Letters to the Editor: elections, Gaza and flooding

Otago Daily Times

25-05-2025

Today's Letters to the Editor from readers cover topics including unchecked election spending, the abhorrent genocide in Gaza, and South Dunedin's flooding issues. Election spending rules need urgent revision
The massive unchecked election spending by Dunedin mayoral candidate Andrew Simms and his Future Dunedin Party highlights how weak local body election spending controls have become.
Limitations on election spending for the October elections do not take effect until mid July and until then Mr Simms is having a field day with, amongst other things, many full page advertisements in this newspaper.
American democracy has been seriously flawed by money in politics and it is something we don't want to see here. In a sense, if you have enough money then politics becomes no longer an even playing field as the rich or their surrogates affectively buy their way into office.
[Bill Southworth is a former local body election candidate. Editor.] When it all started
The editorial ( ODT 21.5.25) quite rightly recognises the abhorrent genocide occurring in Gaza, with relentless bombing and intentional starvation through the blockade of aid.
However, we challenge the editor's misconception that this situation started on October 7th 2023 with the Hamas raids.
It started in 1948 when the state of Israel was created on 55% of historic Palestine, driving more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homes (the "Nakba"/Catastrophe).
Since then the settler colonial state of Israel has continued expanding, forcing Palestinians into an ever-shrinking land area, in an apartheid state with few rights, despite many United Nations resolutions/reports condemning Israel's war crimes.
Since 2005, Gaza has become the world's largest open-air prison, with Israel restricting water/electricity/food/medicines.
Experts have long warned that conditions were unliveable.
In this context it is abhorrent to state that "Hamas started this".
This genocide must be stopped. We call on all institutions to BDS (Boycott/Divest/Sanction) Israel, and for countries to condemn this ongoing genocide. Otago University Staff for Palestine group Great courage, but
Shame on Netanyahu. It takes great courage to speak such words these days.
Yesterday's editorial (21.5.25) gave me hope ... such a rousing buildup would surely lead to a brave, unequivocal condemnation of Israel's genocide in Gaza, something very lacking in New Zealand today. I sincerely commend you for standing up for humanitarian principles and against Israel's outrageous actions over the last 18 months. It is very refreshing.
However, by then framing the "start" of this "latest dreadful conflict" as being on October 7th 2023, you completely ignore that day's context, within a conflict that has been incessant for 76 years (at least for the Palestinians).
While laying blame on Hamas for "starting it", you fail to mention that since 1948, Palestinians have faced a mixture of systematic government sanctioned displacements, ethnic cleansing, killings, settler violence, administrative detentions, illegal occupation and apartheid.
Your words simply empower Netanyahu's very false narrative, that Israel was attacked on October 7, for no reason at all.
[Similar letters received and noted, from R Robert, S Loader. Editor.] Flooding and the blind acceptance of piffle
In the absence of meaningful post publication comment on the full page ODT disclosure of plans for mitigation of South Dunedin's flooding issues, may I draw to your attention the lack of arithmetical eptitude in the proposed Dunedin City Council solutions.
The plan outlined four options ranging from $2.5 billion to $7.5b. A google search reveals that some 900 South Dunedin properties were flooded in the last event, which appears to have been exacerbated by the lack of maintenance on the stormwater mud tanks. Let's call it 1000 properties for the sake of numerical simplicity: it follows that the cheapest proposed remediative option is to cost $2.5 million per property, and the most expensive option would cost $7.5m per property.
A drive round South Dunedin fails to identify one property that would fetch $2.5m on an open market, with the owners of most of the 900 properties, at risk of an inability to gain insurance, being unable sell for more than half a million.
That councillors have not factored this analysis into their considerations demonstrates their alarming lack of understanding of number, and a blind acceptance of the piffle they are being fed by senior DCC staff.
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: [e-mail]