As a country we are getting ourselves more and more in debt and quite frankly John Key’s idea of selling a proportion of State Owned Enterprises would help as long as we keep the majority of shares. Phil’s ideas however, of propping up lower income New Zealanders will give them even less incentive to climb the ladder, and tax those that are trying to develop businesses through hard work and perseverance.

The money to be able to give “tax free zones” may sound nice to those earning lower incomes, but think again, this is election year, don’t be fooled, this money has to come from somewhere and will more than likely come back and bite you in one way or another. And $1.1 billion is a lot of money to cover what Phil is implying he will do. If you have a mortgage, expect higher interest rates, if you are looking to buy your first farm or home . . . good luck. Education regarding the state of our country and looking at the big picture is paramount this year.

We have a high crime and unemployment rate, we make it easy for those who choose to not work to have a benefit and we see young girls choosing pregnancy as a career path to an easy dollar. Don’t get me wrong, I know there are some true cases that need help, but surely we can weed out the leeches. Those who choose this life are not only taxing to our country, but they don’t have incentives in life and with boredom and lack of pride more often than not, comes trouble. These people, while they don’t realise it now, if pushed out of the cycle of collecting benefits and breeding generations encouraged to do the same, would have a completely different outlook on life if pushed into the work force.

I would have thought a system such as food stamps put in place that makes benefits not such as appealing option would at least help or make some think of other choices rather than joining the queue. Could they not receive some kind of Eftpos-type card that has their photo ID and has some kind of block on it which doesn’t process cigarettes and alcohol and this is how they receive their benefit money? At least then the money would be spent on food for the children. There could also be monthly vouchers for places such as the warehouse for children’s clothing, direct payment to landlords and so forth.

While the inception and administration of this could initially be a logistical nightmare, I had the idea that we could scrap MMP, thus saving us $$ in wages and endless time wasting arguments in parliament regarding policies being brought into place to appease coalition partners and not pleasing the majority of voters which could be much better served attacking important topics such as bringing our huge debt to a realistic level.

It isn’t that the jobs aren’t there because our growers are headhunting employees overseas for seasonal work because many New Zealanders on the dole simply don’t want to do the work.

However, it’s a Catch 22 because personally I probably wouldn’t employ many of the people in our dole queue. Would you?

Let’s hope whoever is the reigning party is come the end of the year, they don’t take it upon themselves to continue to push higher consent, tax and working costs on the agricultural sector which brings in more than $10 billion from dairy products alone, but rather celebrate and encourage more public awareness of what the agriculture sector means to New Zealand and what hard work can achieve.

With those worried about selling partial shares of State Owned Enterprises, I would say, focus on worrying about the sale of prime dairying land to overseas investors whom will be privy to one of our most precious assets, our farmers’ knowledge and expertise which makes us world leaders in dairying.

If you have any answers on how we can deal with these spray resistant flies and employment resistant Kiwis let me know, or even better, email Phil Goff regarding the spray resistant flies and the work resistant Kiwis are probably best left in John’s hands.