Martyn Bradbury

This was never about the educational needs and simplification of explaining grades to parents, it was always about building the infrastructural data to allow league tables.

Forget the Housing failure, the homelessness failure, the health service failure, the education failure, the prison failure, the transport failure, the environmental failure, the social issues failure and the infrastructure failure, just look at the current incredulous self-righteousness being spouted by National over the last week.

KidsCan has been lauded because it stepped in when the Government refused to do anything meaningful and that was acceptable to the majority of NZers who argue that free lunches or shoes or raincoats from the State will let parents off the hook.

Every time I see the Greens in the news headlines now it feels like the nervousness you get when the kids take the car out for a drive. You know it’s going to come back written off with a whole bunch of excuses and explanations that it was someone else’s fault.

Pacifying China until the new government can detach our economy from China’s dominance by replacing dairy with forestry and greater industry diversification will be a big challenge but Winston has the skill to pull it off while the Greens must adapt or die if they want to remain politically relevant post 2020.

This is NZ in the 21st Century, a selfish child easily spooked into spite.