Letters to the Editor: South D, parking and health

Today's Letters to the Editor from readers cover topics including the problem of flooding in South Dunedin, the DCC parking fiasco, and accepting a mediocre health system.

Bring in the Dutch to sort South Dunedin out

Yet another headline today (25.6.26) tells us all of the complete inability of the Dunedin City Council and staff to resolve the problem of flooding in South Dunedin.

As a Dunedin ratepayer, I find it offensive to constantly read of this continuous waste of our time and resources when the answer is blindingly obvious.

The Netherlands is a country where most live at sea level, yet they appear to have no issues in their management of low-lying flood-prone land.

Please DCC, fly out a couple of highly experienced engineers from the Netherlands, well versed in water management, to Dunedin.

Their brief would be to write a report on the best option/s available to resolve the South Dunedin problem.

Ratepayers are not interested in the opinions of councillors and staff who have never managed, let alone resolved this long-standing issue of South Dunedin

Will this suggestion be considered by the DCC? No, of course not.

Gerrard Eckhoff
Alexandra

Low-lying

Councillor Mayhem asserted at Thursday’s council meeting that South Dunedin contained many houses that are situated below sea level. This is false. None of Dunedin, not even the flat, is below sea-level.

Rosemary McQueen
Dunedin

Pipes and pumps

The DCC meeting (25.6.26) spent much time talking about South Dunedin flooding. Several speakers, including councillors, described the 2024 flood rain event as heavy.

It wasn’t. It was only moderate rain, at 8mm/h. Even the 2015 rain intensity that caused flooding wasn’t heavy. Heavy rain is double, 16mm/h, and a stormwater system is meant to cope with that, according to NZ Standards.

Once that maths is understood, then it is clear that these floods aren’t caused by climate change. Two important factors why South Dunedin now floods easily are that too much of its surface is hard so rain can’t soak in, and the natural drain of water to the upper harbour has been blocked.

South Dunedin simply needs more pipes and pumps, now, to prevent flooding before the next moderate rain event.

Dr Louisa Baillie
Dunedin

The first 100 days

Ingrid Leary’s excellent synopsis of the long-term adaptation plan for South Dunedin (Opinion ODT 24.6.26) makes a vital observation in being honest with South Dunedin residents about the price tag of any option.

She criticises the government and PM for cancelling a proposal to Treasury’s National Resilience Plan seeking $132.6 million for implementing adaptation measures in South Dunedin.

If this is a gross failure of the present government then I would expect Ingrid should be lobbying her senior politicians to come up with an election promise of at least $132.5m for South Dunedin within a 100 days if Labour is part of the next government.

Alan Paterson
North East Valley

Have a hmmm

M Smith (Letters 25.6.26) needs to ponder a moment and think a moment about his ill-conceived comments regarding the Oval homeless in the ODT. Just wander down and talk to them yourself and then ask them why they are still parked there. Their answer might embarrass you and serve you right.

Dave Edwards
Mosgiel

On the road again thanks to the city council

Re a parking fiasco costing Dunedin City Council $100,000 (ODT 24.6.26).

It did not even cost the council one cent. Just another illogical dumb decision by council staff that cost the ratepayers — and all for no gain.

Further on, in the same paper, the Invercargill City Council has paid $29,274 for MoleMap skin checks for 149 of its staff. Mayor Campbell and chief executive Michael Day can't see what people are complaining about.

Incidents of staff abuse have increased. No wonder there are a lot of angry people when ratepayers’ money is being spent on non-essential, non-core council business.

Time to buy a house truck and only have to worry about paying Road User and COF charges instead of rates, that are wasted by incompetent councillors and staff.

Neville McLay
Opoho

Postponing adventure

Exactly Ray MacLeod (1.6.26). Dunedin has known problems in its storm-water disposal systems. These are engineering problems to which there are engineering solutions. Please DCC, apply them now and postpone the wonderland adventure.

Graeme Chesney
Kakanui

Med Council moves worry

The editorial (22.6.26) noting the Health Minister’s decision not to re-appoint two members of the Medical Council, and the minister’s subsequent Nursing Council interference should be of interest to all registered health professionals governed by the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance (HPCA) Act.

A key driver behind the changes aims to align the HPCA Act to enable government policy to override professional peer critique of competence to practice, replacing expert knowledge with lay knowledge.

Crucially, the government proposes to install an oversight committee that has the power to override regulatory authority recommendations.

In practice this means that non-qualified individuals can decide whether a health professional is competent to perform and also override decisions on level of qualification to register.

Essentially government ideology is legislating to erode the protections that govern safer healthcare practice.

Soon, we will be reducing our competence to the lowest common denominator to make the workforce figures look better for the government. Targets drive this ideology.

I encourage taking a moment to stand back and critique what the future is within a health system that has government overreach and reduced accountability to the public health outcomes.

No health professional is immune from being judged and this in itself is good.

Patients trust the system to be as safe as it can be and the staff to be able to perform competently.

Lowering the bar will have consequences, for patients and practitioners alike.

I am keen that we use our professional voice to push back against erosion of professional oversight.

We as a significant workforce (close to 90,000) should not be pushed into accepting a mediocre unsafe system where patient harm events increase just to make government targets or policy look better.

Dr Teresa Bradfield, RN
Pukerangi

[Abridged — length.]

Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: letters@odt.co.nz