"In a modern democracy... You have to have responsiveness and you have to have public involvement in the decisions all the time, not just the time of elections.
What happens in NZ is we tend to go to sleep between the elections and there isn't enough public involvement in the decision-making system. We need in this country much more deliberative democracy if we are not to go the way they've gone in the US or Britain ..."
Then in the panel discussion with the other PMs, I was fascinated by this exchange;
"We certainly don't need an appointed second chamber, but I think we would benefit from an elected second chamber. Let me test your tolerance... given the judgement [by former Court of Appeal President Justice Robin Cooke] that the Treaty was a partnership... that we have a second chamber that is 50% Māori and 50% non-Māori - elected."
"...we backtracked on our election pledge to remove the surtax on superannuation. Because morally I couldn't justify to myself that we would give a tax concession to the wealthy retirees - which removing the surtax would do - while we were taking some off those who were in much poorer circumstances."
Holy-christ-on-a-stick. #Listening to the Northland candidates debate is like being one of the few people at the dance party who aren't tripping balls: