Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Qiulae Wong fired a truth torpedo at National

Qiulae Wong fired a truth torpedo at the National Party didn't she? She says she doesn't believe Christopher Luxon when he tries to pretend he's not going to be calling her after the election. And she's right because of course he's going to call her after the election.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: John Key's speaking sense about billionaires

Thank goodness for Sir John Key speaking some sense about billionaires, am I right?

I don't think anybody expected billionaires to become a topic of discussion in this election but here we are.

It started, of course, with Jack Tame's question to the Chris' during the leaders' debate on whether it was basically morally offensive for someone to be a billionaire.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: National's winning on education - and parents agree

So I reckon there was one moment in that leaders' debate that would have worried parents up and down this country, and it was this one.

Chris Hipkins conceded that, if Labour were to win the election, he would scrap the one hour of reading, writing and maths for primary school kids.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Directing more money to Pharmac is the sensible choice

So, Winston Peters is pretty upset, as you would expect, about National's plan to take money from the foreign aid budget and use it to fund medicines through Pharmac. But from where I'm sitting, that seems fairly sensible, doesn't it?

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is it worthwhile for Labour to try and regulate hidden fees?

Now, I don't know that Labour's plan to stop businesses charging hidden fees is a game changer, or even necessarily something worth campaigning on during an election. But I think it might be a good idea.

Labour's plan is basically to ban junk add-ons like paint protection insurance, stop the hard sell of extended warranties like the ones you're offered when you buy a new pair of AirPods, require all mandatory fees, such as ticketing charges, to be included in the upfront price and make subscriptions and gym memberships easy to cancel.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: We know Chlöe Swarbrick's not getting the finance portfolio, right?

Well, the Chlöe-for-Finance-Minister debate has gone up a level. She has been asked what her qualifications are. David Seymour is making fun of the idea, I think for good reason. And Chlöe herself has hit back, specifically at Nicola Willis, because there was a poll that showed a touch more people actually trust Chlöe on the economy than Nicola. Touché from Chlöe.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Where does Labour plan on finding the $13 billion for pay equity?

Why did Chris Hipkins choose to announce that he will restore the pay equity regime within the first 100 days of a Labour-led Government? Why did he do that?

I'm really confused by it because it's not as if there was a special event or venue that he tied the announcement to. He was just at a public meeting in Spreydon and then seemed to blurt it out.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Let's hope the Government hasn't lost its nerve on amalgamations

It has been revealed the Government has pumped the brakes on the council reform it was rushing to get done. I think the councils and mayors who are angry about this have every reason to be really, really cross.

Dion Swiggs of ECan says he's 'disgusted'. Timaru's mayor says this is 'disappointing'. Mackenzie District's mayor says he's 'utterly disappointed'. Porirua's mayor says she's 'fuming' and has called the Government 'cowards'.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: You can't read Nicky Hager's new book without being struck by bias

I can't decide whether Nicky Hager is naïve or sheltered. Surely it must have been obvious to him while writing this book that the very thing he's accusing Jordan Williams and the Taxpayers' Union of doing is exactly what he is doing himself: acting as a proxy to help political parties.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Did we witness Winston Peters' last speech as Foreign Minister?

Now, I think we may have just witnessed Winston Peters’ last major foreign policy speech as Foreign Minister, ever.

It is definitely the last one before the election, and if you follow the breadcrumbs he has been laying recently, it sounds like he does not want to be Foreign Minister next term.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The National Party should know better when it comes to business

If my reaction to the National Party's supermarket policy was an emoji, it would be the one with the brains blowing out the top of its head. It would be WTF. It would be: Was the Greens' policy not nutty enough for you? Did you have to find something even more cooked and release it?

Because that's what's just happened.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The failures in the Tom Phillips investigation go on and on

So the Government has apologised to Tom Phillips' children for failing to keep them safe. And, man, that apology is not overdoing it when you read the report and realise just how many times officials completely stuffed up trying to find those kids and keep them safe.

Probably the most shocking mistake was made by the police. A woman called them and said she had Phillips in her car, and she even took a photo of him to show them, but they never showed up.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Here's why political parties shouldn't rush laws

Now, just for the avoidance of doubt, let me tell you what happened here with this mistake that led to 30,000 people missing out on Winter Energy Payments and benefits.

It happened because Louise Upston passed a piece of legislation so fast, under urgency, in just two days last year that no one had time to spot the fact the law contained a mistake.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Will ACT's big plan actually scrap the Waitangi Tribunal?

You know what ACT's Waitangi Tribunal policy is? In my opinion, it's the kind of policy you release when you don't actually want to do the thing the policy gives the impression you're going to do.

ACT's headline policy is that it will scrap the Waitangi Tribunal, which many people, including me, may see as a good idea because the tribunal has gone completely off piste. It has started to resemble a branch of the Māori Party, finding in real time that one Government policy after another breaches the Treaty of Waitangi.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Wellington Council's got another thing to worry about funding

Tell you what, if you think Wellington doesn't have enough problems already, let me tell you about a new one: Wellington Zoo.

Wellington Zoo needs $14 million for its lion enclosure. It's urgent. It's not something that can be deferred. Wellington City Council needs to cough up the money.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is Labour really in it to win it here?

Yeah, so it's not good for Labour in the latest Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll.

They've now fallen to 26 percent, which is below the 27 percent they got at the last election.

Now, this is not a surprise to me, and it shouldn't be a surprise to you, because we've been saying consistently on this show all year that Labour was going to come down in the polls once the policy started being released.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: 'Putting up a wall of shame is an act of desperation'

Okay, do you want to hear something straight out of the "you would have been better off just saying absolutely nothing" file? This one's from the Privacy Commissioner.

Michael Webster has warned small retailers, such as dairies, about putting up "walls of shame" featuring people they say have shoplifted from them. You know the ones. You go into the dairy and there's a mood board of dodgy-looking people in trackies, snapped by CCTV, usually stuck up on a wall or window close to the counter.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is National's tax strategy really working?

Question for you: is National's tax strategy working?

What I'm talking about is the blatant strategy they have of swamping social media and traditional media with warnings about Labour, the Greens, and the Opportunity Party's taxes in a bid to freak you out so badly it drives you back to National.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: I'm really tired of councils stuffing up and no-one getting in trouble for it

Tell you what, if you don't already have much confidence in councils, the report out on what went wrong with sewage spilling into the water at Moa Point in Wellington isn't going to help.

It turns out the Moa Point wastewater treatment plant is only half built. There's another half that was supposed to be built and never was. If it had been built, that spill probably wouldn't have happened because there would have been enough capacity at the treatment plant to cope with the extra rainwater that fell that evening.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is National's new student debt policy really going to stop our brain drain?

Jeez, I'm not going to lie, I love the punitive part of National's student debt policy.

In case you missed it, it is essentially this: go easier on people with student loans who still live in New Zealand and crack down harder on those with loans who live overseas. National says it's a bid to keep our brightest graduates here.