The jigsaw pireces of the Budget are starting to click in the public mind if recent polls are any indication. In the last week :
- The IMF described NZ’s savings gap and net international indebtedness as “among the largest of any advanced nation”
- Analysis shows a $9.2bn additional fiscal hole in the Budget by 2023 arising from the tax changes
- Budget documents show expenditure as a % of GDP falling from 33% to 28%
- Bill English floats Kiwibank sale as one example of a number of SOEs ripe for partial privatisation.
In other words: give away taxes up front (very largely to their mates); run an out year deficit (deliberately); compress spending (as ‘prudence ” then demands); and flog off what is left of the family silver to fill the remaining gap (dressed up as mum and dad savings products, of course).
What does all this mean for the average Kiwi?
- despite the govt spin, they are worse off for the next four years at least due to the toxic cocktail of GST, inflation, other govt charges and taxes, and slow wage growth;
- public services like Heatlh and Early Childhood Education will be slashed as new spending lags inflation ($300m short in Health) or deliberate policy changes bite;
- the outlook for public services gets dramatically worse as the National Party tries to resize the state to 28% of GDP – although they won’t want to talk much about that before the election;
- the underlying economic problems reamin unresolved and get more intractable over time. There is no credible plan for growth and jobs.
Moral of story: do NOT let National get a second term Stop the malign juggernaut before it does irrepairable damage.
Hmmmm, not really much for Labour to be celebrating though is it?
http://curiablog.wordpress.com/2010/05/30/one-news-colmar-brunton-poll-may-2010/
“malign juggernaut” sorry, but Labour’s decade of power is still far too fresh in my mind for me to believe that this phrase applies to the Nats more than how I came to see Labour in the last few years…
Probably best to change tact as clearly the current approach isn’t helping Labour gain any traction….
Interesting also you place so much emphasis on poll where 56% of the respondents believe the economy over next 12 months will be better…..hardly conducive to wanting to change government is it?
I remember the last decade of Labour government too, Rebecca. The team did a good job.
-sub 4% unemployment
- record wage rises
- no net government debt
- decreasing crime
- reducing child poverty
- improving equality
- improving health
- improving education
- GDP growth that outstripped the OECD for years
It was a progressive, fiscally responsible government.
In fact, when Bill English said in December 2008 when facing the recession “This is the rainy day the government has been saving up for.” He was acknowledging that Labour had done well economically. The last government did prepare the country for a downturn. The current government is not preparing the country for any adversity at the moment. It is frightening, I’m rather fond of this country.
Analysis shows a $9.2bn additional fiscal hole in the Budget by 2023 arising from the tax changes
Given I could spot that the last budget had an ever-growing hole in it, I have to ask what the mainstream media is doing, why didn’t they pick it up?
Rebecca. When I have been asked in a poll whether I thought the economy will improve I say “How the Hell should I know?” All you can go on is what “experts” tell us. Bill English said things will improve so it must be true so I say “Yes.”
David well done here and on Nation.
I would not be surprised if when/if the economy does crash again it will be an excuse for English to slash and burn “for our sakes of course”!!!
@Rebbeca
Nationals decade of shame in the 90s is still too fresh in my mind, there policies and strategies haven’t changed and a day in politics is a long time. I think the polls might just be the start of a worrying trend for National
@David
Caught you in Hamilton on Friday night;liked most of what you said , I look forward to more detail. I think you need to be a bit more innovative. National will bring in a Capital gains tax or that is the impression John Whitehead during an interview he gave. That will probably steal some of your thunder.
Rebecca. You keep on saying things like “Labour’s decade of power is still far too fresh in my mind for me to believe that this phrase applies to the Nats more than how I came to see Labour in the last few years…”
Just what was your complaint about Labours work in the last few years?
And just what is it that your mates in Nact are doing that you fancy?
Nice list Sean.
Did anyone here read Morgan’s opinion piece this morning in the Herald? I too thought it odd to bring Trust and income tax rates together but drop Company tax to 5% below them both. My first thought is nice for companies and people who can run their income through a company, the same people who could avoid tax through Trusts?
I must say Rebecca I havent understood your accounting for the extra tax cuts by your statements its about 56b revenue. I still havent satisfied myself that the GST and depreciation on property is going to offest the extra 8b required for those tax cuts over the next 4 years.
