Eulogy for John Elliott
“How much more easily is the leave-taker loved. For the flame burns more purely for those vanishing in the distance. Separation penetrates the departing one like a pigment and steeps him in gentle radiance.”...
Category: Speeches and Articles
Auckland Council’s stealthy move to break up the regional parks network
If you thought what Auckland Council is doing at Western Springs, and at Dove-Myer Robinson Park with the national Erebus memorial, was pretty bad, what’s been planned for our regional parks and the Hauraki...
ANZAC Day in a time of war
Dawn service address at the Waiheke War Memorial. Mike Lee. We gather here and all across New Zealand on this ANZAC Day morning – as our parents did, and their parents before them, to...
Citizen Dhall and the battle to save the waterfront trams
The courageous battle by Ponsonby wine merchant Puneet Dhall and his passionate supporters to save the waterfront heritage tramway deserves our admiration and thanks. The Wynyard Quarter tramway operating as Dockline Trams was an...
‘Stand for New Zealand! Every man who is a soldier stand for New Zealand!’- Anzac Day 2021 (Dawn service Waiheke Island). Kippenberger’s rallying cry to his troops in the battle for Crete still resonates today.
Today we gather once again to remember the sacrifices of those who served & those who gave their lives for New Zealand, principally in the great world conflicts of the 20th century. The last time...
Eulogy for Cliff Robinson
It was a shock for me when Laila Harré called me to tell me Cliff had passed away that Sunday evening – though given his age and his long battles with health it shouldn’t...
The Super City must die? – thoughts on Auckland local government amalgamation 10 years on. My talk to Waiheke REBUS
A bit about my background: I have lived on Waiheke on and off since 1979. I was a merchant navy officer and raised my family here in the 80s and early 90s. I have...
My response to ‘News Room’ – ‘the Lefties who want less housing’
My thanks to News Room Editor Tim Murphy for publishing this letter with an apology. Dear Editor, For some reason, even though I have been out of Auckland politics for just on a year...
Auckland Council bureaucrats’ sneaky plan for Waiheke – my letter to ‘Gulf News’
I write in regard to Auckland Council’s perfunctory ‘Draft Waiheke Area Plan’ public consultation. Gulf News readers may recall I warned the public about what the council was planning last year. Clearly nothing has changed since...
Te Horo – place of wonder and dreams
My return to column writing in the July edition of ‘The Hobson’. A favourite place I plan to include on my post-lockdown road-trip is not really a tourist destination. There’s not even a motel...