Nats’ stance on women bewilders
I get annoyed when I read the National Party doesn’t see itself as ready for two women to lead the party, such as Amy Adams and Paula Bennett. I am no supporter of either, but what has gender got to do with it? Here we are in 2018 and this sort of talk still exists. I have tried to recall similar comment about two men not being deemed suitable to lead a party but no, I can’t. It’s about the ability to lead and inspire, surely, not your gender.
Susan Wilson, Waiheke Island. address, which is a dairy farm, has more than one house. I emailed the census helpline to explain we would need another form with another access code as we were separate households. I received an email saying they would need to follow a specific process for this type of inquiry. Could I please contact them again, which I did, this morning (Monday).
After waiting ages for the phone to be answered, I explained the situation to the woman on the line. She put me on hold to ask her supervisor what to do. I was then informed someone would ring me in the next day or two. Am I supposed to sit around waiting? How hard is it to send another census form with another access code? I have a feeling this census is not going to be very accurate. Rosemary Antonio, Glinks Gully, Northland. see it. Unprovable statements based on dogma are unworthy of him.
Neville Cameron, Coromandel. As a New Zealander visiting from my present home in Canada, I was astounded to hear on TV1 News that many people in the north were unaware of the census and its importance in the allocation of funding for essential services that directly affect them. Why has the Government, and specifically Deputy PM Winston Peters, not arranged supports for iwi and whanau to encourage and assist them in filling in the forms? Someone should be able to do something, although it is late in the day. Ian Lowrie, Auckland Central. Lizzie Marvelly wants teenagers to have a greater say and says “anyone who underestimates young people is an idiot”. Marvelly says teens “offer society an opportunity to ‘hack’ conventions” because they see no reason to “adhere to the same old structures”. In short, they agree with Marvelly.
We are all in danger of underestimating those who are unlike us. Many underestimate older people, for example. To underestimate anybody is, if not quite idiocy, unwise. I would prefer the voice of real teenagers to the voice of hipster, adolescent adults. There are too many of these with too great a voice. They have all the energy and dogmatism of youth, though none of youth’s inquisitiveness and propensity to learn, and none of the wisdom and mercy acquired over time.
Gavan O'Farrell, Lower Hutt.