Given your opening statement and others youve made in relation to labour convincing you of anything, I am not convinced you are capable of being convinced because just about every utterance from them is greeted, by you, with “after what they did for 9 years”. So let’s be serious, you’re not going to vote for labour in 2011, so you are, in way, doing to them what you say they do as oppositon, simply responding in the negative to everything they suggest or comment on. It’s your right of course.
Cant blame Labour though, it’s all National did for about 5 years and they eventually got in on the back of it.
@Richard Shaw
It is also too fresh in my mind too about the way that National acted in the 90’s.
Hi there,
What I am wondering is why we have to pay RWT on our savings. Now I pay PAYE, with my small amount of left over money I save in a bank. This already taxed money then gets the very small amount of interest taxed. Saving would grow massively if we small savers could keep all our savings and the interest so that there is a positive reward for saving. Most of my savings get less than 2% interest and so to pay tax on it is frustrating. Admittedly it was only a few bucks but thats not the point! The point is kiwis don’t save and we need to make it more attractive to save.
@Richard Shaw: Just for the record, Labour has no policy on CGT at this time. But I doubt National will – too progressive for them.
@Emma G: National has imposed a default 21% RWT rate in April, which you can elect out of if your marginaal tax rate is lower. they wanted to set it at 38%!!!! but Labour and Green MPs on FEC blocked that.
@Tracey: Morgan is right – the tax lawyers will be doing a roaring trade in compamy strucutres, And poor Bill is on both sides of the same argument at the same time!
Good point Emma. Encourage savings? Get rid of the tax on savings we say! Frustrating to see interest paid X dollars, but less tax.Like walking a slippery slope. 3 up 1 down.
@Ianmac
@emma
David suggested they were thinking something along these lines at a post budget meeting; among a range of other things. Is
@Tracey I did read the Morgan article; reinforces the fact the budget is about more money for the wealthy and there minions.
Sean- much of your list is very subjective…especially “GDP growth that outstripped the OECD for years”
Have you seen our GDP rating in 1999 compared to 2008? I have and it doesn’t bode well for Labour’s so-called wonderful decade.
And improved equality? Oh my GOD. Are you kidding? Are you not aware that the rich/poor gap widened dramatically under Labour where we had 39% of our children being born into low socio economic areas while the rich list grew by 300%??????
Hmmm LOVE how people boast about child poverty decreasing – perhaps, but it is actually something very difficult to measure.
AND the foodbank uptake stats would tell a different story – in fact they do as I have pointed out so many times on this sight.
I’m not saying that Labour was all bad. They did many wonderful things too….shame about the child abuse, family violence, increase in crime, overcrowed prisons, decrease in disposable income for a huge number of families, housing unaffordbility
You can spin all you like but in the meantime it is our children that will continue to suffer.
In terms of tax on savings – Emma I agree. Seems to negate all benefit of trying to save.
Well it’s always politic to blame the lawyers (and to use the oft out of context Shakespeare quote with it);)
But you know lawyers can only feed where other sharks let them or invite them. Lawyers with no clients wanting to avoid their taxes have no work in tax law. It’s about ethics, and as I’ve said before when it comes to altruism, the research shows the wealthy are less altruistic than the poor.
Maurice Williamson has a poor view of lawyers and leaky homes, but his deregulation and the appalling lack of ethics across that industry created the work for the lawyers not the other way round.
We ahve an energy minister who doesnt understand his credit card and now Minister of Fiance we are supposed to believe is naive.
David, since when is CGT progressive? It’s been around in many forms overseas for decades. It’s not a stalwart of left thinking now is it.
@ David
You did state on Friday night in Hamilton, that it would be one way to make up budget shortfalls and you were considering it. No not policy but in the mix?
Be a dam shame if you didn’t and I think National will beat you to it, be hard to do next budget, but if they get another crack then they will do it then.
I think a tax on capital gains is about left as you can get.
What are they doing about national savings? Not much on the face of it. Remember they cut the government contribution to Kiwisaver and have refused to fund National Superannuation- despite the fact that the budget is supposed to go into surplus earlier than expected.
Compare that to Australia- where there will be soon 12% compulsary superannuation.
People who think that minerals were the sole cause of Australia being the number one economy in the OECD at the moment don’t understand teh benefits of having a strong national savings system, a healthy sharemarket, a stable banking system and best of all a government who understood that strategic investments pay off.
