KEY POINTS:
Joan Nathan reckons her shouting at John Key was probably the best thing that ever happened to McGehan Close.
The 35-year-old beneficiary mother-of-five famously dressed down the National leader when he visited the Owairaka street this time last year.
She took exception to Key describing it as a place where helplessness had become ingrained.
When Key turned up to face residents Ms Nathan yelled "this is not a dead-end street! We are getting jobs, it's just that Government departments are pushing us back!"
She also upbraided Key for implicating McGehan Close kids in street violence. While it was true residents were living in "misery" because of youth gangs, those kids weren't from her street.
Somehow by the end of his visit Key had mollified the lifelong Labour voter and Ms Nathan's anger had evaporated - and her daughter Aroha Ireland, then 12, had an invitation to Waitangi on Waitangi Day with Key.
Fast forward a year and Ms Nathan says life on the street has improved out of sight.
"There's an alcohol ban down at the reserve, you don't see any of the DMS [a youth gang] drinking down there any more. You call the police and they come straight away.
"The best thing was we formed a street committee and threw a street party in December for the kids."
After-school activities have also been a feature and by the end of last year the street had a choir, dance group and many of the kids were learning to play the guitar, she said.
Key has become a family friend and she was invited to his state of the nation address this week.
He checks in every three or four weeks and Ms Nathan now works for list MP Jackie Blue part-time.
Aroha is doing well, she says, getting "A"s at school, performing in school plays and hoping that one day she'll become a lawyer. But she is still shy and stubborn, Ms Nathan says. Yesterday, the 13-year-old didn't want to be interviewed.
The whole Waitangi saga led to teasing at school last year and it's an experience the Year 9 student doesn't want a repeat of as she enters her first year at Mt Albert Grammar School.
Asked if she thinks her daughter was used by Key, Ms Nathan is quick to defend him. She believes Key's offer wasn't a cynical move. She uses the exact word Key uses to describe it.
"It was spontaneous, he's a real genuine guy."
But the street's most famous residents hope they won't be there for too much longer.
Their Housing Corporation home is freezing in winter and has a long list of problems because of the damp, borer and old electrical wiring.
Ms Nathan is gleefully looking forward to the election.
Labour, she says, hasn't done enough to help people in her position and she's glad she'll be in a box seat to watch what unfolds.
"I want to see where my big mouth got me."
