There has been strong response to last week’s front page article – both agreement and disagreement. There are some points on which all respondents seem to agree.
However Mayor Peter and the Editor had a good meeting to speak of our differences. He was clearly surprised at the criticism in the article. I asked if he would have time to write a response and he has.
From the Mayor:
“I express my concern at the way the article in last week’s The Informer (11 August) was presented – ‘Local Democracy Sold Down the Line.’
“I believe Geoff Robinson’s article is not reporting; it is opinion. And yet it was accorded front page news positioning with no label as being opinion. In my view the reader could be forgiven for not seeing a distinction between opinion and factual reporting. The article clearly contained prediction, on headquarters, rates, community boards, even who will lead a council voters will not elect until 2028, thus conveying speculation as fact. You refer to ‘some far-off centre of administration’ (not Thames), and Geoff’s article calls out Paeroa, as if these are decisions made. They have not. They have not been discussed.
“I am not questioning Geoff’s right to hold the views or speculations that he does. I would be sure, as indeed you have affirmed, that others share them. Robust criticism of council decisions is legitimate and valuable.
“I am concerned about balance. Given the level and nature of criticism in the article – some of it personal – I might have expected that the view from the ‘other side’ be presented, enabling readers to weigh the arguments/comments in the one article, side-by-side.
“I ended up thinking the article read more like a social media posting than a thinking person’s article in a respected local paper, which is how I have thought of The Informer.
“My constructive suggestion is to always label opinion as opinion, and secondly when someone is criticised, allow them to make their point of view in the same article.”
Admittedly I have been personally disappointed in the choice of Option Three by our Council and what does look like a prepared Memorandum of Agreement, though nothing is set in concrete, I sensed a foreboding of – not less processes to get decisions but more; not more results and less meetings but less results and more committees. It could be seen that The Informer was jumping to conclusions.
I will believe that there is strength and truth in the first item in The MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING signed by the three Mayors – Representation and Local Voice. The “clear line of sight between communities and decision-making at both local and higher levels” has not been a marked feature of what many experience.
We will all need to speak out on the detail of this “local voice and decision making” as reports come from our Council, so we are able together to decide our own future on the Peninsula and the Plains.
An untimely death
Barbara, my sister was 77. Old enough to die you could say as even in this issue there is the news of previous Mayor Chris Lux dying of cancer at 75. Yet Beth Hopping lived to 100. Readers will have many experiences to relate to in terms of the age when a loved one died.
I want to tell you about Barbara. she had motor neuron disease and she lived with it for more than two years – until talking, eating and moving any of her limbs was nigh impossible. She wanted to decide her future before she could no longer communicate. She had lived with her husband in Mackay, Queensland running a good business and held in high esteem by her community. Her husband had died two years earlier. Barbara had asked her family to organise Assisted Dying, it is legal in Queensland. The family- her sons, their wives and children, her siblings and other relatives all gathered. She had asked me to come a few days earlier, to be with her when she died. On the last night I slept beside her at her request – she murmured in a slurred and half whisper through the night different instructions. I would stroke her and write down what I thought she was saying. We all managed to say goodbye, and it all ended so peacefully and on time. Yet did I see in her eyes anguish earlier that morning? The thought of not being there for her grandchildren was unbearable.
There would never be a good time. The waiting for someone you love to die knowing the day and the time distressed members of our family. However, I believe she made courageous and brave decision that was best for her. She said to me months earlier, “I want to remember who I was. I want my family to remember who I was.” We all understood. She loved living even when it was tough and her dear Ken was gone. She loved giving and felt she could no longer do that. Assisted Dying is necessary, but it is full of anguish and sadness. Human life is the most valuable gift we have. I miss Barbara, a wonderful sister.
