Christopher Luxon plans to send police to Pacific nations to address the meth crisis. Photo / Dean Purcell
Luxon’s generous gesture
I’m sure our PM feels some sense of duty in declaring the sending of some of our police force to other Pacific nations to help stem the “meth boom” they are currently facing.
How very generous of him. It surely can’t be as a deterrent to hostile forces encroaching on our closest allies.
I, and many others like me, can only hope that one day he’ll feel the same sense of duty towards his fellow citizens at home. We have been promised 500 new police recruits to be stationed around the country for some time now. Are they now, if and when they qualify, to be sent offshore as goodwill gestures to our Pacific neighbours?
Is Mr Luxon aware of the major meth, cocaine and other illicit drug trafficking going on here? I believe that when these shipments arrive in multimillion-dollar quantities with the potential for killing off a large number of Kiwis, the charity involved in saving lives and rounding up the perpetrators of these crimes certainly begins at home.
Jeremy Coleman, Hillpark
Bring Tom Phillips’ helpers to justice
To those good folk of Marokopa who think the police should not try to establish who in the community helped Tom Philips hide over the last four years, think again.
If it is you, or others, bear in mind that by helping you have aided him in teaching the kids to be criminals.
Forget all your high-minded opinions and think about those poor kids who now have to be integrated back into some sort of normal life. They are the true victims here.
Let’s bring the helpers to justice.
Kevin Lunny, Orewa
Let sleeping dogs lie
Tom Phillips would seem, as it turned out, to have an all-encompassing fear of his children being taken into custody (what father wouldn’t). Some members of the Marokopa community (and for humane reasons) rightly or wrongly supported his point of view.
For the police to have a vendetta on these Marokopa residents mistakenly or otherwise for being good samaritans is arguably a pointless exercise the residents of Marokopa could do without.
Pointless in that the residents of Maropoka will shut up shop, you can count on it, and the investigation costing taxpayers will drag on ad infinitum. And for what? I would venture that, in the eyes of the residents of Marokopa, less respect for the police rather than more.
Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay
The prospect of an education ‘monoculture’
Ben Leahy’s excellent account of the “rich versus poor” divide among secondary school principals over NCEA correctly lays out the prospect of a rich school “monoculture” of exam-ready, tertiary-bound students catered to by the assumption that one learning style alone counts.
The principals from the “wealthiest” schools appear to share with this coalition Government the fanatic desire to further marginalise those who do not conform to their damaging monocultural vision.
On the other hand, we should celebrate the presence of enough principals who, despite facing secrecy and lack of consultation, still stand firmly for the diverse needs and learning styles of “Maori, Pasifika, neuro-diverse, migrants and second language learners, transient students and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds”.
These are the thinkers best placed to educate young people for the rich, diverse real world that is their present and future.
Peter Beyer, Sandringham
New Zealand’s sorry record with child abuse
The child abuse editorial (NZ Herald, Sept 11) makes sad reading and should frequently be brought to our attention so we may all reflect.
I recall all the incidents you cite and with few exceptions would make a couple of generalisations.
Our police often had difficulty getting to the truth as those involved simply refused to engage. Surely the charge of accessory could have been used.
Many of the mothers of the children had deficient skills or may even have been complicit, which leads me to wonder how many of them went on to become parents again.
Sadly, we lead the world in our ability to kill the very young.
Murray Reid, Matamata
Seymour’s ‘smashing’ political style
Guyon Espiner quotes David Seymour on the labelling of health risks posed by alcohol and tobacco.
Seymour said, while it was “pretty unlikely” the review would recommend removing alcohol and tobacco warnings, changes to the labelling requirements were possible.
“We ask the people who are regulated, ‘What’s getting up your nose?’” he told RNZ. “They tell us, then we go back and we sort of smash those rules up against the principles of good lawmaking.”
So, Seymour characterises regulation and lawmaking as “smashing” things together.
This is the language used by second-in-command in our Government, an MP for whom, of course, less than 1 in 10 of us voted. Truly, we should not be surprised at anything that happens under the current regime.
Stan Jones, Hamilton
Chris Hipkins mastering sitting on the fence
Chris Hipkins’ refusal to call a social media post from Te Pāti Māori MP Takuta Ferris racist shows a man lacking in courage, conviction, and the clarity to stand by the very standards most people would demand of themselves.
This is despite two senior Māori MPs of the Labour Party discrediting the post and a spokeswoman for Te Pāti Māori saying that it “does not condone the language used in that post”.
If Māori are discrediting the post then what is Hipkins doing “dancing” around the issue? However, is all this at all surprising given that this is the same man who got tangled up trying to define what a woman is?
The greater problem here is that this is someone who, about this time next year, will be asking the people of this country to be their leader.
Why would anyone have any confidence in someone to be Prime Minister of New Zealand when they have difficulty recognising racism when it so apparently obvious?
The same applies to his inability to define a woman. The only attribute Hipkins is demonstrating in all this is an ability to sit firmly on the fence. Hardly a quality needed these days to lead a country.
Bernard Walker, Mt Maunganui