Open Letter to Judith Collins, Jacinda Ardern and David Seymour

Corina Shields

Tena Koutou,

For those of you who don’t know me allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Corina Shields. You may have heard the story about my father’s troubles with Kainga Ora. A story that came about as a result of the help I received from Brooke Van Velden when I emailed her about the issues I was encountering with Kainga Ora.

Despite Minister Megan Woods’s claims in Parliament on June 30 that Kainga Ora had apologised and rectified the issue with my father, I can tell you now that we are still rectifying some of the issues with the house and that the apology she thinks happened didn’t occur until July 2.

This has been confirmed in an email I received from Minister Poto Williams following my open letter that was published by Newshub.

As a result of the journey I have been on in dealing with these housing issues, it inspired me to create my FB page Kainga Ora-Voice for the voiceless, which is currently going through some changes, as the deeper I get into this journey, the more I realise how intertwined many sectors are, which leads me to the reason behind this letter.

I’m writing to you in regard to all the hatred and division I see being created by politicians such as yourselves and the mainstream media, and I would like to invite a representative from any or all of your parties to go to the next event in Auckland with me (socially distanced of course).

The reason I want to invite you is so we can sit and have some honest conversations about some of the people you deem crazy or anti-vax.

Yesterday, for the first time ever, I attended the “protest” and the things you are saying are not true.

The people who are attending are the very people, on whom we have relied this last year and a half without a vaccine, who are now being told they need to have it or face the possibility of losing a career they do for love, not money.

They’re small business owners like myself who wonder how long our businesses can survive these lockdowns on top of the additional token gesture leave entitlements like Matariki.

They’re beneficiaries who are already struggling and have been denied food grants during level 4 lockdowns who are worried that you are going to go after them with your mandates.

They are people who have lost someone to suicide because the mental health system is so poor that walking their own path was the only path they felt was available to them.

Very rarely are these people crazy anti-vaxxers. They’re people hurting because of a government that doesn’t and isn’t listening to them.

You all have a chance to turn it around. But it won’t happen until you start getting real and start having some open honest conversations with the people most affected by the decisions you’re making instead of the experts and working groups you’ve come to rely on.

If anyone wishes to take me up on my invite please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Nga mihi

Corina Shields