943 days ago

New Zealander or Aotearoan?

Michael from Trentham

So far 35,000 people have signed a petition to have NZ change its name to Aotearoa. It might be popular in some areas of NZ but I don't think the Hutt Valley would buy into it.
The National Party (or is that really just Judith Collins and a few others) are calling for a referendum on a name change.
Let's say it happens. What would become of ANZAC Day? Would it become AAAC Day?
What would become of Australasian - would it become Austroan?
Would the letters ANZ become AA which might or might not be appropriate because AA has other meanings and not just Automobile Association.
There are those who say we should double our name to New Zealand-Aotearoa but that really takes up a page in a book and a sentence in a short speech. And would we still be called New Zealanders?
If we do shift to Aotearoa in all fairness we drop the colloquial term for a New Zealander: Kiwi (which is Maori) and replace it with an English name of Paradise Duck or just Paradiser for short. That would be terrific as most of us and the world believe we live in paradise. And those ducks are noisy and slightly bossy.
Another good thing in becoming Aotearoa, in the Olympic Games or Commonwealth Games opening ceremonies not only are we among the first to emerge into the stadium instead of waiting and waiting and waiting, but we are ahead of Australia alphabetically. Why not just take a wee small step and spell our new name Aaotearoa and we will be first at any Games -unless they do the dirty and start in reverse. Hello Zambia.

More messages from your neighbours
1 day ago

Poll: Could we live without public bins?

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

Many public rubbish bins are being removed by councils due to the large costs of regularly emptying them. Do you think we can adapt and live without them?

Type 'Not For Print' if you wish your comments to be excluded from the We Say You Say column of your local paper.

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Could we live without public bins?
  • 11.9% Yes
    11.9% Complete
  • 87.6% No
    87.6% Complete
  • 0.5% Other - I'll share below
    0.5% Complete
1650 votes
8 days ago

Are you a first home buyer?

The Team Reporter from Stuff

Hello!
Are you a first home buyer? Is your mortgage going up and up with rising interest rates and you’re now struggling to make ends meet? Have you lost the ability to save any extra cash?

We’re reaching out from the Tova show, the flagship weekly politics podcast on Stuff, as we prepare a special episode on the interest rate crunch and how it’s affecting Kiwis - we’d love to hear your stories.

Please comment below if you would like to share your story, or email tova@stuff.co.nz. We give you our commitment to treat your experience with sensitivity and care.

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P
1 day ago

Upper Hutt Rates Increases.

Paul from Trentham

Please excuse if I am posting this where is shouldn't be. Admins, do remove this if its not appropriate.

I have not done anything like this before so please excuse if my wording isn't quite right.


As most of us are aware the Upper Hutt City Council have proposed to raise their Rates by near on 20% each year over the next 3 years.

If your UHCC Rates are around $2500 per year, after the 3 years of increases they will be approximately $4300 which equals an extra $35ish per week. This will not only hit homeowners, rentals, hirage of venues etc but will be impacting the community as the costs will be passed on with such large increases over a short period of time.

As I am outraged about this, I have created a petition on change.org to hopefully be able to show the council how many are not for these massive increases in a short period of time.

If you would like to support this petition please go to the link and add your voice.

www.change.org...

Thanks in advance.