Meanwhile we stutter along hoping that tax cuts to the rich paid for with future savings (at the expense of many of our retirement incomes) is the solution. I thought private debt not government debt was the problem.
Okay something else that was released in the budget was that there were going to be a time limit on student loans, and this mornings paper stated that Tolly was thinking about making teachers do 2year post grad when they started working? How is this going to effect me since I can only study part time, taking 5-6years then have to do post grad if I decide to work in a primary school? Its in the dom and cannot find an online link.
Postgrad should be optional, and this coming from a woman who knows nothing about education!
Speaking of postgrad, I hope there isn’t a bleepin time limit on postgrad student loans
Talk about screwing up people’s careers! 
Sadly, any obvious measures to counteract the private debt problem – the materialistic Kath-and-Kim status quo – will likely be attacked as “killjoy nanny-statism”. To the point where it may take something on an Icelandic scale to fix.
gees. I was going to do this anyway but is the govt going to give me a break anytime soon? They are making it harder and harder to get ahead. It is also expensive to do post grad compared to the wages that get. Even if you get a loan, how do you pay it back? how expensive would it be then to pay out of your own pocket? (section A pg 9 if anyone has the paper)
Okay. That is new and not in the budget, except for the time limits on loans.
GST, ECE, slashing of services. All too much, makes my head spin.
Not good.
Funny Paula Bennett has just approved $15m into teenage mother support across 7 homes or thereabouts, but at what age does her policy about DPB kick in on them? Just when they got confidence and get up and go to study….their child turned 6 and off to work they go, unskilled of course
Think you can study when they turn 6 or work. Maybe that is when I should have started. That way I could have gone full time and be less disadvantaged. Trying to do the right thing and work when my youngest turns 6 (will get degree the year she does so end of that year) yet no, it is the wrong thing to do. Doesn’t make sense.
Older mums have it harder in this respect. They cut the access off for auto entry to Uni’s at 20 and now penilised for trying to study before the youngest turns 6 if you do get in.
Hard to pay for childcare, no TIA to help fund the extra costs that the benefit and the student loan system don’t cover forcing us to go part time, then put a time limit on loans and suggest you have to do post grad for some positions that you will have to fund yourself as you go part time due to having no choice but to. All for a job that is under reconised and under paid?!!!
What is going on?
Damned if you do and damned if you dont, doesnt make sense
Hello Rebecca
You can spin all you like…
I’m not spinning Rebecca, though I seem to have annoyed you. I’m going to try and break your statements down and respond to each.
under Labour where we had 39% of our children being born into low socio economic areas while the rich list grew by 300%??????
Not sure where you are going with this argument. These two factors don’t correlate, people’s fertility is independent of the Rich List. I do know that the birth rate went up under Labour, perhaps more people felt secure enough to have children?
Hmmm LOVE how people boast about child poverty decreasing – perhaps, but it is actually something very difficult to measure.
It is measured by household income, factored by the number of children in each house. Statistics New Zealand collects that sort of information regularly.
shame about the child abuse, family violence, increase in crime, overcrowed prisons, decrease in disposable income for a huge number of families, housing unaffordbility
So, this is mostly about crime, and housing affordability? On crime, if you are saying that have to say you are wrong. I’ve gone and checked the crime statistics from 1970 to 2005 at Statistics New Zealand. During the period we are discussing, crime statistic trended down from the high in the 1990s in the 2000s, while successful police resolution of criminal cases went up in the 2000s, against a low again in the 1990s.
Here is the raw data from Statistics New Zealand upto 2009, if you want to have a look.
As for the pricing of housing, Clark always said she could only promote the legislation that would get across the floor. Labour policies were always mediated by the need to get other parties to vote for them. Just as the National party has to get ACT to sign off on many of its policies. Tell me, what has National done on this issue, which is so core to your concerns?
much of your list is very subjective…especially “GDP growth that outstripped the OECD for years”
I got that from a quote actually. Here is the full thing.
“Labour’s real achievements — net government debt reduced from 20 billion to two billion before the current crisis; unemployment down to levels many people didn’t think possible; a huge drop in the number of welfare beneficiaries, especially per capita; real wage growth; GDP growth that outstripped the OECD for years; a historic turnaround of trends in poverty; the repair of a public sector that was in dire straits by the end of the 90s; a serious attempt to address our savings problem via KiwiSaver and the Superannuation Fund; and a degree of stability that we now all take for granted — outweigh any counterfactual.” Russell Brown Public Address’ 7 Nov 2008.
