Whanganui letters: Budget lacking for seniors and Middle East complexities

Budget 2022 didn't deliver for seniors, writes Ross Fallen. Photo / NZME

Locally, I will say that we are thankful for the Government's temporary relief support in petrol excise reduction, winter energy payments and travel concessions.

It should be noted that the superannuation increase on April 1 is actually a catch-up on pressures we have felt for some years.

Seeing it as an "increase" is not the right lens of "truth".

In healthcare, we hope to see in the details support for better pay and conditions for carers.

The shortage is acute and we know of clients whose care support has been reduced.

Of course, we recognise the impact of Omicron on the workforce and services, but without greater support now for carers to make this industry supported and valued, our seniors are at risk.

For those seniors needing carer support at home or in care, it may not be the fear of Omicron, but the reality of reduced care that may put their lives at risk.

We also have so many in retirement who rent, and their superannuation is all they have.

We work all our lives, we pay our taxes to build our nation and infrastructure. The cost-of- living package in the Budget has effectively excluded seniors.

ROSS FALLEN
Grey Power Association president, Wanganui

Peace model queried

Julien Leys argues that the Abraham Accords led to "true political, economic, peaceful" co-existence and co-operation between former sworn enemies, the Arab states and Israel.

Regretfully, Mr Leys' facile analysis ignores the complexities of the Middle East.

He elects to present a few selected facts and evaluates those ("progress", "significant new opportunities", "flourish", "stability and resilience"), thus simplifying the issue under discussion to support his argument - positing that the Abraham Accords could be a possible "model for peaceful international relations" that could inform peace between Russia and Ukraine. Really?

One could also argue that signing an agreement with Arab states, who pay lip service to their own populations, while drawing closer to Israel with economic interests and Iran in mind, nudged on by the US, is treacherous, self-serving and "nothing more than a scheme to give an Arab stamp of approval to Israel's status quo of land theft, home demolitions, arbitrary extrajudicial killings, apartheid laws, and other abuses of Palestinian rights" (Ariel Gold).

But Mr Leys' discourse sounds feasible, even acceptable, doesn't it? Indeed, it certainly does, particularly for those who have no interest in the region's history, vested interests or power plays. Ignorance is bliss, particularly if it does not concern us. However, what if it did concern us?

Mr Leys' article seems to be another example of "strategic public relations", the type of which we have fallen prey to for the past two years.

MARIANNE SCHUMACHER
St Johns Hill