Dear Editor, in reference to the PM's response to the Friends of Fiji's threat of a court challenge re the PR Act.

What a mischievous and disingenuous comment by the PM, calling it a political stunt. It's not politics PM, it's about equality, democracy and transparency.

Fact. The 10 year wait prescription for PR for non-New Zealand citizens isn't in the 2021 Immigration Bill

Fact. It's also not in the 2020 Draft Immigration Bill that was presented for public consultations and submissions! 

The only people that knew about this rule were MFAI and their staff. Why wasn't it in the draft 2020 Bill? Why wasn't it disclosed and explained to the public during the consultations?  How can the government and MFAI leave this crucial detail out and how is it even legal?  

Clearly, this deliberate or otherwise lack of transparency makes a mockery of a fair and democratic consultation process. 

Bring on the court challenge!

The Outliers (details supplied)

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Tail wagging the dog?

Dear Editor,

Having read the paper at lunchtime, I was wondering about the innocuous reply that was given by Halatoa Fua of the National Environment Service when he explained issues at the Vaimaanga site.

Even though the project  has been going on for many weeks now, there is apparently still no EIA…and for NES to send out a “reminder  notice” of compliance for all projects/developers around the Cook Islands is really a bit ridiculous

There was no comment from Halatoa saying that he was going to - at the very least, suspend the Vaimaanga project until a proper EIA has been granted

Is he so scared of the new Poster Boy on that project, Prime Minister Mark Brown, that he is unwilling to observe the law and at a minimum  read these guys the Riot Act? 

Once again we see the tail wagging the dog!

(Details supplied)

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Is there another story behind those masks?

It’s so awesome, to finally be able to get out and about without masks, tagging in and all the other mandates.

A big thank-you to our, and the New Zealand government for keeping us safe, I am just wondering about the reasoning, behind some businesses keeping up some of the restrictions. And I am wondering if some have ulterior motives. Maybe they have hundreds of thousands of masks in stock, and because the pandemic is ending, they probably won’t need them till the next one, in 100 years or so. So maybe they want to keep mask-wearing compulsory for a couple of more months, so everyone will have to buy them, and clear out some of the stock.

Its a plan so cunning you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel!

Concerned citizen (Details supplied)