OPINION
First of all, I’d like to start by thanking all of those who organised and contributed to the Ōtaki Kite Festival over the weekend.
It was, as always, an amazing event, and the weather got better as the weekend went on. It was great to see not just visitors from around the country and world who travelled to be here for this, but so many families from our region enjoying a great weekend. Again, to the committee of six and all the volunteers who pulled off a world-class event – thank you.
Last weekend was also the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation speech. He highlighted the fragile state this country is in, with debt approaching $100 billion (it was only $5.4b five years ago), and we inherited a $200b deficit in funding transport projects like our local expressways and train upgrades (we will still deliver trains and Ō2NL!).