Damage control

National's biggest danger is that it will continue to try to sleepwalk to victory.

- BILL RALSTON

Good day and welcome aboard. Please buckle your seat belts as we are about to take off into 2023.

After suffering the Covid traumas of 2020, 2021 and an often-awful 2022, plus a wet, cold, boggy spring and early summer, thanks to the La Niña weather pattern, I understand you may feel too grumpy to bellow “Happy New Year!”

The dilemma facing the government and all politicians this coming election year is that most of us are losing patience with them. The coming year promises us a continuing cost of living crisis, high inflation, rising mortgage rates, falling prices of houses, which constitute the principal asset of owners, and, despite an acute labour shortage because of the above factors eroding incomes, relatively poor real wages. Hence Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s recent announcement of a planned policy “reset”.