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Gene technology - at what cost?
The Government is hypocritical in claiming it is over-riding local government powers for economic reasons when it is already doing so in the Gene Technology Bill without any economic risk-benefit analysis.
The absence of an economic evaluation of the impact of commercial GMO has raised concerns for our major exporters and for councils such as “GE-Free Hastings” and “Naturally Northland” where non-GMO production is an economic asset.
The Bill removes the capacity of councils to maintain GE-free zones or to require bonds for clean up after field trials or to apply the precautionary principle to manage risks to ratepayers for costs of mitigation.
The complete absence of data on the impact on our billion-dollar food and fibre sectors makes a mockery of government claims of sound economic management.
Jon Carapiet, Sandringham.
School attendance
A letter writer chimes in on calls for penalising parents whose children don’t go regularly to school.
It would be much better to put that energy and funding into addressing the causes that block school attendance.
These include the effects on children who suffer from bad experiences at school, including bullying and discrimination or neuro-divergence. And the effects on parents of rotten housing, being kicked out of work, lousy health, constant relocation, poverty, and plenty else.
One way of dealing with this issue would be to divert David Seymour’s $140m nest egg for fining parents — to supporting those in need.
David Cooke, Pt Chev.
Israel’s war
Juliet Moses’ recent column in the New Zealand Herald laments the rise in threats facing Jewish communities, and rightfully so. Hate, including antisemitism, must be condemned without equivocation. Yet her piece is striking not only for what it says, but for what it fails to acknowledge: the ongoing, UN-documented catastrophe unfolding in Gaza is an undeniable assault that is decimating the lives of women, children, and innocents at an unimaginable scale.
To speak about Jewish identity, history, and safety while remaining silent on what the Israeli government is doing in Gaza is to ignore the horror staring us all in the face. Worse still, to evoke the Holocaust as a justification for such silence is a bitter twist of historical memory. How can a people who have known genocide allow their identity to be used to excuse or minimise the mass killing of civilians?
As of June 2025, United Nations agencies estimate that more than 28,000 women and children have been killed in Gaza since October last year. That figure, from UN Women and Unicef, is not a typo — it’s a generational wound. More than 70% of those killed have been women or children. Gaza’s children—once dreaming of schools, soccer, and safe homes—are now being described by Unicef as living in a “graveyard for children”.
Even the places that should offer protection — schools, hospitals, maternity wards — have become death traps. Over 600 school buildings have been hit, many with civilians inside. Hospitals are bombed or starved of fuel. UN investigators have documented attacks on maternity hospitals, widespread destruction of civilian homes, and targeted killings of pregnant women. In March 2024, a UN commission accused Israeli forces of committing acts consistent with genocide, including the deliberate targeting of the means by which a people can survive or reproduce.
And still, much of the Jewish diaspora remains silent — or worse, defensive.
This is not a call to ignore the trauma and threats facing Jewish communities globally. Nor is it a call to deny the grief of October 7. It is a call to recognise complexity. The Israeli state’s military actions in Gaza are not abstract policy debates. They are real acts that have already cost tens of thousands of lives and shattered an entire society. When those acts are carried out in the name of “Jewish safety” or “Jewish history,” then Jewish voices have a moral obligation to respond.
Many have. Thousands of Jews around the world; activists, academics, rabbis, Holocaust survivors; have declared “Not in our name.” They see the grotesque irony of a people shaped by genocide now watching one unfold under their banner.
When Moses writes that “we aren’t going anywhere,” it should not be a rallying cry for tribalism. It should be a call for accountability. Jewish identity, like any identity, can and must include self-reflection. Especially when that reflection is demanded by the cries of children under rubble.
To stand against the Gaza genocide is not to erase Jewish identity. It is to honour it. It is to say: never again — for anyone.
Stuart Watson, retired UN employee
Children’s rights
Amanda Rivers of World Vision (June 20), among other things, posits that the Convention on the Rights of the child states that all children have the right to adequate nutritious food.
Further she states that armed conflict and insecurity are the primary drivers of food insecurity, and when international actors fail to meet their obligations, it is chidren who are most at risk.
Therefore it is imperative that we look beyond our own shores and speak up on the world stage for children who, after all, have no voice.
Glennys Adams, Oneroa.
Off the leash
The existence of Monte Cecilia as a park is owed to the late Linda Leighton who was a Citizens and Ratepayers Chair of the Local Community Board 30 years ago who brought to my attention the Catholic Church’s proposed residential subdivision of land that is now the park.
As Deputy Mayor under Les Mills’ Mayoralty I championed purchase of the land as a premier park for all future Aucklander’s not just dog owners.
I have visited the park twice in the last three weeks and on both occasions there were numerous dogs off leash with their owners on paths which are well outside the off leash area. On both occasions I only came across one dog on a lead. The park has clearly been taken over by dog owners who feel they are entitled to treat the entire premier park as an off leash dog area.
Interesting that City Vision members of the Local Board have turned common sense into a political issue especially since City Vision, for at least 10 years has been trying to sell off part of the park for social housing which I oppose.
The Liston Village area will soon be added to the park under a deal struck with the Bishop back when I was Deputy Mayor under John Banks.
There was a much more politically active group abusing me for co-operating with the Bishop to shift the Monte Cecila school off site to increase the size of the park. I am glad I persevered. What a wonderful park for all Aucklanders and dogs on leash.
David Hay, ex-Mayor of Mt Roskill & Deputy Mayor Auckland City.
Bad planning
In January 1982, I spent the day at Hazelgreen Elementary School in Oregon, sharing “Charlie the Cheeky Kea” with a class of second graders and all of us making a mural depicting life in New Zealand.
This school was then in the process of putting back classroom walls and the end of open plan.
Back home in New Zealand, my school was doing exactly the same thing having made the decision that the two open plan classrooms in the upper school were a failed experiment.
These scenes are being repeated throughout New Zealand in 2025 and must be one of the reasons why our country has fallen down the ladder of international educational achievement .
Julienne S. Law, Snells Beach.
Christeria
After the economic pickle “Jacindamania” got us into, perhaps we should count ourselves lucky there’s no “Christeria” over the current Prime Minister.
Mike Wagg, Freemans Bay.
Police say they are following lines of inquiry to catch the offender.