As we say goodbye to 2024 and welcome in 2025, it’s a good time to catch up on the very best of some of the Herald columnists we enjoyed reading over the last 12 months. From politics to business, these are some of the voices and views our audience loved
The one solution to stop more Kiwis moving to Australia - Heather du Plessis-Allan
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Many Kiwis searching for higher pay are finding that the grass is greener across the Tasman. Photo / Getty Images
Opinion by Heather du Plessis-Allan
Heather du Plessis-Allan is the drive host for Newstalk ZB and a columnist for the Herald on Sunday
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They’re 1500 officers short and they’re worried, so the Chris Minns Government has announced they’ll fix it by fast-tracking Kiwi cops into their force.
The Aussies poaching our cops is not new. Queensland and the Northern Territory have been doing it unashamedly for more than a year.
But NSW’s targeting comes at a sensitive time for one reason: pay.
Our police are grumpy about their pay. They’ve been in a drawn-out battle over pay increases stretching back to the last Government.
The pay in NSW is an attraction. A copper starts on AU$80,000 ($87,000) compared to $67,000 here.
And it’s not just our cops moving to Oz.
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In the past year, a net 52,500 Kiwis headed offshore, mostly across the Ditch. That’s a record.
They’re not workers we can afford to lose. They are skilled workers, our best and brightest.
Who can begrudge Kiwis heading off in search of higher pay and a better life?
Which brings us to the only thing we can do about this: close the pay gap with Australia. Read more >
The screeching U-turn that led to OCR cut - August 18, 2024
It doesn’t look like Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr’s in a mood to admit any mistakes.
At every opportunity this week – a press conference, a radio interview, a select committee appearance – he’s refused to admit any errors. In truth, he’s made a few.
This week’s cut to the official cash rate wasn’t one of those mistakes. That - thank the Lord - was exactly the right thing to do.
The economy is stuffed.
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House prices are going backwards again. Businesses - retailers especially - are suffering so badly that even institutions like Smith & Caughey’s, Ponsonby’s Chapel Bar and SPQR have shut down or come close to it.
Consumer spending is falling back in a drop not seen since the 1980s share market crash, and maybe even as far back as the late 1970s.
The number of trucks on the road has slumped by the biggest fall ever seen outside of the Covid lockdowns.
The OCR cut had to happen. The economy needs a break. Read more >
Simple solution to Kiwi students’ bad behaviour problem - May 31, 2024
When I was 9 years old at Don Buck Primary School in West Auckland the tubby kid chased me around the classroom with a pair of scissors in his hand.
It was one of those open classrooms where about three age groups are all in one space, each separated by a low bookcase or some other piece of furniture. I remember having to run very fast and vault that low bookcase to escape him. And I was scared.
I can’t remember how it ended but I didn’t get stabbed so it’s either a good or bad ending depending on how you feel about me.
I imagine the teacher intervened.
So, it obviously didn’t take me by surprise to read this week that the behaviour in our classrooms is the worst in the developed world. Not some of the worst. The worst.
According to the Education Review Office report, 25 per cent of principals see kids either hurt other kids, break things or steal things on a daily basis.
The biggest problem is probably that teachers have lost the power in classes. Kids have it. And they know it. Teachers can’t touch them. Read more >
National and Labour both fail to read the room on Treaty bill - November 17, 2024
If Chris Hipkins thinks his plan to join the hīkoi is a winning idea, he’s wrong.
Now that he’s said he’ll do it, he probably can’t get out of it. But he should never have said it.
Because this hīkoi won’t help Labour get to Government. This hīkoi is unlikely to impress Middle NZ voters.
It’s already irritated Auckland’s North Shore commuters by (probably deliberately) crossing the jammed Harbour Bridge during rush-hour morning traffic on a weekday when workers were trying to get into the office and parents were trying to get their kids to NCEA exams on time.
Middle NZ won’t love the sight of gang members on the hīkoi openly parading patches. These are patches that are so unpopular they’ll be outlawed in public in four days.
And Middle NZ does not love the Māori Party.
It’s weird that the Labour leader wants to turn up at and endorse another party’s protest event.
It’s weird because Te Pāti Māori are not Labour’s friends. They are one of Labour’s biggest problems.
It’s not roses on the other side of the political spectrum, though. National seems to have realised how dumb an idea it was to allow this Bill to go to Parliament if it only planned to kill it. Read more >
Te Pāti Māori’s ridiculous behaviour towards Karen Chhour - May 26, 2024
The double standard that obviously exists for Te Pāti Māori behaviour is ridiculous.
Depending on how you get your news, you may be completely unaware that Te Pāti Māori (TPM) launched a personal and racist attack on Children’s Minister Karen Chhour this week.
Chhour, it is well known, had a tough upbringing, went through the state system and ended up cared for by others, including a foster couple. For most of us, those are the details that matter most.
For TPM, what appears to matter more is that Chhour is Māori and the party believes some of her carers were Pākehā.
So, while Parliament debated the repeal of Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act this week, TPM launched a personal attack on Chhour in a social media post.
“If Section 7AA were around in Karen Chhour’s time, she would have been raised Māori, she would have been raised being connected to her whakapapa and having a knowingness of her Māoritanga. Instead, she was raised Pākehā with a disconnection and disdain for her... people.”
Basically, what TPM is saying is that Chhour is not the right kind of Māori. That is a deeply troubling idea to promote. Read more >