I have got to say, Russell nails it. Here is an report from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s which states, although New Zealand’s GDP is troubled by low labour productivity, that the pass decade (eight of which years were Labour) – “GDP growth in New Zealand has outpaced OECD average levels over much of the past decade”
I confess, I’m unfamiliar with your food banks data, last I read, under National the food banks were not meeting demand.
I stand by my earlier statement, the last government was a progressive, fiscally responsible government.
Hmmm. I wonder how many grad will just leave and work overseas due to earning more money and it easier to pay it back, with or without the intrest free loans.
I’m not one that can unfortunatly.
NZ is a great place to live and bring up kids, OE’s have been a part of NZers life for a few decades, most return in their 30’s and settle down buy houses and resume being NZ citizens again.
The brain drain is something of a beat up. MANY of those buggering off to Australia are actually unskilled where the minimum wage and Super contributions are appealing, and the sun of course.
And Kiwis who jet off to SYD or MEL are merely filling in for the Aussies who’ve jetted off to LHR or LAX or NYC.
My understanding is that we dropped from 23rd to 22 in the last decade….
Found this blog – quite interesting.
http://www.policyprogress.org.nz/tag/oecd-rankings/
Sean…crime fell under Labour????
Then how do you our rating for child abuse went from 6th worst in the OECD in 1999 to 3rd worst in 2008?
And how do you explain the fact that since 1999, violent crime has risen by 43.6%, from 39,688 to 56,983 offences, with grievous assaults up 93% from 2,495 offences to 4,831, robberies up 65% to 2,610, and serious assaults up 53% to 20,623, while sex crimes have risen by 18%, to 3,585 offences?
How do you explain that we have one of the highest burglary rates in the developed world, higher than the United States, Great Britain or Australia?
Oh and correction….New Zealand’s OECD ranking re GDP fell from 20th highest in 1999 to 21st by 2004 and 22nd by 2006…..
Re food banks – the Auckland City MIssion as do all the other main food banks around the country have loads of reports on their uptake stats.
@Sean 3.29
Crime is a hard one to debate, because we, for example have an appalling rate of child abuse but a GREAT record of reporting child abuse. Countries that have poor reporting of it, show as having less of it. Same goes for violent crime etc. Since the 90’s reporting of domestic violence, for example, has sky rocketted on an historical basis because it became more acceptable to report, more systems of support. Prior to these times we had it, but no one reported it or talked about it, often mistaken for it not existing.
I’m not all that convinced by the Auckland City Mission as a measure of poverty by their foodbanks, simply because I know they turn no one away, have no criteria for getting food.
For example I know of families who attend the free Christmas dinner/lunch as a day out for the family rather than because they cant do dinner themselves. OF COURSE many attend have no money or means on this day.
Rebecca. You are a bit disappointing in your arguments against the Labour achievements. I thought that you were genuinely open minded. All you have done is regurgitate the Nact lines which thanks to Sean at 3:29 have been shown as nonsensical.
Thanks Sean for a great job. Have saved your post.
You have to wonder what cutting the Govt spending to GDP ratio is going to do our growth and employment figures as well. This was always the standard IMF/World Bank prescription which always had the uniform effects of mass unemployment and GDP collapse. As I recall Argentina tried this in the early 2000s and engineered economic an economic collapse- thankfully for them they now have left wing government and are doing fine.
Ianmac – so funny how so many of you say I am merely regurgitating the Nats lines yet when have any of you said anything original?
To me most of you speak Labour – you are classic examples of having been brainwashed by the lovely rhetoric with no substance and no concept of real life in NZ over the past decade.
Stats that I quote – well I choose to go independent, you know, from the people who actually work at the grass roots level of this country who know first hand where our crime & poverty levels are at.
I suggest you do the same instead of merely regurgitating Labour’s press releases etc that you find via google.
I would have to say that the party faithful on this site remind me daily why I voted against Labour in the last 2 elections.
You just don’t ‘get’ it. Your loss.
