Best election night speech: TOP leader, Gareth Morgan, for complete lack of spin and subtlety. Selfish New Zealanders, which felt like all of us, got a talking to.
Likeability award: Not Jacinda (though she is). To Bill English, who, I grudgingly admit, is someone I'd rather have a beer with than John Key. Wouldn't agree on much, but it would be civil.
Dumbest strategy: Labour's tax policy that wasn't. Jacinda Ardern's instincts to have one were right, only she fudged it. That mistake won't be repeated.
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Best lie: Not the $11.7 billion fiscal hole. No, it was National's claim that it had got the Government's finances back into black. Since coming to power National has increased government debt by 450 per cent.
Helen Clark's Labour government left the debt level at 5.4 per cent of GDP. It's now 25 per cent of GDP. National was in a good position to deal with the Global Financial Crisis and the Christchurch earthquake only because of the previous Labour government's financial prudence.