Our attention was drawn to a column by Stuff’s Joel Maxwell, whose byline picture (below) might be helpful in enabling readers to decide whether he was ill-served when he was asked about his age.
More specifically, he was asked if he had a SuperGold Card.
He proceeded to tell us (tongue in cheek, we would like to think) about the jolt to his ego:
Yep, upon hearing that question, my life played out before my eyes, and frankly, I had a lot of regrets about my decision-making.
The worst decision was maybe the most recent – choosing this particular McDonald’s to buy a long black.
As I waited to wave my card over the eftpos portal, the woman behind the counter checked my SuperGold card status.
Was I prepared for this? Of course not. I’m in my early 50s. I am a person who still holds out hope he’ll get asked for ID the next time he purchases alcohol.
Maxwell proceeded to give us the impression he is of a delicate disposition, although he looks like a robust individual:
I doubled over a little at the counter, experiencing what I think are called horror-cramps in my belly. I looked back at the people behind me with a ‘getta-load-of-this’ expression, hoping they’d laugh at the absurdity of it all. They just looked bored, the entire crowd, like nothing was happening except their need for nuggets.
Finally, with the air of someone who’d had to reassure men all her life, the woman said: “Don’t worry, you are very, very young-looking.”
Hence our suggestion you take a butchers at his picture.
So that was that. Welcome to Club Senior, where the grey mist on the dance floor isn’t dry ice, it’s just your damn cataracts playing up again.
I went to the toilets and waited there for my coffee.
Do they bring your coffee there?
But since then, I’ve had an idea, something good that I could pull out of this carnage.
Carnage?
Let’s see…
He proceeded to tell us (tongue in cheek, we would like to think) about the jolt to his ego:
Yep, upon hearing that question, my life played out before my eyes, and frankly, I had a lot of regrets about my decision-making.
The worst decision was maybe the most recent – choosing this particular McDonald’s to buy a long black.
As I waited to wave my card over the eftpos portal, the woman behind the counter checked my SuperGold card status.
Was I prepared for this? Of course not. I’m in my early 50s. I am a person who still holds out hope he’ll get asked for ID the next time he purchases alcohol.
Maxwell proceeded to give us the impression he is of a delicate disposition, although he looks like a robust individual:
I doubled over a little at the counter, experiencing what I think are called horror-cramps in my belly. I looked back at the people behind me with a ‘getta-load-of-this’ expression, hoping they’d laugh at the absurdity of it all. They just looked bored, the entire crowd, like nothing was happening except their need for nuggets.
Finally, with the air of someone who’d had to reassure men all her life, the woman said: “Don’t worry, you are very, very young-looking.”
Hence our suggestion you take a butchers at his picture.
So that was that. Welcome to Club Senior, where the grey mist on the dance floor isn’t dry ice, it’s just your damn cataracts playing up again.
I went to the toilets and waited there for my coffee.
Do they bring your coffee there?
But since then, I’ve had an idea, something good that I could pull out of this carnage.
Carnage?
Let’s see…
noun · the slaughter of a great number of people, as in battle; butchery; massacre. · fighting or other violence. · great damage, utter defeat, or chaos. · dead …
But Maxwell was being impish in suggesting the blow to his ego could be described in those terms – wasn’t he?
We are sure he was – up until this point in his column.
Now comes the serious bit.
He had been paving the way to call for the age of eligibility for the SuperGold Card (65) to be lowered for Māori people.
Trouble is, that would amount to special treatment for one particular group of New Zealanders – and the Luxon government champions the principle of one law for all.
But (Maxwell counters) the gold card is already provided for a particular group – older people.
Māori people should be given extra help because they die on average seven to eight years earlier than non-Māori. They are poorer on average and sicker on average, and they pay their taxes “but don’t get all the goodies that accrue to those who live longer.”
PoO’s reading of a range of newspapers and online websites had drawn our attention to another matter: Maori hold cards that non-Maori do not hold – and they play them for big bucks.
Laws slams ‘Māori issue industry,’ says iwi using ‘cultural veto’ to shake down businesses
The first paragraph tells us broadcaster Michael Laws is saying he is “sick of Māori issues” but can’t ignore them because they reveal a “fundamental clash of values” holding the country back.
On The Platform, Laws said a leaked 84-page Ngāi Tahu cultural impact report on Oceana Gold’s McCrae mine near Dunedin shows how iwi are using cultural objections as a cash grab dressed up as spirituality.
Laws said the report, prepared by Ngāi Tahu’s commercial arm Aukaha, blocked the mine’s planned expansion for offending four Māori spiritual concepts. The report spells out the deal: “The expectation is that Oceana Gold will compensate Kāi Tahu where these impacts on cultural values cannot be avoided, remedied or mitigated.”
“There it is in black and white,” Laws said. “You will pay us money because you have offended whakapapa, tapu, and mana.” He called it a “shakedown,” saying iwi have been given “a perverse financial incentive” to oppose development in order to demand money or land.
It’s important to note that Laws said he no longer blames iwi for this behaviour. The problem – he argues – lies with politicians who created the system.
“It’s not their fault,” he said. “We gave them the power to corporatise, monetise and weaponise their culture for profit.”
He described the result as a “spiritual veto on progress” that blocks jobs, frustrates investment, and weakens democracy.
Unless some government has the guts to stop it, Laws warns, the country will be held back.
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE. - where this article was sourced.
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