Rebecca “you spin me right round baby right round”
Yep it’s all spin…this is from Nov 2006
http://www.cpag.org.nz/resources/articles/res1164251984.pdf
Note in particular “And the demand for food bank services has continued to grow – probably because, according to the New Zealand Living Standards Report released in July, the economic upturn has brought little change for the bottom 20 per cent.
The report, by the Ministry of Social Development, shows a million New Zealanders living in hardship, and 250,000 of these coping with severe hardship. A disproportionate number of those affected are children.
The last five years have seen an increase in food bank usage at the Auckland City Mission, from 3176 food parcels given out July-June 2001-2002 to 5446 for July-June 2005-2006.”
Yep, all spin
Crime….
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/1046272
Interesting that the “Counties and Waikato districts saw the biggest increases in crime last year while only three out of 12 districts recorded falls.”…no doubt this mere superfluous detail considering that the Police Minister at the time (Annette King) “blaming a rise in the reporting of crime for the increase, but the opposition National Party is not buying her explanation.”
And while Annette King was busy celebrating our much the murder rate had dropped in 2008, we had shifted to
And then there is child abuse
Helen Clark was appalled at the fact we were 6th worst in the OECD in 1999 yet by the time she left office we were 6th worst…I wonder why.
Perhaps it is because no government wants to take notice of articles & people like this..
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/opinion/off-pat/2931130/Still-killing-our-kids
Yep all spin
Oh and then there is things like early childhood education when the Labour-led government said 20 hours free ECE would be free – this is a quote from Steve Maharey in Feb 2007
“Twenty hours free has to mean 20 hours free. What is being paid for with this money is up to the regulated level of care. Very few centres ask for or deliver more than above the regulation, but some do. For example, they might take children on outings to a zoo or whatever, and they may arrange an optional charge for parents for that.”
Hmmm, not sure how free equates to being charged $105 for 21 hours over 3 days…..fairly excessive optional charges. And while this particular centre is a friend of Labour’s they are by no means the only ones taking the mickey out of the system.
Yet another example of how Labour pretends to befriend the masses but really, money talks for them just the same…
Yep all spin – unless of course you believe in conspiracy theories where the parliament websites & NGOs are secretly being paid off by the NACTs….
Oh, just to re-emphasis…Sean make special note of this:
http://www.cpag.org.nz/resources/articles/res1164251984.pdf
Note in particular “And the demand for food bank services has continued to grow – probably because, according to the New Zealand Living Standards Report released in July, the economic upturn has brought little change for the bottom 20 per cent.
The report, by the Ministry of Social Development, shows a million New Zealanders living in hardship, and 250,000 of these coping with severe hardship. A disproportionate number of those affected are children.
The last five years have seen an increase in food bank usage at the Auckland City Mission, from 3176 food parcels given out July-June 2001-2002 to 5446 for July-June 2005-2006.”
I have pointed out how a lot of things that the Nats have done and are doing are having a negitive effect on me, so maybe you just don’t get it, or maybe it is just me.
I don’t see why they have to make it so hard to get ahead. I don’t see how increasing GST by 2.5% and giving a 2% rise on benefits is going to help.
I don’t see how selling off housing NZ houses when there is a shortage of housing and huge waiting lists is going to help.
I don’t see how cutting the TIA and not replacing it is going to help.
I do not see how what Paula Bennett has done to fuel hate towards a group of people trying to get a head is going to help.
I do not see how changing the tax system so my rent increases with nothing more to help me out is going to help.
There are a lot of people in my position not just me.
Maybe you are right and I just don’t get it.
@Rebecca. I am worse off this year than I was last year. I admit I have only been on the benefit for the last few months under Labour, moving in here the weekend or weekend before the elections, after staying with my dad before I found a place to stay.
I wasn’t on the benefit long before national got in, but they have made it increasingly harder to find a steping stone to get up from this hole. Think I found one and they move it, telling NZ that I didn’t need it and that I am lazy.
I have mentioned what Tracey has stated about crime and abuse. Domestic violence has been around for years, its only now that people are starting to stand up and say enough. That is why there is more people reporting it. Some people still don’t report it and just move out knowing it is wrong and that they no longer have to deal with it.
How many people like me Rebecca will end up staying in toxic relationships due to how hard National is making it to leave and find their feet. I even questioned how I could but was sensible enough to know that it was worse staying where I was. Some of their policies in my opinion are just making it so that more people and children are going to stay in these relationships.
