Heather du Plessis-Allan: My politician of the year

At this time of year it’s traditional for political commentators to pick their politician of the year.

And interestingly, the NZ Herald this past weekend went for Simeon Brown.

Now, I think Simeon’s right up there. There’s a reason he’s called Golden Balls. But I don’t think he’s the one.

I think that honour has got to go to Erica Stanford and it’s not even a competition as far as I’m concerned.

No disrespect to Simeon Brown, because he is fixing up a bunch of stuff that needs fixing up like speed limits, potholes, Wellington City Council, speed bumps, Transpower etc.

And he’s done it without causing days of drama. He’s decisive and rarely makes mistakes. You get the impression he’s absolutely not taking BS from public officials behind the scenes.

But that's all regular running-a-Government stuff.

Erica Stanford though, has done something pretty special - she banned phones in schools.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right. It's this time of the year where it's traditional
for the political commentators to pick the person that they
think has done the best out of politics. And interestingly,
I saw the weekend This past weekend, the Herald went
for Simeon Brown. Now I agree, Simeon Brown's right up there.
I mean, there is a reason he's called golden balls,
apparently by his caucus colleagues. But I don't think Simon
is the one. I think the honor has to go
to Erica Stanford this year, and as far as I'm concerned,

(00:22):
it's not even a competition. It's Erica all the way.
No disrespect to Simeon, because Simeon is fixing up a
bunch of stuff that really really desperately needs fixing up,
like speed limits and the potholes and Wellington City Council
and the speed bumps and Transpower not wanting to tell
us at the poll, the pilot, the nuts out of
the pilot and et cetera, et cetera. And he's done
it without causing days of drama, do you know what
I mean? He's pretty decisive, really makes mistakes, He just

(00:44):
he tiedies it up and you get the impression He's
absolutely not taking any bs from the public officials behind
the scenes. But this is pretty regular running a government
type stuff, right. Erica Stanford, though, has done something really
special this year, which is that she's banned the phones
in schools. Now, I don't blame you if you think, well,
that's not even a thing. Sounds a bit silly, right,

(01:06):
It's going to sound silly to some people as a
reason for picking her as the Politician of the Year,
but that will only be if you do not understand
how distracting and addictive these phones are in school time,
and how much they were hurting kids' grades, how much
they were hurting kids' social skills, and how much they
were hurting kids ability to just be kids at school
like we were. Do you remember the thing is do
you remember before she did it, we ridiculed her for it, right,

(01:29):
and we said it's not going to work. Now, go
and find me a teacher who doesn't think it's a
wild success. This is so important what she's done that
international experts who study the impact of phones on kids
say this is about one of four things that have
to be done by countries to help kids out. And
she's done it. She didn't have to be begged, don't
have to be cajoled, and to do it, and she
just did it. Watch the impact this is going to

(01:49):
have on a generation of kids. As far as I'm concerned,
no politician has made a call this significant for a
group of people who are this important all year. Kids
are the most important. So do mind any of the
other stuff that she's done, like the state abuse inquiry,
and she's done pretty well there. Phone ban alone makes
her I reckon the MVP of twenty twenty four. For
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(02:11):
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