No mandate
The Māori Party has no mandate to disrupt the current Government’s mandate to reverse the policies of the previous Government, such as abolishing referenda for Māori wards, for which it had no mandate.
Mike Wagg, Freemans Bay.
‘Carkoi’ response
Instead of the police advising people they should head to work early to avoid the “Carkoi”, how about they do their job of enforcing the law? According to the road code, driving below the speed limit and holding up traffic is illegal and could cost you up to $150 and 35 demerit points.
Mark Young, Ōrewa.
Political conflicts
Thanks to Simon Wilson for the thorough look at conflicts of interest in the New Zealand Government (NZ Herald, May 28).
The province of British Columbia in Canada avoids many conflicts of interest by forbidding businesses and labour unions from contributing to political campaigns. In addition, no individual can contribute more than about $1400 per year to a political party, including any donations between elections to a sitting member of the legislature.
The rule is not watertight. For example, an employer could gift employees with $1400 each, encouraging them to support a specific candidate in an election. But the employer would have no guarantee that employees would use the funds to support that candidate.
Now all I have to do is convince BC to adopt proportional representation.
Paul DeGroot, Canada.
AI threat
Simon Wilson’s article about the fine line between what is acceptable in politics and what is corruption is very relevant to how democracy works in this country and, as a long-time activist, I agreed with all his points.
However, he did not mention the threat to democracy of AI and its ability to be used by people with money to influence the way we think and how society works. This Government could go down in history as the one that saved us from the most serious threat to democracy ever if it passed a law to curb AI abuse of power and corruption.
Dennis Worley, Birkenhead.
Rafah air strike
Has Israel no shame? Many more civilian deaths from the indiscriminate bombing of civilians, in the hope of killing a few Hamas fighters. Why is the world complicit in such killings by its lack of serious action to stop the slaughter? All we seem to do is wring our hands and move on.
Patrick Deane, Ōrākei.
Timely support
New Zealand’s celebration this week of Samoan Language Week coincides with the closing of submissions for the Samoa Citizenship Bill. This seeks to redress the injustice of the 1982 legislation which came on the back of one of the darkest periods in New Zealand history of the 1970s, when government-sanctioned raids were held at dawn to arrest and deport overstayers, particularly Pacific people.
In their 2021 apology, the New Zealand Government described the Dawn Raids as leaving Pacific communities feeling “targeted and terrorised” because of “the discriminatory implementation of immigration laws”. When Falema’i Lesa, one of those arrested at the time, challenged her conviction to the Privy Council, it ruled in her favour by stating that those born in Samoa between 1924 and 1948 were in fact New Zealand citizens.
The Government of the day quickly passed legislation by enacting the 1982 Citizenship Act that denied Samoans born between 1924 and 1948 the New Zealand citizenship the Privy Council had determined they had.
The present bill is an attempt to redress this long-standing injustice. Surely an appropriate action for Samoan Language Week would be to support this bill, for which submissions close this Friday.
Peter Garrick, Samoa.
Paper or person?
Recent letters have bemoaned the fact that many primary school teachers failed NCEA science level 1. Some experts are going as far as to recommend a master’s degree for teaching.
I failed school certificate chemistry and do not have a degree of any kind. Despite this, I have worked in chemistry for more than 40 years. My current employer tells me it is the person, not the piece of paper.
Alan Johnson, Papatoetoe.
