LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

mention the proven scientific fact that the ‘tests’ are completely unreliable. This means all the statistics used by governments in regard to this ‘pandemic’ have no basis in fact. Furthermore, the independent science shows that almost all the virus deaths have been from influenza as per usual for each and every year.

Carl Mather

Kerikeri

‘Bone-deep stupid’

Allowing ‘legal limits’ for people to drive under the influence of illegal drugs is bone-deep stupid. It’s quite unbelievable for the Government to accept any sort of level of dangerous illegal drugs in someone’s system while they are driving.

How can the Government be so cavalier as to signal to all and sundry that there is now a certain acceptable limit within which one can not only take illegal drugs, but they can then get in a vehicle and drive? This will only end in more drug driving and more deaths on our roads.

The fact is, these drugs are illegal. There is no testing, no measurement, no ability to know what impairment might even look like.

This just seems to be another step down the slippery pathway by Labour and the Greens to decriminalise drug use.

The only responsible thing to do would be to have a zero tolerance for illegal drug-driving. Simple. There is no feasible reason why there should be legal limits set for the use of illegal drugs. These drugs are dangerous and untested. Why the Government would let people drive with any illegal drug in their system is beyond belief. The only way this new piece of legislation should pass is with the introduction of a no-limit standard for drug driving.

Darroch Ball Sensible Sentencing Trust A victory for women Parliament is to be congratulated for unanimously passing the Holidays (Bereavement Leave for Miscarriage) Amendment Bill No 2. This was an historic unanimous vote made on March 24 that gave recognition to the unalterable truth that the unborn child is a human being from conception, and is endowed with a right to life. This was a victory for women and an acknowledgment that motherhood began at conception. It acknowledged that the death of a child through miscarriage or stillbirth was a cause of unimaginable grief for the mother and the father.

This act is appropriately named for bereavement, a noun that means loss by death of a close relative or friend. A woman will have no closer relative than the unborn child that she carries in her womb. This recognition was affirmed by many Members of Parliament, who with humanity and compassion spoke eloquently of the “child” in the womb.

The New Zealand Parliament has decided to grant the couple paid leave of up to three days in the event of a miscarriage or stillbirth. This option is available not only to the mother but also to the father and parents who have planned to conceive a child through adoption or surrogacy.

In New Zealand, stillbirths are considered abortions up to the 20th week of pregnancy. Newborns from the 21st week of pregnancy are considered stillbirths. According to the New Zealand College of Midwives, an average of one in four women will have a miscarriage.

Right to Life wishes to speak up on behalf of the more than 12,000 women who have lost their child through abortion each year, whose pain and grief is ignored by this Bereavement Act. This act recognises the loss of a child through miscarriage and stillbirth but ignores the loss of a child through abortion. Right to Life grieves with these wounded women in the loss of their precious irreplaceable children whose pain is denied.

Right to Life supports and applauds Ginny Andersen, the sponsor of this act, who would like to see the act amended to include women who have lost a child through abortion.

Right to Life asks our Parliament how can it reconcile its recognition of the humanity of the unborn child with the actions of this Parliament just 12 months ago, which passed the Abortion Legislation bill 68 to 51.

In the chilling words of the then Minister of Justice, Andrew Little, who with the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, were the architects of this legislation, in presenting this bill for its first reading in Parliament, “I accept on legal and moral grounds the established jurisprudence in New Zealand that human rights do not accrue until human life is possible, and that the widely accepted human rights that we all understand apply when they are capable of being exercised, which is to say I accept the ‘born alive’ principle that guides our courts today.”

This is a legal fiction that is not supported by reason or science. This legal fiction supports the state-funded killing of more than 12,000 innocent and defenceless unborn children every year, a crime against our creator, the author of life, a violation of human rights, and an unspeakable violence against women, whose cries of pain and suffering are unheard.

Right to Life requests that the government uphold justice by repealing Section 159 of the Crimes Act and amending the abortion legislation to comply with the Bereavement Leave Act by recognising that the unborn child from conception is a human being endowed by its creator with an inalienable right to life

Ken Orr Right to Life

Au contraire

In his letter published March 9 (It needs to), Kerikeri oldtimer Sam McHarg writes that on March 4 I wrote, “In the last 50,000 years mankind has definitely increased food production.”

What I wrote, in response to Sam’s claim that fossil fuels have ruined food production, was this: ”…since 1961, global cereal yields have tripled, food supplies per capita have increased by 31 per cent.”

How ironic is it then that, also on March 9, a Kerikeri correspondent attacks me for not mentioning that it has been the use of fossil fuels which has produced that growth of food.

Tee hee. Can’t even follow the thread ...

Sam, I advised you to widen your circle of acquaintances, especially outside of Kerikeri. Instead, you’ve gone and joined the Kerikeri Club. And you quote Bible passages at us. Shame on you. (Abridged: Editor).

Leo Leitch