Letters to the editor: Smokefree in ashes

'They don’t seem to care if lots of people die from cancer caused by smoking.' Photo / NZME

Letters to the Editor

Smokefree in ashes

I was delighted NZ was pursuing Smokefree 2025, but now I am extremely disappointed that the new Government is repealing the smokefree law.

It is obvious this Government is more interested in the tobacco tax it is getting from people buying cigarettes, than the health of everyone.

It does not seem to care if lots of people die from cancer caused by smoking, nor does it care that our air is polluted from second-hand smoke.

I am allergic to cigarette smoke as it causes me to have an asthma attack, but the Government doesn’t care about us ordinary New Zealanders.

Deneice Marshall,

Tamatea

We are up to it, Mike Hosking

Last week this newspaper published a comment by Mike Hosking, bemoaning the likely failure of the COP28 climate summit in the UAE, suggesting more action may be required but that “we are simply not up to it”.

Well Mike, fortunately, most of us are up to it. Most of us accept that the best available science unequivocally demands that we take rapid, transformational change to decarbonise our economies. And most of us accept that we all need to play our part but that we need the support of all our social, economic, scientific and political institutions to pull off the changes required.

Here in Hawke’s Bay, we don’t need reminding of the existential challenge. Every time it starts raining, we are immediately transported straight back to February 14 and Cyclone Gabrielle, a weather event almost certainly turbo-charged by climate change. Every time it rains, we worry that communities will be again cut off, lives disrupted or even lost. Just this weekend, another cloudburst in Wairoa cut off the town to the south and a slip on the road claimed a life.

Here in Hawke’s Bay, we know from first-hand experience that climate change is already upon us. For us, the short-term imperative of adaptation, of weatherproofing our critical infrastructure, has already overtaken the long-term imperative of mitigation, of eliminating carbon from our lifestyles. But we know that both have to happen, with urgency.

To the credit of the National Party’s negotiating team, last week’s national Coalition agreements leave the commitment to our country’s net-zero carbon 2050 goal intact. National’s ideas of how to achieve that target differ from those of the previous Government but that by itself is no bad thing – there is no “one way” to meet the challenge. But what is critical is that the power of we, the people, are enlisted in that journey.

Mike, we are up to it in Hawke’s Bay, it’s not too late for you.

Xan Harding

Councillor, HBRC

Gaza: ‘Violence is never solved by more violence’

Seven weeks of war have seen the death of 1400 Israelis and 14,000 Palestinians. Violence is never solved by more violence. Israelis will continue to live in a war zone until Palestinian statehood has been universally recognised to allow self-determination and economic and political autonomy.

Former foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta reminded us that the Hamas attack “has not occurred in a vacuum”.

Editors need to show courage and not bow to lobbyists. We need to have an honest, respectful exploration of what actually happened in that “vacuum” of history alluded to by Mahuta.

Pauline Doyle,

Napier

A question of culpability

I wonder what the culpability of the people of Gaza to the current conflict really is. I think it is a fair question. To what point do you either excuse or blame a general population for the current disaster happening in Gaza?

First, I want to reiterate what all peace-loving people should agree with: the innocent deaths in Gaza, as in Israel, are tragic, painful, and very sad.

But in a November 14 poll done by the Arab World for Research and Development, 83 per cent of Palestinian respondents in the West Bank supported the October 7 attack, while the Palestinians of Gaza, while not showing as much support, still had a majority of support at 63.6 per cent.

This is what years of indoctrination has done to the Palestinian people.

When I see placards saying “Free Gaza” what they should really mean is to free the people of Gaza from the corrupt and terrifying rule of its leaders. Israel is now helping to bring this to pass, and they should be left to do it.

Pastor Nigel Woodley

Flaxmere Christian Fellowship