Editorials: Get The Facts Right – Kāpiti and Coast Independent

DomPost slips up

By Roger Childs

Editorials are always opinion pieces, but they relate to actual events, issues and developments. FOODS FOR THOUGHT are KIN’s editorials and we work hard to get the facts right before tossing our views, analysis and interpretation at the readers.

Today the DomPost based its editorial on the topic of how the new government is handling the issue of our military involvement in Iraq. The heading was Questions about Iraq.

Legitimate points were raised on whether our role had gone beyond that of training Iraqi troops.

Unfortunately the editor strayed into another continent when commenting The other urgent Iraqi issue (our underlining) for the new Government is whether it will stick with former Labour leader Andrew Little’s statement in April last year that an independent inquiry was needed into allegations in the book “Hit and Run” by Jon Stephenson and Nicky Hager.

It was Afghanistan!

The DomPost editorial compounded its mistake by going on to say A full public and independent investigation is vital in order to answer grave questions about the Iraq mission. The book said innocent civilians died during a New Zealand raid and that the military had not told the truth.

The editorial talked about Iraq throughout its 13 paragraphs. Afghanistan was never mentioned. Obviously a few people slipped up!

What’s the reality about Hit and Run? Radio New Zealand got it right on Monday.

The book, by investigative journalists Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson, alleged six civilians were killed and 15 injured in a raid on two Afghan villages (our underlining) in 2010 by New Zealand’s elite soldiers and that the Defence Force subsequently covered that up. RNZ 12 February 2018

Readers would agree about having an inquiry, but it would need to centre on a raid in Afghanistan, not Iraq.

Return to Home Page

STORY OF THE WEEK

Kāpiti’s proposed Te Uruhi Gateway at Paraparaumu Beach has been voted through after a day-long debate which include a haka in the District Council chamber and angry protests.

The Kapiti council faced a government deadline for $4.45 million project, with half to come from the Covid Recovery fund.

Vote went 7-4

It wasn’t until after 5.30 pm when the councillors and mayor voted 7-4 to give the go-ahead. The four anti votes came from councillors Jocelyn Prvanov, Gwynn Compton , Martin Halliday and Bernie Randall.

100 Years Ago — and the Maori Long March begins

Māori politics was dominated by the influential MPs (and sometime Cabinet ministers) Māui Pōmare ( Waitara statue photo above) and Apirana Ngata.

The 1920's also saw the rise of Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana’s religious movement, and the emergence of Te Puea Hērangi in Waikato.

Ngata worked hard to foster Māori scholarship and education and preserve traditional arts and culture.

He convinced the government to establish a Board of Maori Ethnological Research (1923), a Maori Purposes Fund Control Board (1924) and a School of Maori Arts and Crafts in Rotorua (1927).

The Reform government also took the first, tentative steps towards settling longstanding Māori grievances.

Agreements with Te Arawa in 1922 and Ngāti Tūwharetoa in 1926 recognised their respective rights over the Rotorua lakes and Lake Taupō, and led to the establishment of trust boards with some government funding.

Commissions of inquiry which examined Ngāi Tahu grievances (1920–21) and the Waikato and Taranaki confiscations (1926–27) recommended that modest compensation be paid.