but her actions suggest precisely that, with her Act Party masters pulling the strings.
Andrea Dawe, Sandringham.
It has been reported that a primary school in Christchurch is undertaking a 10-week pilot scheme to reduce tooth decay by getting young children to brush their teeth twice a day while at school. The charitable trust Byte has donated enough toothpaste and toothbrushes for the duration. The idea is to make the process fun for the children and if successful could one day be rolled out to all schools across the country. While this programme is to be applauded, surely this is another instance of parents abdicating responsibility? There is a fundamental problem here and it is becoming all too common. One wonders what could be next?
Randal Lockie, Rothesay Bay.
We should learn to do work on Natural Stupidity (NS) first, before we work on Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.
Many, many years ago I concluded that synchronised swimming was the most inane sport there could possibly be. I have to say that Paris 2024 has done nothing to change my mind.
Phil Chitty, Albany.
If we are to have the stick of an inner city congestion charge, can we please also have the carrot of a flat inner city fare? Say $1 for any trip made on an Inner Link bus, and $1 for any trip made by public transport within the bounds of the Inner Link route.
Andrea van Himst, Grafton.
I received my rates bill in the mail this morning. Nicola’s tax cuts, tax adjustment, or whatever you choose to call it, won’t make any difference to this voter’s cost of living crisis.
Greg Cave, Sunnyvale.
The conduct of Police Ministers, both past and present, is outrageous. I am extremely disappointed as this type of behaviour is at the detriment of accountability, and I am even more disappointed that Mark Mitchell is exhibiting such pettiness after calling out Poto Williams last term for the exact same thing. I expect our ministers of all political persuasions to follow convention and to absolutely not be a roadblock to accountability. We deserve better than this childish behaviour from our ministers.
John Deyell, Ellerslie.
I wonder if Christopher Luxon knows anything about the well-documented connections between maths and music? His Government is very keen on the compartmentalisation of things, so the idea of inter-connectedness doesn’t seem to figure. Physics tells us that everything is connected, or, as Newton put it, “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
Barbara Matthews, Onehunga.
Chloe Swarbrick’s “Time to own our past and to better” (Aug 7) was a lot of words describing issues and criticising others’ solutions to those issues, but not actually providing one solution herself. Easy to do.
Bernard Jennings, Wellington.
How a resilient Kiwi village hopes to bounce back from a big drop in visitors.