I met a homeless person today. Yes, really. She is in her late 40s, with grown-up children (who do not live with her). She split with her partner a few years ago and has probably about a 10% house deposit saved from the sale of their jointly owned house. She
Ladies and gentlemen, the 2020 election campaign has officially started, and it will be the longest campaign of your lifetime. After promising to build 100,000 houses (and failing) and promising to build a light rail system in Auckland (and making very little progress to date), the government has announced
I am a National voter. I have not always voted National, but I have done so, without fail, since 2005. I also voted for them in 1990, but I hated the Jim Bolger government, with its extreme austerity, so much that I didn’t vote for them again. It is
Labour governments just love to ban things. Remember Helen Clark’s showerheads and lightbulbs? Some say it cost her the 2008 election, but she was on her way out anyway. Once Labour got back into power, however, it was back to the future. They just cannot help themselves in their
Labour announced that it will spend $400 million on schools; they will fast track some of its infrastructure projects and they will borrow to do it, thus loosening the Budget Responsibility Rules that they have adhered to so tightly up until now. In other words, the 2020 election campaign has
I listen to Red Radio at times… not by choice, but because my husband likes it. The other day, I asked him how fluent he was in Maori these days. He said not at all. I said that he must be if he listens to this stuff day after day,
I have a friend who is a card-carrying Labour supporter. When she went through a divorce, a decade or so ago, she started dating men and had only one rule. She would not date anyone who was not a Labour voter. I thought it was a bit odd at the
As someone who was living in Britain when the Princess Diana phenomenon first took hold, I have witnessed first hand how the media can harass a private individual, and once she became a member of the Royal Family, she was fair game. There was at least some protection for her
The government has announced its latest raft of regulations for private landlords. Rents will only be increased once a year (instead of every 6 months, at present), and landlords will be unable to end tenancies for no reason. Yes, that’s right. You will not be able to evict a
Last week I was chatting with a real estate agent who has a superb property for sale on Petone foreshore. With a busy road between the house and the beach, it has fabulous sea views, and is in a prime location for the local cafes and restaurants in Petone. This
I have consistently refused to get involved in the criticism of Simon Bridges, mainly because a lot of it was just nasty and spiteful. Mocking someone for nothing more than his accent is childish and unnecessary, and I refuse to go there. Simon Bridges should be a role model for
The government has allocated $1.9 billion towards improving mental health services, and Jacinda has freely acknowledged that she wants to see the current rates of suicide reduce significantly. Well, somebody should have had a quiet word with Damien O’Connor, Minister for Primary Industries, about that particular policy, as
The world is starting to see the truth about our star-studded princess. Nowhere in the world is New Zealand viewed as a third world country, but the Daily Mail UK has picked up on the truth – that poverty in New Zealand has reached new and unacceptable heights, and that our
Even the 2015 Paris Accord warned participants not to threaten the food supply, but the great Jacinda, who sees climate change as her ‘nuclear moment’ (even though there was never a nuclear moment after 1945) knows better. Jacinda wants New Zealand to be the first nation on earth to bring
The government set rules in place last year where residential housing can only be purchased by people living in New Zealand, Australia and, because of a quirk in the trade agreement, Singapore. Many of us breathed a sigh of relief because we would prefer New Zealand to be owned by
