Ms Ardern has more than a mouthful of teeth because she is spitting out the ‘tax' – water, land, capital gains, inheritance and wealth taxes. Hardly surprising, because endless cash is needed for pork barrelling and lolly scrambles arising from an unsustainable plethora of Labour promises. This freebie stuff always appeals to people's base instincts like self-interest and greed. She's not au fait with finance but probably doesn't give a tinker's toss anyway because she won't ever have to make good the promises. It's pretentious politician's claptrap, failing to engage the brain before opening the mouth. When someone can't even get fundamentals right it doesn't augur well for a main event like running a country.

Labour/Greens seem joined at the hip, with their scary, inane race-based Maori policy manifestos that will cost Kiwi taxpayers a fortune to implement, while erasing history is also on the agenda. These include promoting a treaty-based constitution, driving unelected Maori seats on councils, promoting Maori self-government and a separate legal system.

After nine nondescript years in parliament, mostly as a list MP, why the sudden star billing?

On the other hand, National has nothing to gloat about either – they can't tell the truth, keep election promises, have vague and wishy washy policies and are stuck in a rut while the real economy ain't doing what they extol. Plus currently also moonstruck and preoccupied with the Maori myth-making aberration.

R Paterson, Matapihi.