Generous council salaries factor in rates hike

THE Dunedin City Council is proposing to increase rates by 9.8% next year and 5.7% per year for the following nine years. Replacement of ageing infrastructure is given as one of the reasons for needing these increases.

I suggest another reason is the amount the council pays its executives.

I note the newly appointed chief executive is being paid $402,000 per year, an astonishing amount for a small city of 130,000 people.

Furthermore, for the year to June 30, 2020, the seven staff on the council’s ‘‘executive leadership team’’ were collectively paid $1,988,000, which is an average of $284,000 each.

Given the magnitude of these executive salaries, it seems right to doubt the council’s message that it is cashstrapped and in need of extra funds from Dunedin’s citizens.

Brett Crombie

Kenmure

Te Tiriti

DID Dame Claudia Orange read British Colonial Office instructions to Governor Gipps, and then Hobson, before she made the reported statement about ‘‘the genuine partnership the Treaty was meant to be from the beginning’’ (Weekend Mix, 23.1.21)?

She is further quoted: ‘‘. . . how we are to acknowledge the original agreement for the sharing of a partnership in the Treaty . . .’’

It was the British Crown and governors alone that determined the intent and content of the Treaty; this being solely about seeking cession of sovereignty and in return granting rights of British subjects, including the protection of property.

There was nothing about partnership or shared jurisdiction. If the British Crown wanted such this option was open to it.

A ‘‘condominium’’ was used for duel sovereignty by Britain and the United States over Oregon Country from 1818 to 1845 and later between Britain and Egypt over the Sudan, but not over New Zealand.

It appears that social justice influences have eclipsed Dame Claudia’s scholarly review of our past. Bruce Mason

Oamaru

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