With all this stuff going on about solo parents, the decrease of money and how hard National are making it to survive, these are some of the reasons why people end up staying. You cannot save to get out when you have no money. I was able to hide money in my childrens bank accounts to tide me over while I waited for the benefit to come in as you have a week stand down.
The govt can only do so much to stop abuse but this govt policies are going to make it harder to get out and that is my fear.
A Mother re “The govt can only do so much to stop abuse but this govt policies are going to make it harder to get out and that is my fear.”
I completely agree except that I believe that National is making a positive difference in this area…
I just hate how insidious abuse is in this country. Thank God for the DPB, that it enabled you to leave an awful relationship as once upon a time women had to stay as they had no where to turn for financial support.
So heartbreaking to read that you had to hide money in your children’s bank accounts. Makes it all so real. So glad you got out of it and a trying to provide a better life for your children.
What we need is a empathetic people from all different backgrounds and views to get together and come up with a plan.
Like you say, the government can only do so much. Real change has to come from us – the community.
Agreed, it’s far better to break up a bad marriage than let it slide into spousal homicide.
http://www.m-mc.org/mmc_search.php?sp=&ref_crmb=&ref_id=&step=results&view=detail&detail_id=PO_USA_1379&adv=mat
Everyone agrees that child abuse is a major problem, the disagreement comes when everyone tries to work out a solution. All the easy solutions likely involve something that would put us on the next plane to the Hague for all the wrong reasons.
And what does it mean when even the non-PC Nigel Latta says:
“And here’s an interesting observation from Captain Common Sense: one decent parent is far more important in raising a child than two crap parents.
“Single mums have been treated badly, the world was going to hell in a handcart in the 70s because of single mums, but it doesn’t matter if you’ve got two mums, one dad, one mum, two dads, whatever – so long as you’ve got one good parent, someone who puts dinner on the table, you feel is on your side, puts down rules, doesn’t try to be your mate but your mum or dad.”
Latta has seen solo parents from appalling backgrounds with far better parenting skills than “parents who’ve made heaps of money and take their kids to France for holidays but are not there for the kids”.”
Stay with one person who puts them down everyday(or worse but it is only one person) or leave and have the WHOLE country put them down every day?
Taking away money, more or less making it harder to leave, increase GST etc, rent prices rising further due to change in tax, all these things just help isolate people, keeping them trapped. DPB is one way out, but when that doesn’t go as far as what it used to and more stigma attached to it than ever before then I tend to disagree that National is doing good in this area.
Crime stats don’t mean much to me as the campaign helped people leave and more was reported.
Maybe I am wrong. What have they done so far? I’m curious. Labour introduced the campaign that brought it into the open more, and made it easier to leave. Rents are going up higher now due to tax changes and not enough housing NZ houses even under labour but now even less under National as they are getting sold off again… Waiting lists are going to get even higher.
That is how I see it.
If people don’t see how it can work for them, then they are less likely to try.
Having agenices in place is not all that there is to do.
They need a way out and a way to live until they get back on their feet.
Stigmatising the DPB and making it so the DPB and other beneifts don’t go as far, is not helping the situation by a long shot. This needs to change before the level of abuse in this country starts to drop.
Making it harder to survive on the amount of money, no not everyone has benefited from the budget some are worse off.
yes I agree with Deep Red.
Okay my post went into moderation for some reason.
I’ve got a test I have to go to and have to be there at 1.30 so this is all I’m going to say.
I don’t know if I agree Rebecca as I don’t see what national is doing to help the situation but that is my last post that is in moderation.
Increasing GST, EST passed down to consumers, and the stigma that has been created has a negative effect on abuse from my own personal experiences. Make it harder to live and increase the stigma = more people staying where they shouldn’t. Its not all about departments.
Departments are just people who may look down on you. Departments and agencies and the running of them is a small part. Living once you leave, that is the most important thing. Make it harder to live on a lower income, and by increasing the stigma you will find more people will stay put. If people cannot visualise how it will be better they wont take that step.
Goodluck with that test A Mother
Thank you spud. I better go to get ready.
Rebecca said:
:confused: Based on what results to date?
Deepred – good stuff on quoting Nigel Latta. The man deserves a knighthood as he really gets parents and he really gets children.
He also really gets that most people are in fact really good parents.
He also really gets how best to address child abuse in NZ. He is a good man.