Tolerating suicide

How can the government be serious about supporting its suicide prevention strategy while at the same time the Prime Minister, the deputy Prime Minister and an overwhelming number of government MPs support government-sanctioned and -funded doctor-assisted suicide?

A total of 668 people died by suicide in New Zealand in 2017/18. Our suicide statistics are appalling; we have the highest youth suicide rate in the

41-member OECD. Suicide is a very serious national health issue, it affects families and communities. The government recognises the seriousness of this crisis, and every year funds the suicide prevention strategy, which has as its objective reducing the number of suicides.

In December 2018 a total of 37 Labour MPs, including the Prime Minister and nine NZ First MPs, voted to support the End of Life Choice Bill at its first reading. This Private Member’s Bill of David Seymour’s seeks to legalise assisted suicide for those who have a terminal illness or irremediable disability. The Prime Minister has said she will support the Bill at its second reading.

How can the Prime Minister say that she was wary of sending any message, “that there was a tolerance for suicide in New Zealand?” Is she not giving a message to the community that she supports suicide for the seriously ill and disabled? eventuality should the EOLCB be passed, that will empower doctors to kill their patients or assist in their suicide.

KEN ORR Right to Life Politicians of the world rejoice, for you can still tell lies during elections.

The High Court of Britain has thrown out the case against prospective Prime Minister Boris Johnson. During a recent election he had made claims that withdrawing from the European Union would save £350 million (US$400 million). The figure was challenged by his opposition at the time, and subsequently in a legal action. The action was apparently ‘politically motivated and vexatious,’ an unusual occurrence in any honest election.

The real concern is how honest are politicians, and especially prospective politicians, during elections? It’s not just a matter of kissing babies, shaking hands with people you will never speak to again or pledging monies to marginal electorates, but the themes they propose, better education, less poverty, freedom from drugs, and in some countries just freedom itself.

These are the things everybody wants, and yet no one can seem to deliver them, despite many honest attempts. Perhaps politicians should only promise what they can actually deliver.

A relatively recent change has been the rise of fake news and attacks on the freedom of the press. If the truth is not known, as shown with the Chinese government’s description of the Tiananmen Square massacre as ‘justifiable,’ then it disappears into the mists of time. There have been many attempts to remove or at least cleanse history, with some people even claiming that the horrors of the Holocaust did not occur.

Fortunately there are still people who tell the true stories, even if the cost is their own lives.

We all need to tell the truth, but especially our leaders.

DENNIS FITZGERALD

Melbourne who denied the lawful owners of Ngakahu access to their land from July 2003 till February 2014 by using a defective entry agreement that they admitted was a nullity. Also this council continued to charge rates for the 10 years seven months and 12 days they locked the gates.

Council’s in-house legal counsel claimed in a report dated June 20, 2018, that the legal easement and the illegal easement were landlocked. This statement was vexatious, as no landlocked situation existed.

The same counsel has made claims in court documents that they own the power poles and power lines that are within the legal right of way easement. Top Energy Ltd have confirmed they own the power poles and power lines. The recent survey by a registered surveying company clearly shows that the power poles and power lines are outside the right of way easement.

The same counsel claimed that the Ma¯ ori Land Court, in 1950, granted a pipeline easement and right of way easements and a power line easement. Clearly he had not read the external report commissioned by council dated March 2015. He also failed to request a copy of the court order from the Ma¯ ori Land Court relating to the Kaitaia Borough Council's application that was struck out in 1955. The trust were able to obtain this information; why couldn't the FNDC counsel?

The Ma¯ ori Land Court confirmed that the 1950 application by the Kaitaia Borough Council had been struck out and no easements had ever been granted.

There are still a number of applications before the Ma¯ ori Land Court, filed by the trust, awaiting hearing dates. The FNDC also has an application before the Ma¯ ori Land Court awaiting a hearing date, and there are three applications before the District Court, one set down for July 9-12, 2019, and one to be filed in the High Court.

DES MAHONEY Trustee / Secretary Ngakahu/Ngakohu Wha¯ nau Ahuwhenua Trust

Kaitaia

"How can the government on one hand say they are going to invest $40 million on a suicide prevention strategy to reduce suicide in New Zealand, while on the other hand invest in providing doctor-assisted suicide? "

Ken Orr

Right to Life