Constitutional review: Well done Tauranga you responded to the call on this serious issue!
That will teach them to make light of us all.
I think Sir Michael Cullen was gobsmacked, as was I, of how many folks arrived to the Constitution review Tuesday meeting; a meeting that had no advertising, smallest hall they could find, early on a week day morning!
There must have been 300 folks crammed into that small hall! I think Sir Michael and his Constitutional panel were left in no doubt as to how we felt on the subject of Constitutional change!
We retirees [literally Grey Power hairdos] should never underestimate the power we have as a group of people if we choose to be united on an issue and at the moment there are so many serious issues facing us.
NZ is no longer Godzone and the majority only seem to be interested Money greed power to bad about respect or Christian values etc!
There are approx. 600,000 of us [retirees] in NZ set to rise to 1 million in the next year or so, a force to be reckoned with, which is more than any of these minority groups/Party's etc so let's not forget that!

C Humphreys, Katikati.

Today's forum at the Historic Village, arranged for the Constitutional Advisory Panel was fronted, only by the mealy-mouthed Michael Cullen who these days holds himself out to be a Constitutional conservative really left the audience none the wiser as to where this current Review is going. Over 300 people attended, by far the biggest CAP meeting encountered to date and lively would be a good description of the event.
Cullen did state that any change in the NZ Constitution would have to be by way of a binding referendum and didn't think cross-party consensus would be possible because of the likely political backlash – still, he's not in Parliament, is he so who knows !!
When the question was put to him ‘Does the Constitutional Advisory (Review) Panel believe that all New Zealand property rights, governance (including the Constitution) etc. should be based on race and ethnicity (racism) or based solely on New Zealand citizenship (democracy), he would not give a straight answer deflecting the question by effectively implying that this wasn't the Panel's brief or concern.
New Zealanders may have every reason to be afraid, very afraid as the saying goes!

S. Paterson, Arataki.