Election liftout
I WAS disappointed in your coverage of The Opportunities Party’s policies in your election liftout (ODT, 18.9.17). Even the most cursory view of the home page of the party’s website www.top.org.nz would show that policies were clearly shown for each of the issues you chose report as ‘‘nothing specified’’.
Policy 2 on the home page shows an immigration policy which lists nine, wellresearched actions needed to achieve ‘‘Smarter Immigration’’ and it is hard to imagine how this could be read as ‘‘nothing specified’’.
For each of the other blank boxes in your liftout there is an equally wellresearched policy available; for example Top’s climate change policy describes a need to coordinate road, rail and coastal shipping to ensure the true effects of carbon emissions are considered before investment is made.
The Opportunities Party may not offer simplistic, soundbite promises as it does focus on internationally researched and costed, detailed policies and action plans. That is why it is so disappointing to see these policies ignored by your newspaper in a feature which claimed to provide voters with the information they need. Lindsay Smith The Opportunities Party Dunedin South
REGARDING the ODT election update: It seems reporting on the election campaign in the CluthaSouthland electorate which borders on Dunedin city is not uptodate. There are several paragraphs in the halfpage article, but only one small paragraph comprising two sentences in the final paragraph reporting negatively on the performance of the Labour Party candidate Cherie Chapman.
I have been to several of the ‘‘meet the candidate’’ events in this geographicallylarge electorate and have noticed two things. First is the Labour candidate is very well prepared and comes across as professional and competent in comparison to the others. The Greens’ candidate creates an equally informed impression with the audiences. Second, at some of the most recent events the National candidate has not been in attendance, and nor do the events seem to have been reported. This is a pity, as the audiences have missed chances to hear National defend its position as regards its fanciful criticisms of issues regarding our tarnished ‘‘clean green’’ overseas market image, and taxation. Carl Stapleton Invercargill