I'm not going to comment on Judith Collins' resignation because I don't think she should have and there are bigger issues.

I'm not going to talk about Justice Minister Judith Collins' resignation.  I'm not going to talk about the Nicky Hager book (yet) and I'm not going to talk about the blogger Cameron Slater or the criminal Kim Dot Com.  I'm not going to talk about these things beyond this blog because to be honest I think these antics belong in the school yard.  Actually if we're being completely honest, if these antics were going on in the school yard the kids would be disciplined, the parents would be called and the kids would be either isolated or expelled.   

So what makes it okay for adults to behave badly?  They lie, they don't treat eachother politely and they don't seem to have any kind of moral fiber whatsoever.  It appears as if they think that bullying is acceptable and as if they think that the only way to run politics is to put down your opponent.

No wonder we have issues bullying and subsequent depression or worse yet suicide.  Until we hold our politicians to account for their bad behaviour this just won't change.

I'm also not going to comment further on the matter other than acknowledging what's going on because I think it detracts from the real issues.  The real issues as discussed with friends and family are as follows:

1 - Kim Dot Com.  We all agree he needs to be extradited and that he shouldn't be in NZ.  We all fear what will happen if he is behind the scenes of the party that forms the next Government.  I'm not sure what the risk of this is, but if you don't want that, the only way is to vote National or Act, possibly Conservative or NZ First but I'm not sure if they'd work with KDC.  Either way, KDC is dangerous and will put the national security of NZ in danger.

2 - The economy.  NZ doesn't have a "rock star" economy like people say.  If it did then why is the Government proud of call centre jobs?  It doesn't really promote high aspirations when you consider they pay poorly and are able to be done by robots.  It seems silly to be proud of menial jobs when people attend university and should be able to do better.  For full disclosure, I live in Sydney.  I have a post graduate diploma in communications and currently intern at a radio station once a week while doing a part time research job.  I'm applying for journalism jobs at present and I treat this blog as a job.  I try to do at least one blog a day (today's been two seeing as I missed yesterday).  NZ needs to aim higher.

3 - Employment.  Well this is a bit of a carry on.  Mana/Internet say they want to create technology jobs but they don't really have a clear cut plan as to how to do this, and nor do the Greens with their "green jobs".  National isn't much better because all they say is "Christchurch rebuild", well not everyone lives there, nor is everyone a builder.  This said, National do support mining which will get the economy going, and Act want to lower taxes and red tape to make it easier to do business.

4 - Education.  This is a bit of a non event.  There's nothing wrong with the system other than NCEA, but I was the year before so I did the old School Certificate system, which although it wasn't perfect it prepared you more effectively for university.  It gave you an accurate reading, other than in 6th form when it should have been percentages, not 1-9 rankings.

5 - Housing.  Everyone says housing is unaffordable but the Government's not addressing the real root of the cause of the problem.  People simply aren't saving.  Giving them handouts won't help with that.  All it will do is teach people that if you ask for money you'll get it and that you don't have to work hard for what you have.  It will also create higher demand which supply isn't meeting.  One of the ways to address this is through the Resource Management Act, the other is to fast track projects in CBDs and on the outskirts.  The Government's housing program won't fix anything.  Another thing is that Kiwisaver  is supposed to be for retirement.  Why can't people put money away themselves?  And before you say, "times are tough, people can't save", what about putting money in a money tin and watching it add up then investing it, or putting away 10% of your income or then using your tax refund for investments (this is what I'm doing - it's going into more shares).  Where is the discussion around personal responsibility?  It just seems to be muck raking.

And these, these are the reasons why I'm not going to acknowledge the immaturity and bad behaviour from adults who should know better.  There are bigger issues that the country needs to be focused on and it shouldn't be a school yard, "he said she said" mud slinging fest.  It should be about what's good for the country, and the political reporters like Paddy Gower don't really seem to care about the actual policies.  Well policies are what affect you and I.

No, I'm not in NZ, but it doesn't mean I won't one day buy an investment property there (because lets face it, nobody buys in Sydney - that's an Australian housing issue though) and taxing capital gains and restricting foreign investment would be so dumb.  I think there needs to be some foreign investment because ultimately it increases the pool of wealth the country has which in turn creates jobs and that is a win win situation for everyone.

So why aren't the politicians and media reporting these issues that matter?