Martyn Bradbury

Stepping back from the politics of the moment, have we as a country become caught in an electoral bubble that can only give the rich and powerful power?

The denial we have allowed National Party voters to force upon us over the last decade has to end in September or we will be adrift in a carefully tailored culture of denial where no issue is ever solved.

North Korean nukes is such an obvious front of a story and our embedded media who should be asking questions like, ‘why the hell are you trying to kick start this anti-democratic pro corporate power trade deal off again’ are breathlessly reporting to us about imaginary mushroom clouds.

This housing announcement is a joke looking for a punchline.

That’s our Housing Minister standing in front of the Property Institute logo which sums up the past decade of National’s Housing policies. National is a Government of the property speculators, by property the speculators and for the property speculators.

A nation that kills itself with the passion ours does is a damaged culture demanding immediate recognition and action now. The denial is beneath us and those who tragically take their own lives. Imagine if we took that $1.7billion ‘surplus’ that National supposedly have and reinvested it into Suicide prevention?

Long term low rent accommodation is the solution, allowing the corporate greed monsters of Barfoot and Thompson to just graze on the fields of inequality while those with little get pushed to the fringes is not a solution.

The Opposition need to act on this immediately before Bill English does it off his own bat, because if he does it before they demand action, it makes English look principled and the Opposition look feckless.

Andrew looked confident, the Party membership sense the change in the wider community, Jacinda looked genuine, Grant looked ready, the Greens looked muzzled, the Staff are gloating and the media gave them great coverage.